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Matthew Haddad Mr. Van Tol Comp 22 March 2006

Throughout the short stories we have read, there are several reoccurring themes that run throughout them. Parent-child relationships are taking place within many of the plots. In particular, I will show the connection between the negative relationships that form within different generations. The stories I will use are Wasteland, by Anne Tyler, Two Kinds, by Amy Tan, and On the Late Bus, by Susan Engberg. These stories take place in America, but each has a different reason behind the child and parent relationship. Each of these stories starts with a child that is having trouble connecting with parents. Two Kinds starts off with the daughter telling us that her mother “believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America” (1). We learn that the mother is from China and things were different for her. The daughter does not have this point of view. She never had the experience in China and only knows America. Conflict between them is there because they don’t understand each others lives. In Teenage Wasteland, Donny seems like he is from a dysfunctional home, but really his parents are normal. They want him to behave and get good grades. They are not asking him about what’s wrong or bothering him, instead they are trying to fix the surface problem. “At home, Donny didn’t act much different. He still seemed to have a low opinion of his parents. But Daisy supposed that was unavoidable-a part of being fifteen” (2) She is assuming that teenagers

are just like that, and not thinking about what is causing him to act bad. In On the Late Bus, Alisons is telling us that the trouble was with the people who are supposed to be parents “Fast was how they wanted you out of their house, before their lives were worn out, before they had to admit the mistake they had made in having you” (3) The parents in these stories have a sense of hope and want something good for their child, but are unable to make the connection. There seems to be a myth behind what both the parent and child are thinking. The parent believes that their child should be a certain way or act and a certain way. Instead of dealing with the problem themselves, each parent in these stories puts the issue onto someone else to fix the problem. On the Late Bus, one set of parents is sending her to another set because it “didn’t work out” (276). In Two Kinds, the girl’s mother believes that the piano teacher will be able to make her into the prodigy she wants her to be. In Teenage Wasteland, both parents rely on Cal to change Donny’s attitude and behavior. In the end it is not these other factors that help the child. Each one finds a way to feel better in a different way. The girl in Two Kinds realizes that she will never be what her mother wants. “And after seeing my mothers disappointed face once again, something inside of me began to die” (2). She then says “I won’t let her change me, I promised myself. I won’t be what I’m not” (2). After offending her mother at the piano bench, the girl seems to realize that although she hurt her mother, it had “shut of her misery and her mothers dreams” (5). In the story On the Late Bus, the girl has her own thought at the end, and understands that everyone had troubles or caused troubles. “if people could turn on the trouble, they could make other things happen too, besides trouble” (5). In Teenage

Wasteland, we don’t know what happened to Donny, but we do know that the mother understands that it may not be all Cal’s fault. “At night, Daisy lies awake and goes over Donny’s life. She is trying to figure out what went wrong, where they made their first mistake. Often, she finds herself blaming Cal, although she knows he didn’t begin it. Then at other times she excuses him, for without him, Donny might have left earlier” (5). The authors of these stories also use similar tones. Amy Tan is telling us the story from her point of view (the child), and so does Susan Engberg. Although Teenage Wasteland is told from someone else’s point, not the child or the parent, it still has the same tone. It sounds like there is hope even though there are problems going on. The authors of these stories seem like they each have had a personal experience that they are writing about. They also have an attitude that tells us there is more to just parent failure that is causing the negative relationships. The problems between the child and the parent in these stories are not just a failure of the parent. The parents come from generations where they may not have had the opportunities that the kids have. They probably had to work very hard to earn the things they have. In Two Kinds the daughter points this out when she says “I wasn’t her slave. This wasn’t China” (5). There are other social things that cause problems in childparent relationships. Modern families have the same problems. Most of our generation has lots of technology. We have always used computers and electronic things, so when we want to do that kind of this instead of go play a sport outside, no wonder our generations don’t always understand each other.