Parents and teenagers have different opinions on a teenager’s life amongst their peers inflicting struggles in their relationship. Evidently, the book the Catcher in the Rye displays this differentiation of desires between a character named Holden and his parents. In the movie 10 things I hate about you Bianca struggles with her dad’s distrust, and Enid from Ghost world gets to much freedom from her dad that allows her to be herself; but makes the wrong decisions. It is known that the amount of understanding and support given to a teenager by their parent affects their personality and their behavior.Teens with more moral support from their parents tend to be happier than those who don’t.
Parents and teens frequently differ in their ideas about acceptable behavior. These disputes create social obstacles amongst peers, avoidance of each other, and teenage frustration. Parent’s desires for their children make it harder for teens to be acceptable amongst their peers. Holden’s parents are not willing to accept that he does not want to be part of a “preppy” high school.
He states that, “ Practically the whole school except me was there and scrawny and faggy”(5).By sending him to a school where he doesn’t seem to fit in, it makes it harder for him to find common interests amongst peers. Bianca’s father is against her going to parties and dating boys unless her older sister Kat is too. This makes it more complicated for Bianca to keep up with her popular image, since she is expected to go to parties and date boys.
Alertly Enid’s Father generally doesn’t care enough about her life and decisions; therefore the lack of attention changed her outlook on life.This made Enid make wrong decisions causing her to become more socially awkward and less acceptable amongst her peers. Parents’ restrictions or carelessness make teenagers become less acceptable by their peers, resulting into a worsened relationship between their parents. The divergences between parents and teenagers cause teens to avoid their parents. Holden’s parents don’t accept his view on life, and his behavior but Holden suggests, “it isn’t all true”(13), not all of his actions define his personality.
Furthermore, since he got kicked out of school he has been avoiding his parents excessively. According to him, “they’ll be pretty irritated about it”(13), and won’t be able to accept his reasons for his behavior at school. Bianca’s father worries too much about her going wild like a majority of young high school girls, and getting pregnant. This offends Bianca since she doesn’t enjoy being constantly compared to the other girls when she is not like them; this causes her to become distant from her father.On the other hand Enid has no disagreements with her dad, other than her hating on his girlfriend.
However, her dad’s carelessness causes her to go wrong directions making her want to avoid him, since he doesn’t offer her the guidance she needs. Generally, divergences between parents and teenagers causes teens to become frustrated The drama between parents and teenagers cause frustration and anger. Holden’s depression makes it harder for him to look at his surroundings in a brighter way. His depression resulted from a lack of attention and understanding from his parent’s part.
His source of support is his dead brother instead of his parents, “I started talking to Allie. I do that when I sometime get very depressed” (129). Bianca’s father is against almost everything that makes her socially acceptable amongst her peers. She became frustrated because her father kept comparing her to pregnant teen girls, and all his restrictions can cause her to get rejected by the high school society.
Enid has no disputes with her father allowing her to be herself and avoid frustration regarding that.However, she still has difficulty with finding her place in life, which makes her make wrong decisions and become frustrated with herself. For example, she can’t even handle a normal job at the cinema because she doesn’t know how to communicate with normal people. Generally, conflicts and ignorance between teenagers and parents create obstacles in a teenager’s life. Generally, a connection is evident that a parent’s understanding of their child affects the child’s behavior. Usually a parents desire for their own child completely differs from what the children actually want.
However, it is often apparent that parents are just trying to protect their child and want a better life for them. Even though most parents have best intentions, these divergences between parents and teens cause avoidance that allow them to drift apart from each other. Later making it easier for fights to occur making both the parents and the child frustrated. These arguments make it harder for teens to get along with their peers, causes them to avoid their parents, and become frustrated.
