The Rise And Fall Of The American Teenager (1-54)

Summary

    So far from what I read in The Rise And Fall Of The American Teenager by Thomas Hine , the author is trying to explain and find out himself as to why teenagers are the way they are and go through what they go through. In the chapters I read, Thomas describes adolescence first as something that everyone has to go through and can not be changed as a part of growing up. However, later he describes it using some of the very different ways certain societies practice a time where teenager or a child reaches social or physical maturity that allows them to be ready for the world they would have to face as an adult. However, Thomas also says that the idea of a "teenager" was made up by society. At the beginning Thomas also describes teenagers as being such a mystery as to what they think and do because of their crazy behaviors. As when he talks about teenagers getting pregnant and killing their new born and also how he talks about kids being in gangs and killing others. From what I've read so far Thomas is giving different reasons in explanations as to what a teenager is , why they act the way they do and what causes it. What I found interesting was how Thomas uses other coming of age books though fiction, to help describe teenagers, one of the books being Catcher In The Rye which was my second Roar book.

Quote: "The teenager is a symbol of American's aspirations, the repository of hopes, the one who will realize the American dream. And inevitably, the teenager is a disappointment, whose combination of adult capacities and juvenile irresponsibility sows personal heartbreak and social chaos." ( Hines 8)

Reaction: When I was reading this quote in the introduction of this book, i stopped and realize how true I believed this was. Society as a whole has to views on teenagers one as a positive and the other as a negative. Our society has such high hopes for teenagers in becoming the future however, at the same time they view them negatively as sometimes expecting them to do nothing but, wrong doing.