Many people argue that Robert Cormier’s literature is dark, un-optimistic, and that young adults should not be reading his stories. Sylvia Patterson Iskander argues in her article Reader, Realism, and Robert Cormier that: The almost universal distress about Cormier's work springs directly from the power and consistency of his imagined world, which convinces readers that it bears a recognizable relationship to the "real world" and yet appears to leave no room for anything but pessimism about the survival of Cormier's protagonists. Because of this, several school boards and parental groups in New York, Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Arizona have tried to ban Cormier's novels from the classroom. (Par. 2) Some people can not find any good in Robert Cormier’s novels and prefer to have their children watch or read stories with happy endings and happy characters. Disney and Dream-Works are some of the top movie choices for most children and parents, but what they do not realize is that it is …show more content…
Robert Cormier’s use of manipulation through negative adult influences affects the growth of younger characters. Barney Snow, a sick teenage boy, is manipulated by a negative adult, the Handyman, in the novel The Bumblebee Flies Anyways. The Handyman is an older man who works at the Complex where Barney lives; the Complex is an experimental hospital for the sick. Most people in the Complex are experimented on or manipulated in one way or another but what Barney does not realize is that he happens to be one of the largest experiments there: The Handyman appears and is forced by Barney’s panic to reveal that the nightmare- and the phrase “rhythm, tempo” and his fragmentary memories of his mother- have been experimental screens to shield his knowledge of a terrible truth: he too is dying of a terminal illness.