The story Teenage Wasteland by Anne Tyler displays a variety of challenges and problems caused by families and the way they function. Amanda, though a small character, is very significant to the overall picture that we see. Her tiny presence allows us to see past just the major characters and realize how the dysfunctionality of the rest of the family will not only effect them, but others also, possibly having a domino effect.
Daisy notes how when she first began helping Donny with his homework, she would often brush Amanda aside. This is an early sign that she (Amanda) is not going to have a good relationship with her mother. Amanda, however, unlike Donny, actually wants to have a relationship with her mother and is clearly trying to by attempting to talk to her. Daisy, however, is too wrapped up in Donny and his problems to give Amanda the attention that she needs.
When contemplating what she did wrong in her raising of Donny, Daisy wonders if she neglected him when Amanda was born, failing to give him the proper attention. This is very ironic seeing that she now is doing what she questions as a potential source to her problems with Donny to her other child. Reading this, one wonders where Daisy’s head is, if she is not completely stupid, and how she could be so blind!
In their messing up with Donny, Daisy and her husband also ruin any hope for normality with Amanda. With a seemingly absent father and a clueless mother who does not pay attention to her, it is no surprise that by the end of the story it is commented that Amanda tries to spend as much time as possible away from home! This final statement brings the story full-circle, showing how Daisy and her husband have officially messed up another kid. They start with one problem teenager, but the potential of good and normality in Amanda, only to end up with a really disturbed, vanished son, and an elusive daughter who has been chased away.
Anne Tyler’s story concerns the inner workings of the family and how parents and children effect one another. Without Amanda, this story would only show a small, confined picture, a bomb that blows up within the home but does not reach outside of it. By means of Amanda’s character, Anne Tyler can now show how these effects will reach out into the world through the daughter. Although we cannot know for sure, it is not unreasonable to assume that Amanda will influence the world by means of a domino effect. Amanda may now have her own family, and without having a good example of parenting, could cause similar problems in her children like those that Daisy caused in her, and so on through the generations. This is not for sure, however, whether Amanda creates a domino effect in this way or not, it can be said for sure that the outside world was effected. Amanda’s character allows us to see how Daisy’s bad parenting and neglect led to even more problems outside of the home as she pushed Amanda away.
(519 words)
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1 comment:
Natalie--characters who are barely mentioned in a story are nevertheless there for a reason. Otherwise the writer wouldn't have created them. So I don't think you're at all out of line to look at the few references Tyler makes to Amanda and see how they fit into the larger patterns of the story. Good choice of focus for this week's blog post, and a good job.
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