Teenage Wasteland Analysis

Teenage Wasteland”: Daisy A day in the life of a teenager, what a waste. Alternatively, from another perspective, the life of the mother of a teenage delinquent. Tyler creates a rounded character within the writings of “Teenage Wasteland” in Daisy, the mother of the delinquent, and mostly disrespectful, teenager, Donny. From the beginning of the short story to end, Donny’s tribulations cause the motivation that allow Daisy to become a well-developed and dynamic character. Through the use of informal dictation, Tyler shows Daisy as an everyday and old fashioned woman who struggles with being the parent of a difficult teenager whose culture is vastly different than her own, however is not ignorant to teenage wiles. Daisy is a wife and also the mother of two children, Donny, the eldest son, and Amanda, the youngest daughter; her life revolves around her children. At a time long past, she was a fourth grade teacher,
This causes her to neglect her daughter now, almost a vise-versa of how Donny was neglected when Amanda was small. Statements such as “Not now, honey.” (Tyler, 1984, p. 644) when Amanda attempted to tell her something about her day, and “There was no way, really, to convey how exhausting this all was.” (Tyler, 1984, p. 644) when attempting to explain how drained she felt when dealing with Donny to her husband, Matt. Her exasperation with two children is evident with comments such as “a new baby keeps you so busy.” and “she longed-she-ached for a time machine” (Tyler, 1984, p. 645) which would give her more time to spend with Donny also, instead of utilizing most of her time with the younger daughter, Amanda after she was born. Also evident of not being able to juggle two children is Daisy telling Amanda “Bye, honey. Sorry,” (Tyler, 1984, p. 646) when cutting dinner short to transport Donny to