Characters: Their creation and development

5.6 First kill the parents

Getting rid of parents – often literally – is something authors of fiction for children and young adults have been doing for centuries. Even in stories published over the last decade or so, a body count of parents killed off before a story gets going would be ludicrously high. Others go away on business, or are living with new partners, in homes too far away for the protagonist to visit. Mums and dads allowed to remain in the narrative have tended to be minor characters, providing the protagonist with meals, lifts to school and unwanted advice. The assumption that young people do not want grown-ups interfering – in their lives or in their literature – remains true, to some extent. But it begs the question: Since the lives of most teenagers are heavily influenced, and controlled, by adults – be they parents, carers or teachers – how can a writer accurately portray that life if adults are banished from the story? YA author Karen Healey considers this question in her article ‘Where We Come From; Who We Become’ on the Strange Horizons website.

Increasing numbers of YA authors are bucking the trend by giving adult characters more of the limelight. And while there is nothing new about casting adults as villains, a significant number of YA stories are now featuring grown-ups whose inner demons or downright ineptitude pose a significant challenge for the young protagonist.

A Blue So Dark by Holly Schindler is a good example of this. Now read Sarah Ockler’s discussion of the ‘parent problem’ in fiction for young adults.

Group activity: Adult-free zone?

What is your opinion? Does the presence of adults in stories for teens enhance or detract from their narrative power? How do you, as a reader and writer of YA fiction, respond to Karen Healey’s and Sarah Ockler’s observations? As a guide to your discussion you might like to ask yourself the following questions:

  1. What role does Aunt Penn play in How I Live Now, and what do you think about the way she is portrayed?
  2. Are there any adult characters in YA fiction who, in your opinion, are extremely well drawn? What is it about the writing that makes you think so?
  3. What have you learned from this section of the unit that might help with the portrayal of any adult characters in your YA story?

Post your thoughts on this subject to the Adult-free? forum, and respond to others’ ideas.