Teenage Wasteland by Anne Tyler
"Teenage Wasteland" by Anne Tyler explores the struggles of a family dealing with a troubled teenager, Donny Coble. Daisy Coble, Donny’s mother, faces the challenges of parenting a son who is increasingly rebellious and disengaged from school. The story begins when Daisy is contacted by the principal due to Donny's disruptive behavior, which prompts her to take more active control over his education. Despite her efforts and the involvement of a tutor named Cal Beadle, Donny's situation deteriorates, leading to his expulsion from school.
The narrative captures the tension between parental expectations and a teenager's quest for identity, as Donny becomes influenced by his tutor's more lenient perspective. As the story unfolds, Donny's actions spiral further out of control, culminating in his disappearance. The emotional toll on the family becomes evident, reflecting themes of misunderstanding, blame, and the complex dynamics of adolescent rebellion. The story concludes with Daisy's introspection about her family's struggles, leaving readers with a poignant sense of loss and unresolved questions about both Donny and the family’s future.
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Teenage Wasteland by Anne Tyler
First published: 1984
Type of plot: Psychological
Time of work: The early 1970's
Locale: An unnamed city
Principal Characters:
Donny Coble , a troubled fifteen-year-old boyDaisy , andMatt Coble , his parentsCalvin Beadle , his tutor
The Story
When Daisy Coble receives a telephone call from the principal of her son Donny's private school, the boy's problems do not seem serious. He is described as "noisy, lazy, disruptive, always fooling around with his friends." At a conference with the school's principal, Daisy is ashamed to be regarded as a delinquent, unseeing, or uncaring parent. She describes the restrictions that she and her husband have placed on Donny: no television on school nights, limited telephone calls, and so on. Following the conference, Daisy conscientiously follows the principal's suggestion that she personally supervise Donny's homework and is discouraged by the weaknesses she finds in Donny's work.
In December, the school reports that Donny shows slight progress, as well as new problems: cutting class, smoking in the furnace room, leaving the school grounds, and returning with beer on his breath. Psychological testing is undertaken and a tutor recommended. "Cal" Beadle, the tutor—whom Donny resists at first—quickly establishes himself as being on the boy's side: against the school, which he calls punitive, and the parents, whom Donny calls controlling and competitive—words that he has obviously picked up from Cal.
Donny apparently enjoys his sessions with Cal, who encourages his students to hang around by listening to records and shooting baskets at the backboard on his garage. Donny's grades do not improve, but the school notes that his attitude is more cooperative. This proves to be an illusion, however, as in April Donny is expelled after beer and cigarettes are found in his locker.
Instead of coming home after his expulsion, Donny goes to his tutor's house, where Daisy finds him looking upset and angry. When Donny refuses to accept any blame for the incident, Daisy recalls the bold-faced, wide-eyed look on his face when, as a small boy, he denied little mischiefs, despite all the evidence pointing to his guilt.
Donny proposes that he apply to another school, an idea about which Cal is enthusiastic, saying that he works with many students at the other school. Cal adds that this other school knows "where a kid is coming from." Daisy does not like the sound of the school and is troubled by Cal's smile, which strikes her as "feverish and avid—a smile of hunger."
Shortly after this conference, Donny's parents enroll him in a public school and terminate his tutoring sessions. Although both decisions are against Donny's wishes, he plods off to his new school each morning, without friends, looking worn out and beaten.
In June, Donny disappears. The police try to find him, but their remarks about the hundreds of young people who run away every year are not reassuring. Three months pass without word from Donny. Both his parents have aged, and his younger sister tries to stay away from home as much as she can. Daisy lies awake at night going over Donny's life, trying to understand their mistakes and wondering whom to blame.
The story ends as Daisy, falling asleep, glimpses a basketball sinking through the hoop, onto a yard littered with leaves and striped "with bands of sunlight as white as bones, bleached and parched and cleanly picked."
Bibliography
Bail, Paul. Anne Tyler: A Critical Companion. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1998.
Croft, Robert W. An Anne Tyler Companion. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1998.
Evans, Elizabeth. Anne Tyler. New York: Twayne, 1993.
Kissel, Susan S. Moving On: The Heroines of Shirley Ann Grau, Anne Tyler, and Gail Godwin. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1996.
Petry, Alice Hall. Critical Essays on Anne Tyler. New York: G. K. Hall, 1992.
Petry, Alice Hall. Understanding Anne Tyler. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1990.
Salwak, Dale. Anne Tyler as Novelist. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1994.
Stephens, C. Ralph. The Fiction of Anne Tyler. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1990.
Sweeney, Susan Elizabeth. "Anne Tyler." In The History of Southern Women's Literature, edited by Carolyn Perry and Mary Louise Weaks. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2002.