The Relevance of Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan to Young Adult Readers

Leviathan is a Young Adult novel that goes over so many different themes and my main point for this essay is to tie those themes to the everyday life of the readers who are mostly young adults. Even though Leviathan is a historical fiction fabricated by Scott Westerfeld and illustrated by Keith Thompson it still has relevance to the Young Adults reading it. From my mind diagram, I tied the characteristics of a YA novel to Leviathan then went further ahead to tie those to YA reader's lives.

In the novel, Scott has two main protagonists, Alek, and Deryn whose viewpoints shift from the protagonists throughout the novel until later on when they meet.

The novel documents the two very different journeys that they are on opposite sides of the war with Alek being a Clanker who are characterized by using advanced technological machinery for war, while Deryn is a Darwinist who is known for using evolved creatures who are specialized for war.

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This helps the reader tap into their imagination by tieing in Biology and Technology to help the reader tie in concepts learned in schools like Darwin's theory of evolution and viewing technology in a whole different light with endless possibilities according to the Clankers who also tie in Steampunk. In Leviathan we go through their individual journeys, which includes their triumphs and downfalls as the world is getting ready to go through WW1. Their separate paths that eventually become one keeps the reader on the edge of their seats with various emotions going through the reader like at first confusion as the point of narration is shifted from Alek to Deryn the reader tries to find the link between the two in the beginning and what might connect them but it all seems to be complicated since both protagonists live two uniquely different lives with Alek being a runaway prince whose ultimate goal is to go back to the throne and lead his people in war but that's when one of the challenges occurs in that his mother was not of royal blood and hence that hinders Alek from claiming his throne, plus the Germans are after the next air to the throne whom they believe is Alek.

The reader can’t help but sympathize for Alek, an orphaned boy who wasn’t even given a chance to grieve the loss of his parents yet here he is already running from his life and having to grow up way faster than he should, since he is only fifteen years old and already has to think about war and survival. This may resonate with a lot of YA who have experienced loss and had to step up into a leadership role in order to maintain survival and even though the world is fictional the emotions portrayed by the protagonists are very real. Deryn, on the other hand, has to come to term with the fact that being a female in that day and age wouldn’t guarantee her dream of flying despite the fact that she was maybe as good or even better than her male counterparts but she had to do what she had to do in order to achieve her dreams, hence she discusses herself as a boy and has her brother teach her how to be more masculine and has to let go of her identity as a female and even though her father was killed in a flying accident and her mother and aunt persist for her to be a proper lady, Deryn had to search from deep within and follow her dream of aeronautics despite all other factors, Alek too has to struggle with identity issues in that he has to let go of his princely way, ways that he has known all his life and start acting like a commoner by picking up their skills in a short period of time but that interns backfires as Alek makes a mistake of slipping up and almost gets his people captured.

In this we see him the protagonists suffer from their identities Deryn and Alek both have to double think their every move and that is the case for most Young Adults because the world expects us to make mistakes and to a [point it is acceptable but their some mistakes that one cannot come back from that's why we have to be extra careful like when Alek killed a man that was a grave mistake by killing a man and that stayed in his conscious. Through their struggle with their identities, they go through journeys of self-discovery which is essential for every YA as they venture into adulthood. And those journeys cannot be effectively completed without figures i our lives in Alek’s case Volger and Otto and in Deryn’s case Dr. Barlow who help them throughout their paths of self-discovery. And this is prevalent too in the lives of YA as they need a strong figure to look up for guidance and someone who understands and can guide them as needed. But before they can truly discover who they truly are their lives seem like “trainwrecks” in Alek’s case one minute he’s [playing with toy war craft the next he’s piloting a walker and in Deryn’s case she’s playing dress up with her mom and aunt and the next she’s learning the trait of a boy in order to follow in her fathers’ and brother’s footsteps and enlist in British Air Service. And even after she does the hourly that she’s flying gets into an accident in Alek’s case his whole life falls apart everything that he loved is taken away and he has to run for his life too. As YA we struggle constantly with making sense of our lives trying to find our purpose and trying to make sense of the train wreck that is our lives, but from the book, we see that it's those inevitable train wrecks that lead out main protagonists to growth and self-discovery. In that what might have supposed to be a tragedy ended up being a blessing in disguise, for Deryn she lands in Leviathan and she gets a chance to be inducted into the crew of the Leviathan while Alek got a chance to step out of his comfort zone and reach his full potential as an heir to the throne.

Scott Westerfeld takes historical events of ww1 and turns them into historical fiction because the storyline from the book that showcases the commencement of ww1 does not coincide with actual historical events. But there are some facts that do coincide with a history like the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and one his wife Sophie. From the book we can see the difference in class and gender roles between the two protagonists in that Alek was raised with a silver spoon in his mouth up to the point of his hiding , he had access to the weaponry he needed and also had people who was assigned by his late father to help with his safe escape but in Deryn’s case she doesn’t have the privilege of being herself, she has to work much harder than Alek and has to get through her journey by herself and to get help she had to prove herself to dr. Barlow who is also a woman but she is so good at what she does that no one can question her plus she is also Charles Darwin’s granddaughter. But we see how societal roles play such a huge part of both protagonists lives. Alek’s social class though a good thing acted as a disadvantage when he got to the real world because he was never exposed to it, in Deryn’s case she didn't have the influence needed to get into the British air service so she worked much harder than her male counterparts to get to where they are. As the novel progresses we get to see the two protagonists meet and Alek tells Deryn his secret but Deryn keeps hers to herself but after a hug between them Deryn starts to crush on Alek but she tries to suppress her feelings because in Alek’s eyes she is still a boy. And we also see these two sides come together even Volger himself tries to stop Alek from helping Deryn and her crew when the Leviathan crashes to help each other out even though no in the conventional way they somewhat join forces and that makes them much stronger since Alek provides the Leviathan food to function and when the Leviathan is unable to stand Alek offers the stormwalker in exchange for passage on the leviathan and to a point both sides need each other to survive and make it.

Even though Scott leaves the novel on a cliff anger those are the best novels to read. Leviathan being a YA novel goes over the themes of coming of age, self-discovery, dealing with loss, bridging between childhood and adulthood, transformation, steampunk, gender roles, societal classes, survival, trials, triumphs, relations and last but definitely not least identity. I go over these themes throughout my essay trying to find the connection between this historical fiction and the everyday lives of Young Adults in the era that we live in. I found that even though Alek and Deryn are fictional characters from a historical fictional time their lives and journeys are very relatable to any reader YA or Adult in one way or the other because at one point in time we had to come of age and bridge the gap between being a child and adulting, that was a time of self-discovery and transformation in order to find out what our true identity was, and that journey though gruesome was essential to our lives since it made us who we are today and gave us our unique identity.