Teenage Wasteland

“In the past, before her children were born, Daisy had been a fourth-grade teacher. It shamed her now to sit before this principal as a parent, a delinquent parent, a parent who struck Mr. Lanham, no doubt, as unseeing or uncaring.”

Daisy personalizes Donny’s misbehavior. She sees his failure to thrive in school as casting the Coble family in a bad light. Her reaction to this situation shows that she still believes she is responsible for Donny’s behavior. In addition, this quote shows that much of her identity is tied up in mothering.

“From early October through November, at Mr. Lanham’s suggestion, Daisy checked Donny’s assignments every day. She sat next to him as he worked, trying to be encouraging, sagging inwardly as she saw the poor quality of everything he did.”

Daisy intervenes because the principal, an authority figure, tells her to intervene. Daisy frequently defers to others because she has little confidence in her own judgment. In addition, her decision to micromanage Donny’s homework shows that she practices intensive parenting. Considering that Donny stops doing the work as soon as she backs off, her actions fail to teach Donny about self-sufficiency and taking accountability for his own actions.

“Imagine, Daisy thought, how they must look to Mr. Lanham: an overweight housewife in a cotton dress and a too-tall, too-thin insurance agent with a baggy, frayed suit. Failures both of them—the kind of people who are always hurrying to catch up, missing the point of things that everyone else grasps at once. She wished she’d worn nylons instead of knee socks.”

The idea of the Cobles as shabby and not quite appropriately dressed shows that although they are middle-class, their place in the middle class feels precarious to Daisy. Daisy is articulating the Cobles’ inability to keep up with some idealized notion of the American family.