Teenage Wasteland..

After reading the excerpt taken from Teenage Wasteland Suburbia’s Dead-End Kids written by Donna Gaines I am not sure exactly how to feel about her writing. At first I thought that this excerpt started off strong in the sense that she was Gaines was making keen observations such as “...The suicide pact in Bergenfield seemed to be a symptom of something larger, a metaphor for something more universal.” As well as asking important questions such as “What was the nature of the social bond that tied them so closely?” leading her to delve deeper into the situation she was reporting.  But then she would make statements that I felt was contradictory of her own feelings. For example, later in the excerpt she states that “Never the less, everyone pretends that everything is possible if you give it your best shot. We actually believe it.” Maybe in a way she was being empathetic towards the kids that had chosen to end their lives but I felt that her statement came across as sarcastic and almost unsympathetic in a way. Why would we as a society or even on a personal level set out to accomplish anything since we’re only pretending that goals are possible to achieve? 

I’d like to feel that there is more to her writing that I maybe didn’t grasp on my own but I couldn’t help but feel that some of her observations completely strayed from the topic. There were times while reading that I would forget or not quite understand what the point she was trying to make was. For example, when discussing in the scheme of how things really are she states “Girls get slightly different choices. They may hope to become spectacular by virtue of their talents and their beauty.” I felt that she wasn’t really explaining much but just making an observation.  Her unveiling of the reason as to “Why did they do it?” was also disappointing, I felt. Her response to such a question after conducting her extensive research was “They had bad lives.” Which, yes, I can agree with her on that point since it was expressed that the kids had terrible issues that they were dealing with at home and the fact they had also lost a friend a few months prior. In conclusion, I feel that she wasn’t able to answer her own question that she had initially sought out to answer through conducting her research.  

Maybe I am missing her point?  … What do you think?