From the first moment an infant’s eyes open, their parents are influencing them. Colloquialisms, manners, identification characteristics, subconscious tendencies, can all be traced back somewhere to an encounter or example taken from the parent sometime in a life. It is when nearing adolescence that these influences begin to be questioned and analyzed. This principle is prevalent in both Geoffrey Wolff’s The Duke of Deception and Tobias Wolff’s This Boy’s Life, but only through examination of the two. The main protagonist, for the sake of this essay they will be labeled that way, in each memoir is the father figure. For Geoffrey Wolff it is his biological father, The Duke, and for Tobias Wolff it is his step father, Dwight. Both Memoir’s focus
…show more content…
At this point, it is only through speculation that an idea can be gleamed of how Geoffrey and Rosemary interacted before the separation of the family, but it is safe to say that he understood how his mother dealt with the putrid lies and slander of his father and used these strategies to his own benefit. These assumed strategies are prevalent in the comparison of Rosemary and Geoffrey. Rosemary followed the rules, both from the law and culturally, and tried to build a life for her and Tobias. Geoffrey employed these same tactics as he pursued higher education and tried to deal with his father. He accepts his fate, and whatever punishment might follow, and tries to work through it in an effort to come out on top, similar to Rosemary’s marrying of Dwight. Geoffrey accepts his father’s neglect while he is in school, and tries to work through the problems when The Duke has Geoffrey assume his debts without him knowing. Rather than taking his father’s example and lying or faking his way towards fortune, Geoffrey stands strong and works towards his goal through determination, resiliency, and an acceptance of truth. The Duke, however, tries his hardest to deny the truth, and instead manages to skew words and ideas to continue a lie down an even wider winding path. As an example, at the beginning of chapter 15, Geoffrey describes The Duke being fired from his job. “Duke didn’t tell me they fired him. He said he had quit, to begin a business, its nature unspecified, for himself” (165). While on one hand this lie could have been in an effort to preserve some form of his son’s image of his father, but on the other, it’s a continuation of how The Duke has gone about his life, especially when it comes to falsifying
At this point, it is only through speculation that an idea can be gleamed of how Geoffrey and Rosemary interacted before the separation of the family, but it is safe to say that he understood how his mother dealt with the putrid lies and slander of his father and used these strategies to his own benefit. These assumed strategies are prevalent in the comparison of Rosemary and Geoffrey. Rosemary followed the rules, both from the law and culturally, and tried to build a life for her and Tobias. Geoffrey employed these same tactics as he pursued higher education and tried to deal with his father. He accepts his fate, and whatever punishment might follow, and tries to work through it in an effort to come out on top, similar to Rosemary’s marrying of Dwight. Geoffrey accepts his father’s neglect while he is in school, and tries to work through the problems when The Duke has Geoffrey assume his debts without him knowing. Rather than taking his father’s example and lying or faking his way towards fortune, Geoffrey stands strong and works towards his goal through determination, resiliency, and an acceptance of truth. The Duke, however, tries his hardest to deny the truth, and instead manages to skew words and ideas to continue a lie down an even wider winding path. As an example, at the beginning of chapter 15, Geoffrey describes The Duke being fired from his job. “Duke didn’t tell me they fired him. He said he had quit, to begin a business, its nature unspecified, for himself” (165). While on one hand this lie could have been in an effort to preserve some form of his son’s image of his father, but on the other, it’s a continuation of how The Duke has gone about his life, especially when it comes to falsifying