In Reply to: The Prodigal posted by Mr. Don on April 25, 2006 at 18:48:11:
I'm all for contemporary versions of the parables, but this one bothers me a little bit.
Healthy, socially well-adjusted teenage girls don't run away from home, prostitute themselves, get into street drugs, and end up living on the streets. The girls who do this come from very troubled homes, and they usually have an extensive history of abuse and/or abandonment.
Normal adolescents will rebel against old-fashioned parents and wear short skirts. They may even go as far as wearing nose-rings, or screaming "I hate you" at their parents. None of that has much to do with the real reasons a runaway girl would end up turning tricks, doing hard-core drugs, becoming addicted, and living on the streets.
There's volumes of social science research on this population (street kids, prostitutes, drug addicts) that tells us that these aren't just any kid growing up in any home in the USA. There's this myth out there, though, that any naive, mixed-up kid from any family can fall into this extreme kind of trouble. It's just not true. It seems to me that this contemporary parable is based on the myth of the country girl who is bedazzled and seduced by the lights of the big city and high-rollers. That myth, which was popular at the turn of the century, is a Victorian morality tale that doesn't hold much water in an age of cable television and the internet. Kids today know all about drugs, pimps, and prostitution. This isn't a lifestyle they naively fall into after making a bad choice like running away and taking a ride with a stranger.
Maybe you relate to this story because you see yourself as the young person who made similar kinds of bad choices, but ask yourself two things: Was your own troubled adolescence this extreme in its lawlessness? Also, do you suppose that adolescent girls who act out in such an extreme manner may have something very different going on in their lives than adolescent boys who rebel by doing drugs, staying out all night, and engaging in promiscuous sex?
Given what I know about real, living, breathing street kids (I've worked with them in runaway shelters) it's hard for me to believe this character when she says: Dad, it's all my fault. I've never met a kid in a runaway shelter than had an apple-pie family.
Under the best of circumstances, I can believe her saying something like, Dad, Some really bad things happened to me while I was growing up, but I'm done with running away from it. I'm ready to take responsibility for my life and change the way I've been living. Will you be there for me if I decide to come home?