The short story, “Teenage Wasteland” by Anne Tyler was first published in Seventeen in the year of 1983, and it explores the tough relationship between a troubled teen and adults. This story was influenced by the song "Baba O’Riley” by The Who which has a similar theme of struggling teenagers. Although studies have demonstrated that authoritarian or permissive parenting style can contribute to adolescent problems, Donny, Tyler’s protagonist, struggles because adults in his life fail to provide consistency. Anne Tyler was born in Minnesota on October 25, 1941, and she went to Duke University for college (Anne Tyler facts, 2010). She has written many books and coincidently most of Anne 's stories have the same theme, "Throughout Tyler 's novels,
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No matter which type the parent is in the relationship between parents and teenagers is not easy. Debby Mayne from a popular blog has a compelling post about the relationship between teens and adults, and the way she describes the relationship is almost perfect, “As the teen gets older, she is likely to fight for control. This can leave her parents feeling hurt and rejected, creating stress because there is a constant battle of wills” (Mayne, 2015). The teenager is always in their own different world trying to deal with their struggles that are causing them to want to fight. It is heartbreaking for parents to witness this because they just want to help their own child and be there for …show more content…
Any kid growing up with no coherence of structure is going to be hard, "The lack of consistency about rules and consequences makes it difficult for children to know what is acceptable and what is unacceptable" (Hatter, 2016). The best way for children to know what to or not do is with pattern and repetition, and if their guardians are non-consistent with their behavior styles, then it is hard for the child to learn. With Donny, all the structure and rules were all across the board it just depends on who he is currently with. Donny was so overwhelmed that he thought there was only one solution, “Donny vanished. He simply didn’t come home one afternoon” (Tyler, 1983, p. 109). He ran away because it wanted to get away from all the chaos that surrounding his family. There is a lot of stress on being a teenager alone but to not have a consistent or reliable family makes it harder to try to figure out all the problems a teenager has to
No matter which type the parent is in the relationship between parents and teenagers is not easy. Debby Mayne from a popular blog has a compelling post about the relationship between teens and adults, and the way she describes the relationship is almost perfect, “As the teen gets older, she is likely to fight for control. This can leave her parents feeling hurt and rejected, creating stress because there is a constant battle of wills” (Mayne, 2015). The teenager is always in their own different world trying to deal with their struggles that are causing them to want to fight. It is heartbreaking for parents to witness this because they just want to help their own child and be there for …show more content…
Any kid growing up with no coherence of structure is going to be hard, "The lack of consistency about rules and consequences makes it difficult for children to know what is acceptable and what is unacceptable" (Hatter, 2016). The best way for children to know what to or not do is with pattern and repetition, and if their guardians are non-consistent with their behavior styles, then it is hard for the child to learn. With Donny, all the structure and rules were all across the board it just depends on who he is currently with. Donny was so overwhelmed that he thought there was only one solution, “Donny vanished. He simply didn’t come home one afternoon” (Tyler, 1983, p. 109). He ran away because it wanted to get away from all the chaos that surrounding his family. There is a lot of stress on being a teenager alone but to not have a consistent or reliable family makes it harder to try to figure out all the problems a teenager has to