Teenage Wasteland

Teenage Wasteland is the last of the four short stories that we have had to read, and overall I did not like this book at all. The reason I did not like this book is because of the main character Donny. Donny is one of the most pathetic person I have ever seen. He does not care about his school work, he disrespects his parents, and he drinks. I think that this story was in a way trying to make the reader feel bad for Donny and for me that was not the case. Donny reminds me of Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye. Both characters take advantage of their parents and their love. Holden basically hated his parents even thought they tried to give him a promising future. Donny is no different. He completely disregards/disrespects his parents and he just wants to do whatever he wants to do. His mother and father try to do all of this stuff to help him. They send him this psychiatrist, they get him a tutor, and they even let him stay out later. The only thing that Donny does is take advantage of his parents. I also thought that the tutor did Donny no good. The tutor just keep on telling his parents to give him more space because he is trying to become an adult and they are just holding him back. In the end Donny runs away and I do not feel bad for him at all. At the most, I think that he did not deserve to have such nice parents. The person that I did feel bad for was Daisy (Donny's mother). I felt bad for her because she tried so hard to help him out.