Mental Illness in Young Adult Fiction: A Thematic Survey

Abstract

The paper will presents a thematic survey of the representation of mental health in five canonical young-adult (YA) novels and across 1951-2012, including: J.D. Salingers, The Catcher in the Rye, Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Jay Asher, Thirteen Reasons Why, Rainbow Rowell, Eleanor and Park, and John Green, The Fault in Our Stars. The use of a qualitative thematic analysis informed by the principles of Narrative Therapy (White, 1990) prefigures the use of the theme of depression as the most important thread throughout all texts characterized by overwhelming isolation, loss, and affectiveness typified in rejecting phonies in Holden Caulfield, the hidden trauma in correspondence in Charlie, and despair in Hannah Baker illustrated in her final tapes. Anxiety, in its turn, is prominently present in the family- and identity-related conflicts in the book of Eleanor and Park. In contrast, suicidal thoughts are accentuated in the book Thirteen Reasons Why and the terminal illness settings of The Fault in Our Stars. Loneliness recurs as an underlying current, often fuelled by social exclusion or family conflict; some of the stories, especially Holden's rebellious invincibility or Hannah's accusatory blame-shifting, unintentionally romanticize the journeys of recovery and may overshadow the practical way out. The old classics like The Catcher in the Rye are languishing in excruciating agony with no apparent resolution, where struggles with mental health are seen as inherent to the adolescent experience, and complete healing trajectories are understudied and are simplistically summarized. However, communication with the suffering, like that between Eleanor and Park, is nurturing and can offer a sliver of hope. This development reflects broader YA trends, given its adoption of research gaps identified in previous studies, which list a series of themes devoid of historical transformation and impact on readers, including a study by Lee (2023) that revealed that such books prompt teenagers to talk about anxiety and family stress.