- In what ways is Crank YAL? How does it work as a "problem novel"?
- What did you find powerful, surprising, or troubling? What made it so?
- What was the ideological message of the text? To draw on our discussion of deconstructive criticism, any mixed messages? If so, what do we (re)make of them?
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Crank discussion
Here are several interlated questions to get us started discussing Crank:
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Crank by Ellen Hopkins is a YAL novel in many ways. The first way is that the protagonist, Kristina, is a young adult herself. She is almost 17 and a junior in high school. The second way this is a YAL novel is that her parents are featured in the story as the bag guys who punish and don't care or notice them enough and who only make their lives worse as Hopkins says "Fine I was almost 17, would never drive, and now I'd spend my summer yanking goats' heads" (259), in response to her mother's punishment.
ReplyDeleteAnother reason this book is considered YAL is because Kristina is coming of age in the story. She falls in love for he first time, her emotions are going crazy, she does not feel like a woman, but she is no longer a child, she experiments, feels like she does not belong at her house, and is just generally going through all the hardships of the teenage years.
This is also a problem novel because of Kristina's addiction to crank. She was a good girl who always did what her mother asked and received straight As in school (24). All of that changes however when she visits her dad, falls in love with a boy, and tries crank for the first time. She goes back to her mom, but cannot leave the crank addiction at her fathers because of a "need so intense I had only one way to relieve it: a bitter drink of its very source- the deep well of the monster" (212).
Along with her addiction to Crank, the book can fall under a problem novel in other ways,Kristina's parents are divorced, her mother is remarried, her father has been out of the picture for 8 years (21), and she does not feel noticed at home. All of these could be consider problems that the protagonist must deal with and could cause any numerous problems.
There are multiple reasons why this book is considered both YAL and a problem novel besides the few I listed above. It fits in many categories for many reasons and is written in such a way that teenagers can relate and understand to it. That is what being a problem YAL novel is all about; having teenagers be able to relate and understand your novel.
I found Crank to be a very powerful story. I felt that the descriptions that Hopkins uses really put you inside of the mind of Kristina/Bree. On pages 46-7 (She Went Inside) I really saw the beginning of the Bree personality showing. I interpreted the text on the left side of the page as the thoughts in the front of Kristina's mind. These thoughts show the shy, innocent Kristina who knows better than to get involved with a strange boy. Conversely, the text on the right side of the page (Should I? kiss. a boy. a complete stranger. I mean, if he asked.) shows the emergence of Bree, a carefree rebellious girl who is drawn to danger and the mysterious.
ReplyDeleteIn addition I thought that the structure Hopkins uses to juxtapose Kristina's life before and after the monster was really vivid and was very successful in showing the difference in her thoughts. Pages 405-6 explain what her life was like before the monster and is written in 7 downward sloping lines. On the next page (407) she describes her life with the monster and the text is jumbled and barely comprehensible. I saw this as before the monster her life was strictly ordered and controlled but on a downward path (represented by the lines sloping down rather than up) which eventually culminated in Kristina falling into the grasp of the monster. After the monster's introduction everything in her life got thrown out of order, her mind was always scattered, and she no longer had control (represented by the jumbled words).
During the Deconstructive presentation we focused a lot on binary ideas, such as good and evil. I think that this is something you can for sure see in Crank. Ellen Hopkins main binary was that between Kristina and Bree. It seemed like Kristina was the reality and was good. Bree was the fantasy and was bad. Both of them played very opposite roles to each other. She seemed to need both of her personalities to deal with the challenges she was going on in her life. Each personality plays an important part in her life. Kristina is the personality who tells her that she needs to be cautious. Bree is the one who tells her she needs to be daring, take risks, and get her fix.
ReplyDeleteThis novel is the perfect choice for deconstructive theory because the reader has to actually really explore not only the text but the hidden messages in the text as well. One of my favorite examples of really reading into the text is on page 83. The first time I read this I just read it left to right and took away that Kristina doesn't make bad choices and Bree does. However when you just read each word in the right column all the way down it reads. Choices make Kristina crazy. Bree laughs. This makes it seem that it isn't that Kristina always makes the best choices but that having to make choices makes her crazy. Bree laughs at the idea of Kristina going crazy. If one read this literally it could be assumed that Kristina is actually going crazy. She has formed another personality that she truely believes is there and is laughing at the person she use to be.
There are numerous ways one could read the messages, text and comparisions in Crank. I think that when I read it I did not feel like Kristina really went crazy, but that she just wanted to adapt a different persona that made making bad choices more bearable. However one could read it as not being a concious effort, but her actually going crazy and adapting another personality, that she is aware of, but cannot control. I think that it really depends on how you read it. I think the section on page 6 could be read as Kristina realizing that Bree is just an alter ego she uses. We have heard of these alter egos from people like Beyonce who uses her name when singing more tame music, and uses Sasha Fierce when she sings more provocative songs. This could be the same for Kristina. She also could have a multiple personality disorder, and could have actually gone crazy. I think that there is a really grey line and it is kind of hard to tell in the novel what is really going on with the main character.
