The Millennial Generation in One Character: Analyzing Quinton in Rumble Young Man Rumble

Millennials are members of a generation that comprises individuals that were born as from 1978 to 2004. The individuals in this demographic group grew up in a world that was networked by the internet. The generation has been getting the highest attention from marketers. Most of the millennials are confident because they were brought up according to the mantra of following your dreams. Their confidence has spilled over to narcissism and entitlement realms. Their optimism regarding the future is higher than that of other generations. The millennials have unrealistic expectations, and this leads to their disillusion (Weinbaum 79).

What is more, most of the millennials have gone through the postsecondary education but they are underemployed, and they work in fields that are not related to their qualifications. Furthermore, the millennials grew in a technological world hence most of them are tech-savvy. The media depicts the millennial and selfie –lovers, lazy and narcissistic (Weinbaum 79). West’s Rumble Young Man Rumble explores the characteristics of the millennials through the life of Quinton. Quinton is an archetypal millennial because he is narcissistic, he lacks skills, and he lacks conflict solving skills.

In standard millennial form, Quinton is narcissistic because he is only concerned about himself. For example, in the second chapter, Quinton brings out his narcissistic attitude when he stands idly as the lives of two kids are endangered. He laughs when the children almost drown, and he does not seem to be touched by the incident. It means that he is not concerned about the lives of the children, but rather he is only concerned with the money he receives after doing his work at the childcare. He depicts the attitude of “Generation Me’ when he states that he is not interested in saving other people (Zuniga-West 16).

Quinton is self –obsessed as the other millennials because he loses compassion towards other people and embraces the every-man for himself attitude (Zuniga-West 17). Similarly, Donatone points out the millennials are overly concerned about themselves because they are narcissistic. Most of the Millennials think highly of themselves, but they cannot solve the problems and conflicts that they face in their lives amicably. Furthermore, they cannot think well of themselves (Donatone). Donatone gives an example of Amy to elaborate on the narcissistic tendencies that are common in the millennials.

Amy insists on pursuing her studies to the Ph.D. level even though she does not have any idea of how she will utilize the Ph.D. Amy simply wants to be seen as the highest academic achiever among her peers, and this makes her obsessed with pursuing her Ph.D. studies. Additionally, Donatone points out that the narcissistic tendencies that are observed in the millennials are those that are observed among the fourteen-year-olds and chances are there that they can manage to overcome the narcissism once they attain the age of thirty (Donatone). The millennials cannot exercise objective thinking because they are only concerned about themselves. Accordingly, in the light of the examples and explanations provided by Donatone, Quinton is a perfect representation of the millennials because of his narcissistic tendencies.

Quinton lacks the skills for dealing with the conflicts in his life. For example, instead of confronting his emotions he resolves to media in a bid to distract himself. Quinton does not sleep, and he addicted to the movies. He watches the movies excessively, and he cannot fall asleep before watching the movies (Zuniga-West 2). Quinton is scared of his emotions hence he cannot handle them. He hides the emotions be watching movies excessively. Furthermore, his obsession with movies confirms that he is a millennial because the millennials love technology gadgets because they grew with it.

The media and technology are part and parcel of the lives of the millennials, and they utilize them to hide their problems. The media is a social haven for the millennials and Quinton is not an exception. Additionally, Quinton’s inability to handle challenges and conflicts in his life is evident when he starts following the ideology of Stoicism. This ideology holds that the expression of emotions should be an internal and private matter. In a conversation with Hunter, he tells him that “Okay, I wanna tell you something I learned about crying, you gotta save your tears for when you need them" (Zuniga-West 152).

Quinton encourages his friend to hide his emotions even if it means suffering. Quinton embraces the ideology of Stoicism to hide from the challenges he is facing in his life and the ideology encourages him to depend on alcohol as a way of letting out his emotions, and he is hurt deeply in the process. Similarly, Donatone posits that the millennials do not have the conflict solving skills because they are trapped by the desire for instant gratification. To elaborate, Donatone asserts that Millennials do not have the frustration to tolerance because they are only concerned with instant gratification. The millennials look for instant gratification a bid to deal with the upsetting situations in their lives (Donatone).

