Adoption/foster care in novels

[wesleycrusher]

I'm not sure exactly what I want to say in this post, so hopefully this makes sense. This is something I have noticed more lately, although it may just be because I am more sensitive to it as I just adopted my DS through foster care. There are two separate questions I have here and I would like to hear others input.  

When reading Warcross, the main character is in foster care. And I feel like I see this quite a bit YA books.  It's an easy way to make the character autonomous (no one to answer to and no one who cares what they are doing) and show the character has suffered a traumatic loss and "doesn't belong." Is it lazy and convenient writing? Is it "realistic" for teens who are reading these books?  

I was thinking about this and then I just finished Little Fires Everywhere and just went to read the discussion from last month. And it struck me as I was reading it- this book is about adoption and loss. And so is The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane. And so is Before We Were Yours.  Broadly- all of the books touch on children being separated from parents against their will, and a desire to have a connection with their origins.

So...is it coincidence? Is there a reason why this is so popular now in fiction?  I haven't read all the book club books, but so far 3 out of the 9 fiction book have this as a theme.  I was thinking perhaps it is due to our ages, also, as closed adoptions have faded out and now we realize that open are healthier.

Thoughts?

[ufcasey]

In YA books especially, the dead parents/foster care thing is very prevalent. I chalk it up to just lazy YA writing - the author doesn't want to have to create lots of secondary characters which have to be believable along with setting up conversations with those characters and the main character, because parents would definitely be expected for a story involving a teenager. So instead they just come up with a reason for the main character to be parent-less so they can just introduce the best friend, the love interest, and the villain and that's about it. Sometimes though the parents are just 'absent' and you'll see one scene where the parent just basically doesn't care and that is enough of a setup for the parent to basically never be seen again.

Adult books I think use foster care and/or dead parents to serve more as an emotional backstory. It's all about how that might make it harder for you to attach to others due to abandonment issues or conversely how it might make you want to latch on to anyone who gives you love or attention because you want it so badly. I can't think of a single adult book where the lack of parents (via the parents dying, or being in foster care, or being adopted) is treated as if it's no big deal and the person is completely fine. It's always treated as emotionally baggage from my reading experience. Very disappointing.

Disney also tends to kill off parents, which is kind of terrible considering those are movies for children.

[minzy]

Your question first brought to mind this article about how Disney uses dead parents as a quick plot device to prompt the coming of age story in a 90 minute movie.  It sort of makes sense as a plot device for a book, too?  I don't read a ton of YA, but love, loss, and some kind of outside challenge seem to be huge themes in most novels.  It makes sense that subsets of these themes would include adoption/foster care.  Speaking of themes, I just posted earlier today about how my book club inadvertently read something like ten books in a row that included a dead baby.  I can't say I've noticed a recent uptick in books about adoption, but I will be paying more attention going forward.  

I agree with ufcasey... I'm trying to think of a book about a character who was just incidentally adopted, and it wasn't a huge, challenging part of his/her story, but I am also drawing a blank...   I've not been a close party to many adoptions, but it doesn't seem like it would be accurate/realistic for every one adopted to "not belong."  Perhaps you should write a book?

Congratulations on your son!

[msmerymac]

Congrats on the adoption! How long was he with you before it was finalized?

As to your question... maybe? I think there are a lot of varying opinions and experiences in adoption and foster care these days (or I guess I should say people are more willing to share their stories, the good and bad, potentially because of open adoptions, genetic testing, etc), so SOME representation is a step towards being good. Kind of like the early days of LGBT representation on TV, in which the characters were stereotypical. It's cringe-worthy now, but might pave the way to more diverse characters and experiences in the future.

[wesleycrusher]

Aug 9, 2018 15:53:13 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

Congrats on the adoption! How long was he with you before it was finalized?

Thank you.  It took 2.5 years to finalize (DS is my brother's youngest child so it was a kinship adoption).

[aurora]

Aug 1, 2018 14:54:44 GMT -5 minzy said:

Your question first brought to mind this article about how Disney uses dead parents as a quick plot device to prompt the coming of age story in a 90 minute movie.  It sort of makes sense as a plot device for a book, too?  I don't read a ton of YA, but love, loss, and some kind of outside challenge seem to be huge themes in most novels.  It makes sense that subsets of these themes would include adoption/foster care.  Speaking of themes, I just posted earlier today about how my book club inadvertently read something like ten books in a row that included a dead baby.  I can't say I've noticed a recent uptick in books about adoption, but I will be paying more attention going forward.  

I agree with ufcasey... I'm trying to think of a book about a character who was just incidentally adopted, and it wasn't a huge, challenging part of his/her story, but I am also drawing a blank...   I've not been a close party to many adoptions, but it doesn't seem like it would be accurate/realistic for every one adopted to "not belong."  Perhaps you should write a book?

Congratulations on your son!

H is adopted, doesn't know or want to know his bio parents, and his adoption rarely comes up in his life, so I can attest that adoptions without this type of drama definitely exist!