My first encounter with the term moral ambiguity was during my Honours Thesis in my undergraduate degree. For this thesis, I focused on the morally ambiguous themes found in YA literature, and how these themes can be used to help develop critical thinking skills in young adults.

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     My supervisor and I collaborated to develop a working definition of moral ambiguity as it pertains to YA literature. This is what we came up with:​



"For the purposes of this paper, moral ambiguity in these novels refers to actions, beliefs, and characters that are not clearly defined as moral or immoral to both the protagonist and the reader. This moral ambiguity also encompasses having to make decisions that do not feel 'right' but are for the good of other people; or a general 'greyness' and lack of defined dichotomies in the world" (MacCallum, 2010).



​​     My interest in moral ambiguity in YA literature has continued to grow since 2010, mainly due to the fact that the more YA literature I read, the more instances of this moral ambiguity I see. I believe this is because authors see the value in not explicitly telling young adults how they should think or feel about certain actions, beliefs, or characters; instead, they see the importance of letting young adults make these decisions on their own. YA authors who use moral ambiguity trust in their readers to have the maturity and ability to make these decisions on their own. They do not need everything laid out in simple black and white terms, and I think young adults today appreciate this sense of trust and faith from their favourite authors. 



MacCallum, B. (2011). Fantastically ambiguous: Questing for complex moral​

     education in children’s literature. Honours Thesis University of Prince 

     Edward Island, Print.

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*The picture to the left is a word cloud made from my thesis using the word cloud generator wordle.net.

  Moral Ambiguity