Lit blog 10/1/12

In the Anne Tyler's short story Teenage Wasteland Donny gets kicked out of his high school and runs away from home. Some people think that it is his mother Daisy's fault that her son Donny gets kicked out of his school and runs away from their home.  I personally do not think that Daisy is entirely to blame for Donny's bad behavior; I think that its a combination of Daisy, Donny, and Cal's faults that contributed to Donny's reckless actions. Daisy is partly at fault because she tried to help change Donny a little too late. Donny was already doing very poorly at school with low grades when his mother Daisy tried to help him. Also, when the teacher called Daisy to tell her that Donny was doing poorly, Daisy did nothing and pinned her hopes on Cal to change Donny, which did not have the desired effect that she had hoped for. But Daisy did try to change her son's bad behavior and even succedded in improving his grades quite a bit and got him counceling to help with his mental well being. Cal is also partly at fault for his encouragment Donny's bad behavior. Cal let Donny do whatever he wanted to do, which resulted in Donny's grades dropping and his susequent expulsion from school. While Donny's grades were getting worse, Cal told Daisy to let him talk to the teachers and Cal let Donny start failing his classes. This led Donny to worse and worse behavior that eventually led him to be expelled from school. But Cal did try to raise Donny's self esteem and Donny did have alot of fun with Cal, which resulted in Donny's self esteem going up. As a result, it was not entirely Cal's fault that Donny behaved so poorly. Donny was also to blame for his own bad behavior including: drinking, skipping school, getting bad grades, getting kicked out of his high school, and his running away from his home. He took advantage of the fact that Cal did not care about what Donny does at school so he started skipping classes, getting bad grades, and drinking alcohol. These bad behaviors led to his subsequent expulsion and his running away from home. In Anne Tyler's short story Teenage Wasteland Donny did not even leave a note or anything before he left, and has caused his mother Daisy much grief. Donny is the one most at fault for his own behavior, even though Cal and Daisy helped contribute to Donny's problems, but it is Donny who is in control of his own actions. Although Donny was inproving at the begining of teenage wasteland, Donny's poor choices led him away from the path his mother Daisy had wanted for him, and Daisy persumbly never saw Donny again after his decision to run away from home.