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Running head: TEENAGE WASTELAND 1

Teenage Wasteland

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TEENAGE WASTELAND 2

Teenage Wasteland

It is a short narration by Anne Tyler which discusses the tribulations and trials of the

bond between mother and son. A teenage lad by the name Donny is just passing through a rough

time. Daisy, his mother, is invited to a school meeting where she learns that Donny’s grades are

dropping, and he is not responsive in class. This is where Cal tries to assist the boy but instead

there more damage was done. She uses this story to teach a lesson on the specific points that are

meant to shape us, show us that time is passing, and how important our guardians are to what we

become.

For us to understand the point of view of Tyler’s narration she uses third person

omniscient, this helps the reader have a particular connection to the family as well as Cal. We

know how the mother feels and as the narration progresses how we feel is shaped by the feelings

of Daisy. How she changes from powerful to being confused to even hopeless, she points the

reader to start feeling compassion and pity when Donny gets angry towards Cal as he tries to

take over and due to refusal, he becomes frustrated. Instead, we should feel what Daisy is going

through, but not the action of other characters. The author does it to ensure that we do not only

see the setting of the narration but instead see the emotion present in the narrative (Tyler

, 1986).

Another character by the name Peter Pan is so distinct. His character is analyzed as

someone who avoids responsibilities, who lives a fantasy, lazy and also believes that having fun

is the best thing. In our case, Cal is like Peter Pan in that; he is childless, careless, never accepts

that he is already grown up and still lives his old life. He is contented with being a tutor with a

goal of enjoying life rather that helping his students. For example, "The teacher instructed Donny

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to refer him as Cal just like every other child did. On the contrary, Daisy was thinking that Cal

was talking about his real children before she noted her mistake. Cal appeared to be young to

have children. He still maintained his youth as he had a brown mustache as well as long hair and

wore faded jeans just like Donny did." This makes Cal a leader of the lost boys and Donny is one

of them. He grows up being influenced by Cal’s behavior of finding challenge in responsibilities

and disliking his mother. In short, Tyler is telling us that we all grow up as part of life that we

cannot control (Tyler, 1986).

The theme of this narration “Teenage Wasteland” is mainly on parenting. How parents

play a significant role as their children, grow up since they spend much time with them than

anyone else. Hence they got the greatest influence on them. Daisy feels like she is to blame for

Donny’s lack of motivation and laziness. "During the night, Daisy goes through her mind as she

tries to figure out Donny's life. She tries to find out the shortfalls that occurred in his life. Even

though Cal never started it, she still blames him." For one to have successful children, you have

to learn how to spend time with them, always show them that they are important to the world and

make them realize their outstanding qualities that make them stand tall. Daisy had good

intensions on her children, but her way of doing this was poor (Tyler, 1986).

In conclusion, Tyler’s narration utilizes literary devices to show that it is not easy to grow

up in today’s generation. Most of the children got a hard time trying to fit as well as knowing

where to belong. In short, it is all about trying to find out who you are in this world. The most

unfortunate thing is that there are other teenagers who are just like Donny growing up to be

unhappy and confused people. Tyler believes that we don’t have to depend on other for

happiness.

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References

Tyler, A. (1986). Teenage Wasteland. New Women and New Fiction: Short Stories Since the

Sixties. New York: Mentor. Weaving In the Women.

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