Research Thesis
Teenage sexuality and specifically, unplanned pregnancy is a timeless taboo subject and by no means an untold story. Throughout literature, teenage mother characters have struggled against judgment, social ostracizing, and shunning by their community, and yet, this sub-genre dealing with these concepts is still largely overlooked.
In Meredith Hall’s memoir Without a Map, tells her untold story as a pregnant teenager growing up in 1960s Hampton, New Hampshire. She describes being exiled by her parents, teachers, classmates, and members of the larger community in Hampton, New Hampshire. Even when she escapes her hometown, the shadows of her past sins haunt her and she lives in perpetual self-exile.
As of right now, I’d really like to do a close reading of the memoir to build my argument that the story uses the larger subject of teenage pregnancy as a timeless taboo to frame the context for Hall’s self-exile. The stigma attached to teenage pregnancy is timeless, hence, why Hall is in a state of perpetual self-exile through the 1960s to the contemporary 21st century.
As this is a close reading of the novel, Without A Map, supplemented with the literary subgenre of teenage pregnancy, I will be sampling numerous novels across time from as early as the mid-19th century and as late as the 2000s to keep it as literature-based as possible.
Annotated Bibliography
Gregson, Joanna. The Culture of Teenage Mothers. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2009.
This book, Culture of Teenage Mothers written by Joanna Gregson is a scholarly study into the culture of teenage pregnancy from the female perspective. Gregson traces the process from typical influential factors to conception to how the dynamics of familial relationships change over the course of the pregnancy. In this book, girls give voice to their experiences, providing several first-hand nonfictional accounts of teenage pregnancy.
I will use this scholarly source to provide the historical and sociological context to considering teenage pregnancy for my research paper.
Letts, Billie. Where the Heart Is. New York : Warner Books, 1998.
This fictitious novel, written in 1998 by Billie Letts, follows the travels of Novalee, a down-on-her-luck Southern teenage girl. She is seventeen years old and seven months pregnant, driving with her boyfriend and father of her baby, Willy Jack, from Tennessee to California. Novalee and Willy Jack make a pit stop at a Wal-Mart in Sequoyah, Oklahoma where she is abandoned by her boyfriend in the parkinglot, left with nothing more than her beach bag and $7.77 in change.
I will use this novel to draw literary similarities between Where the Heart Is and Without a Map as narratives in the stigma of teenage pregnancy. Like Meredith Hall, the character Novalee is exiled from her community. She is literally “exiled” to a Wal-Mart where for the majority of the story, she is left abandoned in the store. A close reading of both stories will endorse my argument that teenage pregnancy is portrayed as a timeless taboo subject in literature.
Inclan, Jessica Barksdale. Her Daughter’s Eyes. New York: NAL Trade, 2001.
This fictional novel, written in 2001 by Jessica Barksdale Inclan, follows multiple narratives involved in a teenage pregnancy, mostly between the adult father and the teenage mother. The main character, Kate Phillips is a seventeen-year-old girl growing up in a quiet suburban neighborhood with her younger sister Tyler and emotionally distant father who is absent from the house often since their mother’s unexpected death. Alone in the house, Tyler and Kate deliver her baby girl alone in the upstairs closet of their home. Kate insists that her baby's existence must remain hidden, but inevitably, the the secret is discovered, involving the police and children's protective services.
I will use this novel to draw literary similarities between Her Daughter’s Eyes and Without a Map as narratives in the stigma of teenage pregnancy. Similar to Meredith Hall, Kate is secreted in her home and then sent to a foster house for teenagers, having been exiled by her family and community. A close reading of both stories will endorse my argument that teenage pregnancy is portrayed as a timeless taboo subject in literature.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Dodd, 1850.
This work of classic literature, written in 1850 by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is perhaps the most archaic novel that deals directly and unabashedly with the stigma of pregnancy. The main character, Hester Prynne is a young woman who finds herself unmarried and pregnant. Set in austere, Puritan New England, she struggles between the moral authority of her faith, the shunning of her community, and her own love for her daughter, Pearl.
I will use this novel to draw literary similarities between Her Daughter’s Eyes and Without a Map as narratives in the stigma of pregnancy. There are several similarities between the two narratives from a New England setting to the effects of communal shunning and self-exile. Hester Prynne exiles herself from the village to raise her daughter and Meredith Hall too, leaves her roots in Hampton for a free life in Boston. A close reading of both stories will endorse my argument that teenage pregnancy is portrayed as a timeless taboo subject in literature.
Sherburne, Zoa. Too Bad About the Haines Girl. New York: W.Morrow, 1967.
This fictional novel, written in 1967 by Zoa Sherburne provides a unique perspective on this unspoken topic of teenage pregnancy as it is from the same time period in which Without a Map is set in. Like Hall’s memoir, the story is told from the perspective of a high school senior, Melinda Haines in a small town. With a great family, popularity at school, and bright future prospects, she seems able to have everything until she becomes pregnant after a night at a dance by her boyfriend Jeff.
I haven’t finished reading this book yet, but given that it is such an anomaly for pregnancy to be discussed so blatantly even in literature during this time, I think it is worth it to study a narrative from a pregnant teenager in this timely perspective. Again, both stories endorse my argument that teenage pregnancy is portrayed as a timeless taboo subject in literature.
"Momma! Why didn’t you love me? That’s all I ever wanted. Somebody to tuck me in at night and read me bedtime stories. Like white folks do with their kids. But you never did. I tried to clean up so good that you’d have to love me, but I guess I never did it good enough. And you know what’s funny? I woulda done anything, I mean anything, to get your attention...” (146).
