YA Literature

As a hopeful future educator, it is important to acknowledge the fact that it can be extremely difficult for a student to focus on and learn from classroom instruction if their personal and psychological needs are not being met. It is simplistic to believe that a student going through a personal crisis will be able to focus on and interact with content material in the traditional way.  Jasmine Wanga addresses this in her YA novel, “My Heart and other Black Holes”. Aysel, a 16-year-old growing up in a small southern town, is convinced that her father’s prison sentence for homicide against a hometown hero is inescapable. Feeling tightly wound to the sins of her father, she sees suicide as the only option.

The “black slug” inside her, which is how she refers to her depression, follows Aysel throughout the day, and creeps into the classroom. She acknowledges its presence in her English class, as she is frustrated with the seemingly petty interpretations of poets her peers. While in class, Aysel can’t help but think to herself, “Mrs. Marks makes this big production of trying to decode what the poets were saying. From my perspective, it’s pretty clear: I’m depressed and I want to die. It’s painful to watch all my classmates tear apart each line, looking for significance. There’s no significance, anyone who has actually been that sad can tell you that there’s nothing beautiful or literary or mysterious about depression”.

After learning about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it is clear that it is applicable to both Aysel and my future classroom. With Aysel, the bottom rung of the hierarchy, physiological needs, such as food, water and shelter are being met. It is the next category of safety, where Aysel is struggling. She may have economic security, but is clearly struggling with a serious mental illness. According to Maslow’s theory, this could be why she is struggling in class so much. She also feels no sense of belonging which is the next level of the hierarchy. She feels ostracized by her peers and feels like misfit within her own family. Between these two types of basic needs that are not being met, it makes sense why Aysel is having such a difficult time in English class.

 Reading this YA novel offers an interesting perspective on how much of  their “real life” a student brings into a classroom. As a teacher, it will be important to take the attitudes and personal happenings of my students into account, especially because each students perspective is so different. This will also be a challenge because it is sometimes the case that students hide their struggles, especially from authority figures. As the novel progresses I am interested to see the situation from Aysel’s perspective, and the struggles she faces, in hopes to ensure my future students do not face the same obstacles.