A Literary Paper Example: Teenage Wasteland

This novel was setup during the Reagan era in 1980. Daisy, a mother, is enthusiastic about raising her son, Donny. Donny starts school as any kid would, but he immediately starts to record poor grades. His mother is worried and is willing to help the young boy, who she wishes would grow up to be a good, responsible and successful man. Daisy is concerned about his sons grades and enrolls him to study under a tutor Cal. Even after the enrolment, nothing seems to change since the boy continues to post poor grades. Daisy is frustrated at the tutor. She also looks clueless at how to handle the teenager. As pressure mounts On Donny to performs, he runs away from home at the age of fifteen, leaving his mother confused, with despair and guilty that she had failed. The central conflict is between Donny and his performance, but the story ends without the issue being resolved. Daisy is left wondering where she went wrong in raising her son who is now large.

Glass Menagerie

The glass menagerie is a love story with a mix of the societys perception of women and marriage. Tom narrates it. Amanda, a mother to Tom and Laura, both characters in the play is concerned that given Laura had dropped out of school, she may not be able to get a job, and as a solution, she asked her to get married. Laura doesnt feel amused, and she continues living carelessly. The Amanda asks Tom to match Laura with one of his friend, of which he obliges. Tom invites a workplace colleague, who Amanda seems excited of and prepares meals for them. While all of them are in the house, Tom reveals that he had used money meant for electricity bills to travel. It is surprising, but no one makes a big fuss immediately. Laura is busy handling his glasses resembling hearts while having a conversation with Jim, who accidentally breaks one glass. Jim later leaves, and immediately Toms mother is furious about Tom who had not told them that Jim was engaged. She had thought she would take up Laura. The story ends when Tom leaves to travel, leaving it where it started when he addressed the audience.

Daddy

Silvia Prath presents this controversial poem with a vitriolic and bitter tone. Harshly referring to her father who died while she wat eight years old. She considers a father part of the Nazi, and even reflects him as some vampire. She goes on to illustrate that her father might not have died, but just re-emerged back and configured himself as her husband. The tone of is that of a bitter feminist, expressing her frustrating to the male gender through her father and husband. The poem comes out as Pratt's allegorical representation of her fears of male dominance, and the need to shame it. That forms the basis of symbolizing make dominance to a vampire, and even recreating her father in her husband. She also draws on the issue holocaust, using in symbolically to demonstrate what the male-dominated world would do. Praths poem is evidenced by extreme use of strong language, imagery and symbolism, just to illustrate the past in relation with the current state, when she wrote the poem.

References

Plath, S. (1962). Daddy. NA.

Tyler, A. (1986). Teenage wasteland. New Women and New Fiction: Short Stories Since the Sixties. New York: Mentor. Weaving In the Women.

Williams, T., & Kushner, T. (2011). The glass menagerie. New Directions Publishing.