Anne Tyler Teenage Wasteland

They're all Wasted! In today’s culture, teenagers tend to desire independence and isolation, rather than spending time with family. Anne Tyler’s “Teenage Wasteland,” centers around the chronicles of a neglectful mother attempting to reverse her child’s tendency to steer towards delinquency.

This story, told in third-person limited omniscient, shows a teenager who is inept, and a parent who did too little, too late. The omniscient narrator mainly focuses on Donny’s mother, her lack of confidence, and the tribulations of being impotent in her own child’s life, which have a negative impact on Donny’s welfare. When Matt and Daisy get called to meet with the principal for the second time, instead of Daisy thinking about her child, she thinks about “how they must look to Mr. Lanham: an overweight housewife in a cotton dress and a too-tall, too-thin insurance agent in a baggy, frayed suit. Failures, both of them.” After Donny’s psychologist informs Daisy that he requires “a better sense of self-worth,” she, who severely lacks a sense of self-worth, ironically

However, Daisy following Cal’s suggestion of freeing Donny from all of her rules makes matters even worse, enabling him to make terrible decisions. Donny’s mother starts to lose faith in Cal’s methods, even calling his house “Teenage Wasteland.” The problem with Cal is that he is more of a friend than a tutor, not caring about school and grades, but only having interest in his social life. Consequently, Donny fails in school and decides to run away to Cal’s, having no contact with his own