Misunderstood By Rachel Liu: What Goes On Inside Of A Teenager's Head

Do adults ever wonder what goes on inside of a teenager’s head? Well, in the poem “Misunderstood” by Rachel Liu it talks about what teenagers feel and think about on a daily basis. Teens these days tend to act out to be cool or to hide their real feelings so people won’t think they are weak. Most of the figurative language used in the poem is used to enhance the emotion and thoughts running through teenagers heads. Adults these days don’t really have an understanding of why teens actthe way they do and because of that kids cannot talk to adults about how he or she feels and what they are going through internally. Kids become more desensitized to the world because they think that no one can help them or care for them. Kids become numb to everything in the world and think that there’s nothing else for them so they act out which adults do not understand making them feel misunderstood.

The figurative language in the poem is being used to compare teenagers in school to headless chickens because the kids seem like they are just wandering around the halls acting out and running around trying to feel like they exist. Teens sometimes think they are invisible in school making them crave for attention which causes them to act out in the halls causing trouble. In this generation, teens are expected to look and act a certain way. “Big bad insecurity monster” is personificationused to express that teens always have insecurities that they wish they could change but they can’t. Teens feel like he or she has this pressure or obligation for being perfect which creates a feeling of being an outcast. “We act out to drown our feelings” symbolizes teenagers these days hiding their feelings from people because they feel that it is a sign of weakness. Kids who have had a rough childhood have a tendency to hide their feelings since they are afraid of the outcome if someone findsout about their feelings. Kids feeling “Like they’re in prison” when they are in school is a simile being used to describe how much they dislike being in school. A school is a place where teens feel like they do not fit in or they are constantly bullied for the way they act or look.

Misunderstood, do not understand or grasp what is being interpreted. All young adults feel this way, they all feel like nobody can comprehend what he or she's going through. Adults nowadays do not take the time to understand what a teen is going through mentally and because of that teens constantly get in trouble for acting out. Constantly, being yelled at by a more superior person can make the youth feel more obligated to act out so that they superior will get more aggravated. Also, whenteensto express their feelings to an adult they try to act like it’s not important. To help the reader comprehend, the adult will tell the teen to go to therapy to relieve themselves of their stress, or they will tell them that other people have this issue too and that they are just trying to get attention. The more young adults feel neglected and misunderstood the faster he or she will fall into bad habits that they will get in trouble for which brings them back to square one.