Introduction
Written by the American author Anne Tyler, the short story “Teenage Wasteland” depicts how an education and social system destroys rather than saving children in their adolescent phase of human development. While the choices of Donny are depicted as an example of the wrong choices that most adolescents make, the role of parents, teachers and tutors are shown to mislead the young individual, leading to his “wastage”.
In particular, the role of Calvin Beadle (Cal), Donny’s tutor, is used to depict the nature of tutors and teachers who behave like adolescents rather than guiding their students during the difficult adolescent stage of human growth (Tyler 34). Arguably, the initial character of Cal is used to predict the wrong future of Donny within the text, which provides the readers with an insight into the “wastage” of the young individual.
The character of Calvin Beadle: The wrong teacher
Popularly known as ‘Carl’ in Donny’s school, Calvin Beadle is Donny’s tutor who becomes the worst nightmare for the Cobles because he leads the young Donny in the wrong direction. However, it is worth noting that Donny’s mother lets the events that follow her son’s entry into the world of the teenage-like teacher to happen due to her inability to control her son’s behavior.
Calvin preaches strict protestant faith. He is an official who seems to maintain order in his class, but this is ironic because he thinks that he has a good understanding of culture. His name reveals the truth of inflexibility. Cal encourages his students to spend a lot of time in his garage, shooting baskets and listening to records. He thinks that this is the best way to develop the right culture, but ends up being a problem to Donny’s future.
Cal has considerable training in psychology, which gives him an opportunity to mentor his students. At first, his presence is welcomed. In the first meeting between Donny and Cal, Tyler uses a foreshadow style of narrative to predict Donny’s future. Tyler says, “…Look at the face of Donny when Cal and other teachers picked him up- full of interest and alight” (Tyler 22).
This foreshadow provides the reader with an awareness that Cal is destroying Donny’s future, eventually leading to his “wastage”. Slowly, Cal begins maneuvering a number of aspects in Donny’s life. Tyler says “the tutor had set a large number of rules… the students were not allowed to question any aspect of the school nor were they allowed to approach or speak other teachers…” (Tyler 22).
This is one of the evidences of the use of foreshadow because it shows the wrong aspects of the tutor’s character. For instance, prohibiting the students from interacting with the teachers is a clear indication that the students are likely to lead the wrong life because they fail to have more than one mentor.
Conclusion
Cal’s behavior tends to eliminate other teachers from Donny’s life. Daisy, on her part, fails to notice the problem until one of the teachers in the school informs her. The teacher explains that Donny was still getting bad grades because Cal fails to allow other teachers into his life. Donny spends a lot of time with Cal, but his problems increase significantly. This leads to Daisy’s complete loss of contact with her son. Eventually, this leads to Donny’s complete “wastage” when he runs away from his parents.
Works Cited
Tyler, Anne. Teenage Wasteland. New York: OUP, 2010. Print.