Set in the future, David Levithan’s Wide Awake pushes the buttons of today’s red hot issues: divisive partisan politics, fundamentalist churches battling permissive culture, destructive consumerism, homosexuality, teen sexuality, government supporting or impinging on individual rights, among many others. The aptly titled novel prods the reader awake. For some, it goes even further, shocking them like no other young adult novel has shocked before.
Wide Awake follows the relationship of two high school boys working to ensure the election of Abraham Stein and Alice Martinez whose Great Community initiatives they strongly believe in. Stein not only espouses positions worth fighting for, he becomes the first gay, Jewish President in American history. Like 2000, however, the election comes down to one state where the margin of victory is a mere 1000 votes. Stein’s opponent employs the Kansas governor to throw out a number of votes to overturn the result, giving him the victory. Concerned that democracy is being compromised, Stein calls his legions of supporters to action. He exhorts them to travel to Topeka to hold vigil until the governor certifies the vote count as is. Among hundreds of thousands who take up the gauntlet, Duncan, the narrator, and his boy friend Jimmy travel by bus with a motley crew from New Jersey. This political plot frames Duncan and Jimmy’s romance. Throughout the rally, Duncan frets that his relationship with Jimmy is about to unravel.
Wide Awake intensely surprised my pre-service teachers in many ways. In my young adult lit class, some argued in discussion and in learning logs that this novel should be taught in high schools immediately, while others argued that it would be too risky to teach this novel at this time. One student wrote, “I wish it could be taught, and I know we tackled this in class, but I disagree with those who said that you should try to teach it anyways. In a perfect world maybe, but not this world.” Another insisted it is teachable even with its one descriptive sex scene, that it should not matter if it is a homosexual sex scene. Another felt that “if we adopt a strategy of waiting to attempt teaching controversial pieces of literature, we are simply not making an effort and nothing will come of it.” Teaching Wide Awake would move discourse in high school classes toward inclusivity. One student wrote the novel encourages constructive action, empowering “people with lifestyles that are different from the norm to stand up for what they believe.” If Wide Awake was such a visceral read for these pre-service teachers, wouldn’t it also be for their future students? Why put the brakes on?
For some, the political edge to the novel was too sharp. One of the first questions raised in discussion was whether Levithan pushed too much of a political agenda. Some readers felt Wide Awake could be perceived as anti-capitalist, the primary evidence the concept of the non-shopping mall where you don’t buy goods but rather donate their price to the charity of your choice. Arguing for our current economic system, one student wrote, “We are taught from infancy to value the rise to riches, and then the maintenance of wealth, and for that the poor are needed. The problem is, a middle class is necessary to keep the hope of social climbing, otherwise there would be rebellion.” One student felt Wide Awake demonized her. As a conservative, she wrote, “I don’t want to see our country commit itself to Socialism. I can’t see myself supporting Stein, and so I was framed by the story as someone who would attack children.” Another student insisted that the novel is a political necessity, stemming from “the political nature of personal identity, or identity politics, and how that intersects with what is not taught in public schools.” American schools suppress LGBT youth. Wide Awake gives voice to their concerns. But does it go too far?
Religion was one topic not covered with any depth in class discussion, but, as the learning logs showed, this volatile topic, if broached, should be explored with the utmost sensitivity. One reader felt the novel bashed Catholicism. “David Levithan had an agenda of which I would disapprove,” she wrote. “In fact, if I were told I had to teach Wide Awake, I might quit my job.” This student was offended by the characterization of the Decents, a deeply religious group whose beliefs, based on literal interpretations of the Bible, clashed with the secular values of the main characters. As the Decents were the largest religious entity in the novel, this reader felt they could be identified with the Catholic Church. But the actions of the Decents contradicted the Catholic values she believes in. The Decents were set up to be unsympathetic, a stereotype, to undercut the core values of the church she is a member of. Another student wrote that “Christians should love under all circumstances, but that doesn’t mean change their belief system in order to do so. The Bible says that homosexuality is not the way man was intended to be. This doesn’t mean Christians need to hate people who are homosexual, just not agree with that aspect of their life.” She posited that Christians in the novel could still have voted for Stein without having to change their belief system.
