Fiction for young adults have been criticised as dark and pessimistic, as Kate Legge says in The Australian Magazine, “Father bashes mother, mother abandons children… Violence, drugs, suicides. The novels of some top writers of young people’s fiction have never been bleaker or more explicit.” Both novels analysed in this essay, The Messenger by Markus Zusak and Killer McKenzie by Eve Martyn, contradict this criticism. Although in the first novel the main character faced many challenges, he can overcome them and be a better person. The second novel constructs young adults in a positive manner, showing that problems teenagers have are minor and therefore promote an optimistic view of adolescents.
The Messenger is told chronologically through the main character’s point of view. This affects the way the world, characters, and situations are viewed, creating significant amount of impressions and representations. The main character’s personality was indirectly built through their thoughts, values and beliefs. Therefore, readers were given the opportunity to interpret these things in order to know their traits and tendencies. The story started to develop when Ed Kennedy, a stereotypical character of unsuccessfulness, started receiving ace cards in his mailbox with addresses of people who need help, despite of his own pathetic life. At first, he hesitated to help these people, but finally he gave in and helped all of them. The last two cards he received were ace of hearts and joker. The clues on these cards led him to solve his best friends’ problems, and at last, his own problems and his renewed view of himself. In the end, the sender of the cards show up and explained everything to Ed that his purpose was for him to realise that he can make a difference in the world and in people’s lives too.
Similar to The Messenger, Killer McKenzie is also told chronologically by the main character. The complications began when an Australian-born London city girl, Alexandra...