Friedenberg casts the adolescent in the role of Don Quixote:

          The process of becoming an American, as it goes on 
     in high school, tends to be a process of renunciation of 
     differences. This conflicts directly, of course, with the 
     adolescent need for self-definition; but the conflict is so 
     masked in institutionalized gaiety that the adolescent 
     himself usually does not become aware of it. He must still 
     deal with the alienation it engenders. He may do this by 
     marginal differentiation, like Riesman’s glad-handing boy 
     with the special greeting style. He may do it by erupting 
     into bouts of occasionally violent silliness, which does not 
     make him seem queer to other people because it is 
     unconsciously recognized as a form of self-abnegation 
     rather than self-assertion, and is not, therefore, 
     threatening. He may, if he has sufficient ego-strength,