Introduction
Adolescence is a very crucial stage of development and adolescents develop morally, psychologically, physically, and emotionally. For example, they develop abstract thinking and achieve more while engaging in diverse activities or when faced with a challenging situation. Additionally, they have a lot of interests when interacting with their peers and model behaviors of other adults like older students and their parents. Due to the above changes, they struggle a lot with many things. In this paper, I am going to discuss the struggle that adolescents go through. I will support my argument by referring to Morrison’s 1922, Tan’s half and a half, and Walker’s Everyday use stories.
Struggles that adolescents go through
Adolescents struggle with so many things, start with, because of their physical changes that occur in their bodies and their exploration of sexual identity, most of them are not able to control their bodies and as such, they engage themselves in sexual activities and when this happens they may get early pregnancies and Sexually Transmitted Diseases which may cause them to discontinue their studies.
Secondly, because adolescent seeks approval and authority from their peers, they may fall in the trap of doing things just to please their peers and to feel accepted by them. In their search for approval, they may be influenced by these peer groups negatively and thus are unable to show their autonomy, rationalism, and determination which are important core values if one has to succeed. This is indicated in Morrison’s story (Perkins, p. 7). For example, Alice Walker fell into the temptation of drug abuse when her friend invited her to a party, and any time she wanted to stop the habit she could not as her friends encouraged her to continue with this in other cases, drug abuse is as a result of depression and loneliness that adolescent feel due to lack of acceptance by their peers. This was the same case that made Alice Walker turn to drugs (Perkins, p. 13).
The adolescent may also fail to meet the expectations of their parents as some r parents are so nagging and as such these adolescents may get a lot of depression and thus turn to drugs. For example, Walker continued taking more drugs even though she had a desire to stop because of the depression she got due to the nagging of her parents. Additionally; they are not understood by their parents for instance in terms of dressing as they may change their dressing code. This is so since in their age they are half children and half adult as indicated in Tan’s half and half story (Perkins 20). For example, when Walker started changing her dressing code her parent quarreled a lot with her.
Adolescents also have a problem with accepting their body size. For example, weight gain, shape, and skin color are issues that adolescents have to contend with. Consequently, they may go on dieting, starving, or binge eating. This is because they mind their perception and that of others regarding their bodies. Other adolescents have very low self-esteem and those who try to show their self-concept face betrayal, disillusionment from their peers and become vulnerable as was the case with Tan (Perkins 16). Moreover, they also struggle to accept their background, race, gender. For example, if they come from a poor background, they may feel so discomfort able at school to relate with those from rich backgrounds. They may also not relate well with their parents as some feel that their parents are favoring some of the children as was the case in Tan’s story. More so some of the adolescents are at loggerheads with their parents as some of them keep on complaining if they change their dressing codes. This was the case with Walker and her parents.
Conclusion
It is very clear from Morrison’s 1922, Walker’s Everyday use, and Tan’s half and half stories that adolescents struggle a lot with so many things. This is due to various changes that they go through physically, emotionally, psychologically, and morally. It is important that adults understand them and counsel them accordingly.
Works Cited
Perkins, George.The American Tradition in Literature, vol 2.New York: McGraw Hill, 2008. Print.