In a session at the 2008 ALAN workshop, "I Feel Good: Positive Portrayals of Sex in YA Lit," David Levithan argued against the charge that sex scenes in young adult novels are tantamount to pornography. "Pornography,” he said, “is sex without context. We [YA writers] give sex context." The first-person narration provides some context for the scene in Wide Awake, Duncan explaining that for he and Jimmy sex wasn’t the fullest expression of their love, but it was what made their love so powerful. Many pre-service teachers, however, felt the one sex scene between Duncan and Jimmie was unnecessary. The unambiguousness of one sentence went too far: “It was closeness not because he was inside me but because of what it meant.” Students argued Duncan and Jimmy were clearly in love minus that scene. As one student stated, “the love scene between Jimmy and Duncan was extremely visual and descriptive, yet I think it could have easily been left out of the story because the book wasn’t about sex, it was about overcoming that barrier of the typical white, heterosexual, male president.” But another posited if the sex was heterosexual, “people would have most likely just let it be. So the mere fact that we have this need to justify or excuse gay sexuality proves the point.” Many young adult novels depict sexual intercourse, but it is typically implied. In this scene, penetration is not suggested, off camera as it were. Still others argued in class and in writing that it wasn’t the sexual orientation, but sex itself in fiction for teenage readers. One student wrote that “Duncan’s sexual partner was another boy did not bother me; rather, I was frustrated by the fact that a pair of sophomores were sexually active. While many American teenagers are sexually active, I hope that young readers see the novel as fiction, not as a permissions slip. I did truly appreciate the care in which Levithan described the deep, caring love that Duncan and Jimmie shared with each other.”
Some preservice teachers felt if Wide Awake were to be studied it could only be in a mature classroom. “I could imagine,” one wrote, “if this was taught & discussed in one of my junior high classes, anyone who said they liked it would be automatically (irrelevantly) labeled as gay.” Conversations would spill into the hallways, sparking rather than squelching rumors, entrenching stereotypes. Discussion of Wide Awake could be volatile: “Politics and homosexuality are topics I would be hesitant to trust my students to discuss. When I was a teenager, my political beliefs were really personal and emotional…In a class I might have gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender students, I don’t know if I would risk their feelings by making them a topic of discussion.” Whereas what is said in class can be managed by the teacher, what gets said outside–and on-line in social networking sites–could become viral. One student wrote she wasn’t sure that it was a good idea to teach the novel because of how parents might react. “Now I’m not saying that teachers shouldn’t be daring and push the boundaries or else they’ll never be extended,” she wrote. “I’m saying that it is way too soon for a book such as Wide Awake to be released into the hands of over-protective parents.”
What can be done so Wide Awake can be taught? How can it be leveraged into the classroom? One student suggested pairing Wide Awake with a more conservative novel, “a compare/contrast thing instead of it being viewed as preaching this book and its ideas to kids.” Arguing Wide Awake presents an array of positive messages, including tolerance, fighting for one’s rights and beliefs, and the benefits of a strong, diverse community, all viable reasons to incorporate controversial books into the curriculum, Wide Awake could inspire students to constructive social action. One student in fact realized “an improved desire to be more politically aware and a new ache to resume the search for a policy or a leader I can stand behind.” Another student sounded a revolutionary note: “The youth does care and we are informed and we are going to make changes. It’s only a matter of time.” Duncan and Jimmy are not alone in their activism as perhaps the role of young voters in the election of Barack Obama illustrates.
Clearly Wide Awake is a provocative novel which young readers will read for years. I urge, however, that this reading–and the careful, sensitive discussion thereof– must occur in the classroom for the benefit of all students. If read only independently, Wide Awake will reach the choir when it has the power to awaken many, many readers, regardless of sexual orientation. Wide Awake engenders conversations that leap beyond academic exercise into the relevant world our students inhabit. Wide Awake gets readers thinking and talking, which is all we can ask of literature.
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