Crank by Ellen Hopkins can be considered YAL for several reasons. The main character, Kristina, is a young adult herself, at the age of 17. Her life begins by being more focused on friends, family, and school, which are all the larger parts of being a young adult. On page 23, she admits to being "near-sighted, hormonal, three zits monthly, often confused," and "lusting for love". All of these emotions and characteristics can be attributed to young adults. She has her first kiss, she makes mistakes, and she blames her mom for mistakes that are her fault on page 126. I viewed her putting blame on others t be typical of immature young adults who are not ready to accept responsibility. She still gets grounded and does not get trained to drive, which are two common parts of being a teenager. She is reckless and makes choices without thinking about them because she has not accepted the responsibilities of growing up. In the very end, she becomes pregnant and finally does have to start acting more mature and like an adult. She still points out though, that she is only 17 and is not as good of a mother as her own (536). Kristina not only has to deal with things outside of her home such as making bad decisions and hanging with the wrong crowd, but she also has to deal with family problems such as divorce, step parents, and family arguments. The whole novel focuses on issues that most young adults can relate to in some way.
ReplyDeleteIn Crank, there wasn't exactly an ideological message, but more of an anti-ideological message. Many books about addiction typically tie themselves up in a pretty neat manner with the main character at least going to rehab or coming to some kind of resolution. Crank goes in the exact opposite direction. Therefore, the anti-ideological message would be that not every story ends with Happily Ever After considering that Crank ends with, "The monster will forever speak to me. And today, it's calling me out the door"(537).
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty safe to say that Kristina never gets over her addictions despite the hope we've been given in the previous pages once she found out she was pregnant, was going to keep the baby, and made a resolution to stop doing drugs (mostly). The ending is especially jarring, then, since Kristina seemed genuinely prepared to stop doing drugs. The schema that Hopkins chose, though, is more aligned to what actually happens in reality, I'm sure. "As my baby grew, mother love replaced romantic love, almost diminished love for the monster. I tried to quit, but my need was so deep I did slip once or twice" (526).
Overall, the pervasive need of the Monster drives this book so steadily, it's shocking but yet unsurprising that we are confronted with the anti-ideological message we're given.
Crank is both powerful and troubling in many ways. For some reason, the poetic format of the text makes everything seem vastly more powerful than if the book were written in a typical, left to right set-up. The impact of the book only becomes more powerful as the story unfolds itself. We are confronted with an average, straight A student who has never encountered any trouble in her 16 years of life. Suddenly, she is thrown into the world of sex and drugs as a result of a short visit to her father where she discovers her first love and a drug called the Monster.
ReplyDeleteFor me, one of the most troubling aspects was how quickly her life unraveled as a result of her drug addiction. She did not slowly tumble into a downward spiral, but instead dove headfirst into despair. My favorite portion of the book explains, "Crank, you see isn't an ordinary monster. It's like a giant octopus, weaving its tentacles not just around you, but through you, squeezing not hard enough to kill you, but enough to keep you from reeling..." (468). This concept is so troubling yet so powerful at the same time in the sense that this drug can literally be compared to a monster-like animal that will never let one out of its grasp.
Probably the most troubling aspect of the novel would be the fact that Kristina did not start out as a "problem child". She was never the type of girl that one would suspect would succomb to drugs and teen pregnancy. In fact, she was quite the opposite. The knowledge that this is loosely based on the author's daughter is even more unsettling. If this can happen to a girl like Kristina, it is possible that it can happen to anyone, an idea that is both frightening and powerful in itself.
I thought Crank was a remarkable read. I haven't read a lot of problem stories-I stick to sci-fi/fantasy. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. One reason I don't read too many problem stories is because I can't relate to many of their feelings. My parents are together, I know who cares about me, I've never tried drugs. When I read, I like to look for adventure.
ReplyDeleteI thought I would be disturbed by the entire book, but it was very well written and very frank. There were a few parts that did trouble me, however. When Kristina was raped I had to stop for a while. I actually saw my boyfriend and held him for a minute. I was grateful that I knew he wouldn't do that to me.
Chase's reaction amazed me after that. He didn't come off as the kind of guy who would care. He was brilliant. He loved her, he waited, he was willing to help with the baby even when he found out it wasn't his (499). Chase was a very powerful figure in my eyes for this, as well as because he knew his limits with the monster.(389)
Kristina also frightened me when she started smoking meth. The need for the high and the lengths she'd go to get it were insane.
