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Literary Criticism Portfolio

The document summarizes and analyzes the young adult novel "You Should See Me in a Crown" by Leah Johnson. It discusses how the author drew from her own experiences facing adversity due to her race, queerness, and poverty as a teenager. These experiences are reflected in the novel through the main character Liz Lightly. Liz is bullied for being black, queer, and poor in her small town. The document also analyzes how the novel depicts the different standards placed on black girls versus white girls, as well as Liz's struggle to be the first black prom queen at her school.

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53 views4 pages

Literary Criticism Portfolio

The document summarizes and analyzes the young adult novel "You Should See Me in a Crown" by Leah Johnson. It discusses how the author drew from her own experiences facing adversity due to her race, queerness, and poverty as a teenager. These experiences are reflected in the novel through the main character Liz Lightly. Liz is bullied for being black, queer, and poor in her small town. The document also analyzes how the novel depicts the different standards placed on black girls versus white girls, as well as Liz's struggle to be the first black prom queen at her school.

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api-575370406
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Dennison 1

Adriana Dennison

Ms. Cramer

College Comp pd. 4

17 December 2021

Claim Your Crown

“I never needed this race, or a hashtag, or the king to be a queen. I was born royalty. All I

had to do was pick up my crown.” (Johnson 232) Being a teenager in today’s world is one of the

hardest challenges any human could go through. As you grow into being a teenager, you shape

the world that you see every day, from your experiences throughout the most important parts of

your life. Growing up people always told you that your teenage years would be the hardest, but

the best part of your life. And you could agree that those words have not failed to hold their own

truth. In the book, You Should See Me in a Crown, Leah Johnson puts her characters through

social issues that reflect her own teenage adversity and how she sees the world.

To begin with, Leah Johnson has faced adversity pertaining to her skin color and

character in which she has expressed throughout this book in the life of a shy, anxious, colored

and queer girl, Liz Lightly. Throughout Johnson’s teen years she faced an army of belligerent,

rude, racist people crowded in a high school. In Johnson’s perspective the world is a cruel place

for a teenager to grow up and for a human being to have feelings. She shows that the world needs

and desires nice people to not only make an impact, but to support those who can’t help

themselves out of the rut of self-hatred. She also even brings to life the idea that even teenagers

can influence adults to be more mature. Johnson does an excellent job portraying the anxiety and

internalized self-hatred from being different in a mostly white, small town.


Dennison 2

In the story the author had talked about how she was uncomfortable with her queerness

because of how it interacted with her blackness; also, the way it interacted with her poverty. She

reflected this in Liz by putting her through the same catastrophes in high school. Liz was a shy

girl who was “too black”, “too queer”, and “too poor” to be anything. As she ran for prom queen,

a ‘racist Regina George’ threw up a poster revealing her biggest anxiety and secret. “Liz Lightly

Queen of Queers”. Not only was she the outcast that only wanted to reach her life goal, but she

was the outcast who was bullied by other girls because she was queer. She wanted to be the prom

queen, but the girls around her ridiculed her for liking women and being different. Johnson is

reflecting her own personal life in this moment, because she too had been affected by this. She

had been bullied and picked on until she was fifteen and her French teacher taught her how to

wear her crown with courage and boldness.

Next, the author wanted to show us how the white and black teenagers were held to much

different standards than one another. “Did you know you have the chance to be the first black

queen in Campbell history? I swallow. Of course, I know that. But I don’t like it being held

against me. I don’t like the implication in her tone. You could make history if you just follow our

rules. You could be a real credit to your people if you just straighten up and fly right. You could

be worth something if you would shut up and take what we give you. And I know then what I’ve

always known: Campbell is never going to make a space for me to fit. I’m going to have to

demand it.” (Johnson 235) Johnson is revealing to us that even though there should be equality,

the black girls are held to much higher standards than the white women. They must work much

harder to get a fraction of what white girls get for just existing. Johnson battled this all

throughout high school and still was able to come out on top. (Johnston 224) Rachael, the stories

antagonist, was a white girl who always won prom queen because she was white, rich and pretty.
Dennison 3

Even though Liz had to do triple the amount of work as any other girl in the running, she still

came out on top. With racist white folk and people who hated queers, she defied the odds and

fought against the tribulations.

In conclusion, Leah Johnson has lived a life full of tribulation, anxiety, self-hatred,

racism and much more. She had expressed all these problems in the novel “You Should See Me

In a Crown” in the dramatic, relatable life of Liz Lightly. Being a teenager in today’s world is the

hardest test of all that some leave bearing scars, anxieties and bad memories that will never leave

them. Johnson has borne these social issues and wrote about them in a believable way that

everyone can relate to. “I never felt quite like this though. Like I don’t know if I’m running away

from something or to it. All I know is that I’m tired, so incredibly tired of having to run at all.”

(Johnson 110)
Dennison 4

Work Cited
Johnson, Leah. You Should See me in a Crown. New York: Scholastic, 2020. Print.

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