Teenage wasteland

Teenage Wasteland “Teenage Wasteland,” by Anne Tyler, is the brief story of Donny Coble, a fifteen year old boy in trouble. He has been getting into mischief at school and his grades are deteriorating, and his parents – who seem caring, but distant, and rather average – are concerned. The narration of the story centers around Donny’s mother, Daisy. Throughout the course of the story, Daisy meets with Donny’s principal, takes her son to a psychologist, and rearranges her days around taking Donny to a tutor, Cal, in hopes of improving both his grades and his self-esteem. Daisy tries continuously to make things better for her son, to help him find happiness, but with little lasting success. Donny’s tutor, Cal, seems to understand Donny better than his mother does, and Cal’s influence seems to improve Donny’s interest levels and his self-esteem. His academic performance, however, remains unsatisfactory, and eventually, as a result of what Donny claims is a set-up, Donny is kicked out of school and removed from Cal’s care. Throughout the course of the story, Donny continues to be misunderstood by his parents, until he finally runs away from home. The way Donny’s character is revealed by the author reflects the lack of connection he has with his parents; his character is developed through indirect characterization, the different facets of his personality revealed through others’ judgments and behaviors. Donny’s true thoughts are never shared, and his character is defined by the way others interpret his actions; only his mother’s emotions are discussed, reflecting her inability to understand his feelings, the thing that ultimately leads him to run away from home.
The author, Anne Tyler, uses limited omniscience throughout “Teenage Wasteland” in order to influence readers to feel specific ways about different characters. While the narration is unemotional and objective in style, it centers around Daisy, Donny’s mother, and the reader is only helped to understand her feelings and her beliefs. Just as Daisy fails to understand Donny’s true thoughts, so does the reader, and a real connection is only forged with Daisy’s character. The focus on Daisy’s reactions means that the reader feels most intensely Daisy’s worries, pains, and fears. The biggest sense of pity automatically goes to Daisy, though Donny is probably the character who merits it most – he is the character who is struggling at school and trying to find his place in the world. The way the story is told only serves to reflect Daisy’s failure in understanding her son, and it makes it harder to understand Donny’s character, because he does not get a chance to reveal his own character himself. The reader is not readily given the opportunity to truly objectively analyze the reasons behind Donny’s misbehavior: how much of it is Daisy’s fault? Would the reader be able to see it, in a story filtered through Daisy’s eyes? Daisy does not seem to be very perceptive when it comes to her son, and this means that most information about Donny’s character comes from indirect sources.
“Teenage Wasteland” is about the disconnect between a troubled youth and his parents, and the method of indirect characterization supports this. Readers learn about Donny through others’ words and actions. Initially, Donny is labeled lazy and irresponsible by his principal. His parents’ attempts to help him make it seem that Donny is apathetic and troubled. The way others react to Donny’s behavior may not be indicative of his true character; Cal does insist that Donny is misunderstood and underestimated. It does reflect, however, how his behavior defines his character in an environment where adults seem to expect things that he does not understand and cannot live up to. Cal also tells Daisy that Donny has low self-esteem and doesn’t feel like anyone listens to him; this is revealed to Daisy, the person who does not listen to Donny, by a third party. The only time Donny seems to be able to reveal his personality himself is through his sessions with Cal, who asks questions and seems to listen and is seen as a kindred spirit. After meeting with Cal, Donny tells his parents himself that they are too controlling, and he seems more interested and lively. His parents don’t understand his emotions or the things he becomes interested in; his mother doesn’t know that the song playing at Cal’s is called “Baba O’Riley,” and his father doesn’t seem to recognize that it’s a song at all. They do not attempt to learn about Donny’s interests. They try to be more lenient about Donny’s social life, but besides that, the story seems to present a tale of well-intended neglect and accidental detachment. Donny is indirectly characterized both for the reader and for his parents; they learn about their son through other people, through sources other than Donny himself.
Donny is ultimately presented to be a failure, running away from home after being expelled from school. He is labeled as a lazy troublemaker, and even after all of his time with Cal, his behavior doesn’t seem to change. Cal himself calls Donny “emotionally disturbed,” though Cal was the one person with whom Donny was able to build a more personal, stabilizing relationship. The reader is led to see Donny as an enigmatically reluctant and withdrawn child. He is a failure, however, precisely because he is so misunderstood by the people who should care most about him. Daisy herself is not particularly emotional or introspective; she thus fails to communicate properly with her son. After Donny is expelled, Daisy greets him at Cal’s house with a simple “Hello, Donny.” He responds by glancing at her. She does not know how to speak to him, and he does not know how to speak to her, and this is where their problems stem from. The lack of communication and understanding is the reason that Donny cannot live up to his parents’ expectations. He not only does not understand the expectations, but because of his relationships with his parents, he no longer wants to try to understand the expectations or the viewpoints of his parents.