Her mother's apparent obliviousness really ticked me off (422). Her husband is there saying they should worry and she just laughs it off. I understand that maybe she could hid it for a while, but they noticed and didn't DO anything (448). She could have died, she WAS raped.
Personally, I would want this book available in libraries and classrooms for teens to read. It rings of reality and is totally honest. It never says crank is a good habit, but also implies that it's a hard habit to break. I think teens will be able to relate to this book in positive ways.
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ReplyDeleteI really found the question concerning Crank's YA-ness interesting. In one of our first classes we discussed what we thought a young adult was, and couldn't come to any real conclusion. I think Crank represents the haziness of the genre extremely well, especially when read after such books as The Arrival and City Boy. I think the strongest case for categorizing the book as YAL lies in, as someone mentioned above, Kristina's age and her "growth". A lot of the subject matter, although mature, is also relevant in YAL. Kristina/Bree go through a situation that is very real for a lot of young adults, and I think that is the ultimate quality that defines Crank as YAL.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of problem novels, I haven't had much experience in the genre, so Crank was a little surprising to me. The intensity of the drug addiction was shocking to read for a character that seemed to have everything going for her at one point. In a lot of ways, Crank reminded me of A Million Little Pieces and Push. The intense drug addiction, rape, pregnancy, and udder sense of hopelessness I felt for Kristina/Bree made Crank a tragic read, but I agree with Samantha in that I think it could help YAL readers make positive decisions about drug use because of it's honesty and verisimilitude.
I also agree with Samantha that this book should be available for teens to read. For the most part it seems to me that the only drug awareness teens receive is though the D.A.R.E program and health class. Unfortunately, I don't think this is really enough to show teens how big of a problem addiction is. I know in my school teachers only really touched on the idea that drugs are bad, addictive, and will lead to worse drugs but it is really hard to comprehend just how serious addiction is. Although Kristina/Bree does talk about how temporarily good she feels right away when she gets high, every description of a good feeling is greatly outweighed by a description of how hard she falls and how miserable and unstable she is. I know that some educators probably feel weary of providing a book with such explicit drug use but I honestly think that a book like this is one of the only ways that teens will really see how any sort of addiction from alcohol to hard drugs will completely mess up your life.
ReplyDeleteMany people (I’m sorry, I quickly peeked) seem struck on the idea that Kristina was such a ‘good girl’ before succumbing to drugs (and etc.) while staying with her dad. To me, the most troubling was the spontaneous and entire immersion into spiraling downfall; there weren’t any apparent ‘triggers’ that we typically expect to be present in drug abuse. No stories of long term poverty or discrimination, horrible family life, sexual abuse, etc. She was simply a rather typical suburban American teen that had a lusty crush and a was doing hard drugs a couple days later (!). “At that exact moment [when I kissed Adam for the first time], every single thing about my life changed. Forever. (pg. 77…each word reserving its own line, of course)” This sentence is not an understatement; she really does things quit quickly from there (though, that is my personal opinion only of course). First kiss on Sunday, “Things got heavy” by Thursday, smoking by Saturday, experimenting with the Monster and attempting to have sex for the first time by the following Sunday a week later (79-82).
ReplyDeleteWould I find this novel appropriate in a classroom? Probably not, though I have mixed feelings. On one hand, I acknowledge that the novel deals with real issues (though not every high school student is doing cocaine, there are enough that do that make it a problem; and let’s be honest, to me, if even one high school student of mine was a coke addict, I would consider it a problem) and presents the dangers of drugs (well, the dangers of hardcore drugs anyways). So I would certainly be in support of having the book available in the high school library. Still, I would have reservations about this novel in my classroom. This is a heavy book (ha, literally) dealing with heavy issues, and I didn’t particularly like how ‘easy’ this drug and sex addiction (even if it can be reality for a select few) took place. So many teenagers, especially in today’s world, may be looking for that escape that is so described at the end of the book and, being teenagers, feel that the end of the book and all the Health Class textbook stories can ‘never happen to them’ (how many times do we hear that phrase from teenage drunk driving accidents, binge drinking poisonings, drug overdoses, etc?).
Crank is clearly a YAL novel. Even though I was taught not to, I always judge a book by it's cover (and by skimming the pages). I did find it surprising and powerful though. Experiencing the menace of addiction first hand, I never take it lightly. I've seen the "Bree" in friends and family, and I think that Hopkins creates an accurate depiction by allowing so many interpretations with her words.
ReplyDelete@ Dani and John, I agree completely. I touched on this in another blog post, but I think by showing the perils of addiction up close, this book sends its message without the ending we anticipated. Young adults need to have resources like this available, in my opinion. They are much more effective than the generic drug videos you watch in high school health class, and much more personal. It gives the story of a real-life struggle, and I really would have a hard time being convinced that this book would do more harm than good.
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