Here, Quinton looks for pleasure by indulging in alcoholism. Quinton's excess alcoholism confirms that millennials cannot handle the challenges that upset their lives easier because they are only concerned with being gratified instantly. Consequently, they cannot control negative things in their lives such as the loss of loved ones. For example, when Quinton loses his grandfather he withdraws from the world. The inability to handle problems frustrates the millennials and makes them sad (Donatone). Furthermore, it limits their tolerance to frustration and makes them susceptible to coming suicide. Quinton indulges into alcoholism because he cannot deal with his problems. His tolerance to frustration is limited hence he is a typical millennial.

Moreover, Quinton lacks marketing skills despite the fact that he has high-level education in the field. Even though Quinton has a degree in Philosophy, he only gets a job at the YMCA (Zuniga-West 8). Later a machine was acquired to do Quinton's job, and instead of firing him, they gave him a job that dealt with childcare. It means that the degree in Philosophy cannot help him to get a job in the fields of Science, Technology, Math, and Engineering. The number of millennials that have degrees in the fields of arts and humanities is higher than the number that has degrees in the fields of Science.

The degrees in arts and humanities offer limited educational training hence it does not equip the millennials with skills. Fisher explains that the American millennials are lowly skilled. To elaborate, she cites a report conducted by Educational Testing Service to assess the skills of the millennials. According to the report, the Millennials in the US lack the basic literacy skills in practical math and the ability to follow basic instructions (Fisher). The low scores on the numeracy tests imply that the millennials lack the skills of applying the basic math in the daily situations.

The low scores of the millennials imply that the Human resource managers should not overestimate the value that they are likely to get from millennials that have gone through the four-year degree (Fisher). Consequently, a degree is not sufficient to gauge the skills of a millennial hence it is crucial to assess whether a millennial that is proficient in English can handle the workday math. Accordingly, Quinton is typical millennial because he pursues a degree in Philosophy that falls under humanities just like many other millennial that opt for the humanity related fields and thus he lacks the skills that can enable him to work in the technology-rich work environments.

West’s Rumble Young Man Rumble brings out the main characteristics of the millennials through Quinton. Quinton is narcissistic, is not skilled, and cannot handle conflicts in his life; he is self-obsessed because he is only concerned about himself. He does not care about the lives of the children who almost drown. He is not interested in the safety of the kids, and this shows that he has the attitude of "Generation me' that is depicted by the millennials. Quinton has many challenges in his life, and he seeks solace in alcoholism. Furthermore, he uses movies in a bid to hide from his emotions.

This confirms that he is a typical millennial because he cannot solve conflicts in his life. His addiction to the media proves that he is a millennial because the millennials use technology and media as their social havens. The millennials grew up in a world of technology hence technology is an integral component of their lives. Despite the fact that Quinton has a degree in Philosophy he cannot find a job that deals with technology because the degree has not equipped him with the necessary skills. He ends working at a childcare because of his limited abilities.

The millennials should be encouraged to pursue studies in science, technology, mathematics, and engineering because they are overcrowded in the arts and humanities. The millennials can get their dream jobs if they have the required skills. Furthermore, the Millennials should be encouraged to reduce their narcissistic tenderize because they hinder them from solving conflicts and they reduce their tolerance to frustration. More importantly, it is crucial to introduce courses in conflict management to redeem the millennials from their self-destruction tendencies.

Works Cited

1. Anne, Fisher “American Millennials are among the world’s least skilled” Fortune Magazine. N.P., 2017. Web. 22 Jan. 2017.
2. Dante Zuniga-West. Rumble Young Man Rumble. (2014). The Zharmae Publishing press LLC
3. Donatone, Brooke. "What’s wrong with Millennials? My Psychotherapy Clients Can’t Fend For Themselves.". Slate Magazine. N.P., 2017. Web.22 Jan. 2017.
4. Weinbaum, Cortney, Rich S. Girven, and Jenny Oberholtzer. "The Millennial Generation." (2016).