Conflict in Anne Tyler’s “Teenage Wasteland”

Conflict in Anne Tyler’s â€Å"Teenage Wasteland† Many of the characters in Anne Tyler’s story â€Å"Teenage Wasteland† face some kind of conflict at some point during the story. â€Å"This story shows how lack of communication between a troubled adolescent and his parents results in tragedy†(Croft 231). The story is about a boy named Donny who was having a hard time in school. In the beginning, of the story the principal called Daisy, Donny’s mother, because he wanted to have a conference â€Å"The boy’s problems do not seem serious. He is described as â€Å"noisy, lazy, always fooling around with his friends.†Ã¢â‚¬ (Harper 1). After this, Daisy made sure that Donny worked on his school assignments every night and this seemed to be working, but then the principal†¦show more content†¦When Daisy begins to help him with is school assignments it seems that it is helping him deal with his conflict of grades. When it seem s that is has worked through his conflicts Donny begins to develop new ones. He then begins to skip classes because of this his parents decide that it would good for him to visit a psychologist. â€Å"Donny said the psychologist was a jackass and the tests were really dumb; but he kept all three of his appointments, and when it was time for the follow-up conference with the psychologists and both parents, Donny combed his hair and seemed unusually sober and subdued†(Tyler 645). Donny did not enjoy going to his appointments with the psychologist but he kept all of them. Towards the end of the story the school preforms a locker search. During this search beer and cigarettes are found in his locker because of this Donny is expelled from his school. â€Å"Instead of going home, he runs to Cal’s. Donnie claims that it was a â€Å"frame up,† and Cal excuses the boy by saying the school violated his civil rights.†(May 1026). He tries to tell his parents that th e beer and cigarettes did not belong to him but they would not believe him. This causes extra conflict between him and his parents. He then is placed into a new school which he did not like. After a few days of attending Page 4 his new