"The Ambiguity of Youth".... this is such a great sub-title in Barker's Chapter 11, "Youth, Style, and Resistance." Youth can mean so many things, innocence, naivity, freedom, captivity, non-responsible. Many people look back to their childhood and wish for it again. Yet others are glad to older and wiser. Barker states, "However we seek to define it, youth remains an ambiguous concept" (409).
Peter Pan didn't want to grow up.... Wendy knew she needed to. Which is right? Living a lifetime of childhood would be great to many people, yet enjoying your childhood, then moving onto adulthood isn't so bad either. Barker continues to write, "Youth has been an ideological signifier charged with utopian images of the future" (409).
Is it the naivity or innocence of youth to view the world in a Utopian image? I think it's the innocence of childhood causing children to view the world as equal. When young we're always taught 'share your toys', 'say please', 'be nice', yet when we are older it's, don't share, rent out; I want it now; and it's all about me.
Youth is the time of innocence and equality, so I leave you now with the questions, "When do youth's eyes open to reality?" and "Who or what opened their eyes?"
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