Teenage Wasteland Essay Research Paper The book — страница 2

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truth behind these deaths. When Gaines got to the town, she did a little research of what the media had to say and what the town was like. The first time period she was there, she drove around the town, finding the kids of this ?burn-out? generation and observing how similar they were to any other teens in other towns. Gaines talks about some history behind the four teens that killed themselves and what they were going through in the time period before that. All of them were close to a young man that died one night hanging out by the cliffs. He was having a going away part when he walked close to the edge of the cliffs and slipped to his death. The two girls were especially close being that one was his girlfriend and the other was her sister. The other two boys she says were not

that down on their luck to the eye?s of the public. Most people didn?t actually know what they were going through at that time with family problems and jobs, school, and other problems, too many to deal with for most people. There was never a mention of drug or alcohol abuse being a main reason to want to kill themselves. They all had futures planned and were working hard, no matter what type of future they were looking at. Gaines gets into the lives of the towns teens. She gets to hang out with them and become one of them. What seems to happen is that she becomes the best of friends with all the guys and close with some girls, but not so specially. She even says it’s hard to get close with a group of girls, they don?t make friends too easily. The guys she really got in tight

with and got to know pretty well, or so she made it seem. This was a good way to find out how these teens survived and lived their lives every day. She got to know what went on between some kids and what was going on in their home lives and schools. This makes one of the most valid ways to do research about a situation like this. What was wrong with this was that she never stepped on the other side of the fence and saw it from the parents point of view. Maybe some things they said were wrong, but they still knew what the kids did to an extent and labeled them somewhat correctly by calling them ?burn-outs.? She also didn?t become one of them. She wasn?t a teen that lived there all of her life no matter what she did to fit in. She wasn?t exactly that close with the girls and who

knows what they said about her behind her back and to the others. There were things that might have not been noticed by Gaines when she was there. The teens that committed suicide were deemed as ?burn-outs? and social misfits. The truth behind this is that they were those things, but that shouldn?t make anyone suicidal in the least bit. They liked to party and did nothing all the time that they were seen, but no one can label them as destined to die. Who were these people that I keep referring to as the labelers? The parents, media, school representatives, the good kids, and anyone else not named that have any voice in the society but the ?burn-outs.? But who were to blame for the suicides? Parents blamed drugs, schools blamed parents, media blamed everyone. Gaines? reasons were

all of them. The school had it’s toll by letting the kids slip out of the system and not offering clear help. Up to the suicides, no one ever knew there was a school sociologist. The media after the suicides nearly harassed the other teens trying to cope with the situation. They asked upsetting and labeling questions to other teens. When not treated respectfully such as being trashed with eggs and such, they started to create faulty ideas about the kids in this town. They never thought asking such deep questions could trigger such horrific emotions. Gaines describes the town of Bergenfield as much different from her home suburbia of Levittown and most other normal suburbs. ?Bergenfield simply has this horribly oppressive geography that makes it different….It is just too

f@#$ing close…. The town just moves in on you. After a while, it is suffocating you.? This is a very important quote. No one in the town seems to talk about this but the kids. She is seeing life in Bergenfield from the kids perspective. The families in the town have been there for generation after generation. Everyone knows everything about everyone. Her friend once tried to open a store there and was driven out by the people of the town. They do not easily accept new people and ideas. There is basically one religion, one race (for the most part), and one life dream. If something is out of whack, blame is automatically taken off of everyone and put onto different things. The town is basically a bubble and is nearly impossible to break free. She states that unless you have a car