Donny’s parents don’t seem to expect too much from their son, but Donny’s reaction to their controlling behavior reflects both his own unhappiness and the unhappiness of teenagers everywhere as times change and generations diverge in thought. Donny is a typical teenager pushed to run away from home by the state of his “teenage wasteland;” the desolation of his young life echoes widespread change and discontent. In such a wasteland, as “Baba O’Riley” describes, teens struggle with how to feel, with how to escape from their disappointments and their hardships. They can get wasted, turning to irresponsibility and drinking and smoking as Donny did, to distract themselves, but ultimately things still feel dismal, and both potential and happiness are what is wasted. Donny and the rest of the Cobles seem ordinary, but the little disappointments have added up in Donny’s life, making him feel detached and unsatisfied. His home and his school feel like prisons to Donny. He explicitly calls his school a prison, and the imagery of narrow bars cast across grass by sunlight extends the feeling toward the rest of his life. He is not only in an environment where he feels oppressed, but he feels that he cannot break free of expectations from his parents and from himself and be better.
At the end of the story, the reader is left wondering just as much as Daisy does why her son finally ran away and how it could have been prevented. Donny was pronounced emotionally stable by the psychologist at the beginning of the story, but he was called unstable by Cal at the end. His grades only got worse with his lessons with Cal, but he was far more open and happy under Cal’s tutelage. Donny insists that the alcohol and cigarettes in his locker were the results of a set-up, but he wears a look that makes Daisy doubt his innocence. The reader is left to wonder whether Cal’s influence really helped Donny, just as Daisy does, or whether it merely introduced to Donny a crutch, as one of his teacher’s suggested. Daisy doesn’t understand her son or his needs, and so these things are not revealed through the narration. Donny does not want his parents involved in his life even after he starts to gain a better outlook; he does not want them to spend time with his girlfriend or to share in his interests. The damage, it seems, has been done, and the window for understanding has, at least temporarily, been closed. If things had been different and Donny had not gotten expelled, he might not have run away from home, and perhaps he and his parents could have come to a better understanding of one another eventually as Donny grew and each gained a new perspective of the other.
One of the things Daisy ponders throughout the story is the role of Donny’s sister, Amanda. Amanda does not seem to be close with Donny either, and Daisy wonders how much Amanda’s birth and the subsequent division of attention between the children affected Donny’s development. Donny was neglected more after the birth of his sister, perhaps making him feel less important and creating the rift that made him feel like he was unable to speak to his parents about his feelings. In trying to help Donny, however, it seems that Daisy is beginning to create a similar environment for Amanda, neglecting her stories and putting her needs aside. By the end of the story, Amanda has begun to stay away from home; she is becoming another teenager facing isolation, just as Donny was.
Donny’s life has been shaped by his parents and his school in “Teenage Wasteland.” He is not given the opportunity to define himself in his life or in the narration of the story. Even the story’s readers focus their pity, at least primarily, on his mother; Donny’s emotions are left implicit, his feelings detached from the body of the story. Donny is a troublemaker and a failure as a student, but his life has been shaped by a sense of having been misunderstood. This misunderstanding is extended and reflected by the indirect characterization of the story. Donny’s lack of connection with the adults around him is echoed by the lack of connection between him and the reader, while his discontent simultaneously echoes the discontent of teenagers everywhere. The reader ultimately never knows the true reason behind Donny running away, just as his mother does not. By running away, Donny escapes the prison of his life, at least temporarily, but his family is left behind in a more tightly-enclosed prison of their own, wondering what has happened to him, what went wrong, and who Donny really is.

Works Cited
"Anne Tyler." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.
Gioia, D., Kennedy, X.J. Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ninth ed. Pearson, 2005. pp 188-195.
Stephens, C. Ralph. "Critical Essays on Anne Tyler." The Mississippi Quarterly 47.1 (1993): 167+. General OneFile. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.
Town, Caren J. "Anne Tyler." American Novelists Since World War II: Third Series. Ed. James R. Giles and Wanda H. Giles. Detroit: Gale Research, 1994. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 143. Literature Resource Center. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.

Cited: "Anne Tyler." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 24 Mar. 2014. Gioia, D., Kennedy, X.J. Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ninth ed. Pearson, 2005. pp 188-195. Stephens, C. Ralph. "Critical Essays on Anne Tyler." The Mississippi Quarterly 47.1 (1993): 167+. General OneFile. Web. 24 Mar. 2014. Town, Caren J. "Anne Tyler." American Novelists Since World War II: Third Series. Ed. James R. Giles and Wanda H. Giles. Detroit: Gale Research, 1994. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 143. Literature Resource Center. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.