“Like an apparition so dense as to simulate mass, he watched them walk around, then pass right by.”The phrase presented above can, in a couple of words, give us a glimpse of what is next to come in the zombie story written by John Skipp and Marc Levinthal. “God Save The Queen” from the book “Zombies Encounters with the Hungry Dead (Part Two - Post Emancipation)”, is a story in which a boy is found in the remains of London. The nameless boy feels lost, empty, and hopeless and has no one by his side. One day he is “saved” - as we go on reading we know that the boy becomes a sex-toy- by Bishop John Hallam, an old man who turns out to be the protector of the nameless boy and whose secret agenda includes bringing to an end to the actual figure of government. The boy is taken to the castle where the Royal family, or at least the remains of the royal family, live. There he finds Hallam’s diary and reads it to realize that the Bishop is plotting something against the Royal family. As the story goes on, the boy meets Princess Sara who is about to get married, in order to continue the bloodline with Prince Randolph, and with whom he fall in love. At the end, the story gives a twist that nobody expects and that could blow the readers' minds.
“God Save The Queen” deals with several issues such as sense of belonging, relationships, sexual awakening, bisexuality, taking decision, political injustice and the search of self. These major features the short story encloses can be appealing for Young Adults, and thus the aim of this paper is to answer why this is so considering Small’s characteristics of Young Adults Literature.
When dealing with Young Adults Literature (from now on YAL) it is very important to reflect upon the following: teenagers don’t want to be forced to read and teenagers’ desire is to read writings that include topics or themes related to their necessities or worries. It is also of common knowledge that teenagers like to read taboo themes, i.e. things that adults sometimes do not want to waste time explaining, mainly because they do not have any idea at all or because they do not want to explain.
“God Save The Queen” may be appealing to adolescents because its main character it is a teenager and this coincide with one of Small’s characteristics of YAL. In this short story, the most important character is a teenager, a nameless boy who is looking for something in “the haunted slumber remains of London”. The boy is frightened and is surrounded by the dead who are spread all over the kingdom.
Regarding the plot, the events in it are related to teenagers and this again coincides with Small’s characteristics of YAL. Sexual awakening and the struggle someone is immerse when taking decisions are present in the text by Skipp and Levinthal. These topics are very important for Young Adults because they are curious about their sexuality. In addition, teenagers are beginning to take decisions that may affect their lives or their understanding of the world. This feature may adolescents be identified with the character who has to takes decisions. An exemplification is the character deciding if go on reading Bishop’s journal or not “And oh, what secrets it might reveal! The boy flipped to the first page and proceeded to read.”.
One of Small’s characteristic argues that in YAL an adolescent should be the one in charge of taking the major decisions. However “God Save The Queen” does not follow this rule because Bishop John Hallam, the old man who becomes the protector of the nameless boy, takes one of the major decisions presented in this story. The Bishop decides to let the zombies enter to the castle fortress. Nevertheless, this may not affect the quality of YAL because teenagers would probably see Bishop Hallam as a hero in charge of defeating the government.
The themes and archetypes in YAL, presented in the text by Herz & Gallo, the story has are also important. In “God Save The Queen” the boy has to complete a journey to succeed in his quest; this is an example of a situational archetype. The boy is also looking his self. He wanders between two sides, humans and zombies. It is like he does not know who he is or where he belongs. “Fucking bitch”, the boy himself mutters letting the bishop’s words play vividly in his mind.” here the boy seems to be on Bishop’s side. But then he seems to be on the zombies’ side as we read this “the boy bit again, coming up with a mouthful of soft shoulder flesh.” All the things mentioned before are appealing for adolescents who are also in the search of self or wondering where they belong.
A concern about political injustice represented by the humans’ monarchy opposed to the zombies’ anarchy that the boy seems to command is presented here in the story and it’s another characteristic of Young Adults Literature to be considered. This feature may be connected to adolescent rebellion against figures of authority and thus
This short story presents an adolescent as a main character who is lost and looking for a place to fit in. He is searching himself, his identity. This boy decision provokes an outcome that changes everything, although the major decision is not taken by him. However, this does not affect the final outcome of the story and the boy continues to be the most important character. The plot and the issues presented here are related to teenagers. Sex as well as sexuality, taboo themes, relationships, taking decisions that affect you and others are topics related to adolescents and are topics that “God Save The Queen” exposes. Summing up, “God Save The Queen” should be considered as Young Adults Literature because encloses features that coincide with the characteristics presented by Small’s definition for Young Adults Literature.
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