Essential Elements 2: Romantic Entanglements and Complications

Romantic Entanglements and Complications

Introduction:

Romance is a constant and pervasive presence in young adult fiction; often, it seems like the vast majority of books in this genre need a romance as either the primary objective, or a subplot. That search for emotional fulfillment fuels many a protagonist’s journey, whether they’re looking for the guy or girl of their dreams, or just a quick fling. Frankie Landau-Banks might have grander achievements in mind as she subverts the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, but she also lands a boyfriend who seems incapable of appreciating or understanding her. Miles Hafner falls in love with Alaska Young, an unrequited desire which defines much of their ultimately doomed, mostly platonic relationship. Josie Little is thrilled to attend school with her girlfriend, but numerous factors eventually pull them apart. Skylar Hoffman loses both friends and boyfriend as her carefully-constructed façade of success crumbles around her. Even Ryan Dean West is in love with his best friend Annie, who doesn’t return the same level of affection. When it comes to YA literature, love is often in the air, and boarding schools act both as parent-free zones to act on these feelings, and intense pressure cookers where relationships come and go with great regularity.


Relevant Passages:

1) Just like that. From a hundred miles an hour to asleep in a nanosecond. I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not fuck, like in those movies. Not even have sec. Just sleep together, in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopeless boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane.
--Looking for Alaska, by John Green
Passage analysis

In this passage, narrator Miles “Pudge” Hafner reflects on his attraction to Alaska Young. It’s very much of a will-they-won’t-they relationship, mostly one-sided from his end, but with occasional hints of potential reciprocation on her part. They’ve come close before, but every time something seems about to happen, Alaska is the one to change the subject or outright stop him. “Shh. Shh. Don’t ruin it,” she says at one point. Clearly, she’s aware of his feelings towards her, but she’s already in a relationship and unwilling to change that fact. But moreover, here we see that Pudge has something of an idealized view of Alaska, placing her on a pedestal while simultaneously selling himself short. He desires her because she’s everything he’s not—gorgeous, fascinating, dynamic—and she represents something almost unobtainable. He loves her, he desires to kiss her, to literally sleep with Alaska, and yet he feels unworthy. This gap between them—emotional and physical—reaches its ultimate form when she’s killed in a car accident. “I was caught in a love triangle with one dead side,” he reflects afterwards. Now he can never touch her, never have her… but at the same time, he will never see her in any lesser light—the light of reality and daily existence—which might cause him to lower his opinion. For Pudge, Alaska is a fantasy, someone to pine over and dream of, not an actual potential girlfriend. It’s the perfect example of a teenage crush, a daydream that can be enjoyed without the hard work of an actual relationship and the messy emotional complexity that comes with it. 


2) I’ll be honest. If someone asked me am I in love with Annie Altman, I’d have to say I don’t know, because I really don’t know. I have nothing to compare with how I feel about her. But I do know that I feel this kind of a need where she is concerned; I need her to notice me more than she does; I need to think that I make her feel lighter when she sees me. And there’s no way I could ever believe that was possible, because it was little me, Ryan Dean West, fourteen years old, walking around in the exact same clothes and tie as four hundred other guys here at Pine Mountain, every one of us so much the same, except for me, except for that one thing she noticed that she couldn’t get over, that made me so unattractively different from every other eleventh grade boy in this shithole.

--Winger, by Andrew Smith

3) Annette looked out at the field for a long moment, then turned to me. “I    
love you, Josie, like always. But I still need to be just me in front of people.”
So much for giddy and light. “Why?”
Her shoulders fell slightly. “I thought I explained this already.”
“Apparently I’m a little slow on the upload,” I admitted.
Annette shoved some crimson- and mustard-colored leaves aside with the sole of her shoe. “Because for the first time ever, I’m in a new place, with a clean slate. And I just want a little time to be myself first, before I’m with you.”
“Do you want to be with me?”
“Yes, of course. Why wouldn’t I?”
I shrugged as a crow swooped into a nearby tree. “Okay, how much longer?”
Annette shook her head slightly. “I’m not sure.”
“That’s not very reassuring.”
“Did you just hear me tell you that I love you, and that I want to be with you?” Annette asked, as if I were an impetuous child. “Nothing has changed between us.”
Nothing has changed between us. I tried to absorb those words, to feel them in my bones. But things didn’t seem to fit the way they used to. We didn’t seem to fit the way we used to. 
--Without Annette, by Josie Huang

Multimodal works

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4ihbxUA4oo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9MH4Oqav9A


 Annotated Scholarly References

 Hedeen, Katrina, & Smith, Rachel L. (2013). What makes a good YA love story? The Horn Book Magazine, 89(3), 48.
This article addresses many of the elements involved in creating an appealing young adult romance, ranging from the serious, to the comic, to the tragic. It also includes a list of representative titles; however, since they were all published within 2010-2012, it’s a small sampling from a narrow timeframe. Nevertheless, the article provides useful insights into how these particular stories work.

 Weger, H., & Emmett, M. (2009). Romantic intent, relationship uncertainty, and relationship maintenance in young adults’ cross-sex friendships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 26(6-7), 964-988.
This study looks at the complicated relationship between male and female young adults, and at the intersection between friendship and romance. This is a recurring theme in the books covered in this project, especially Looking for Alaska and Winger, where the male protagonists attempt to turn platonic friendships into romantic or sexual relationships.


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