Boyhood Analysis

Eric L. Tribunella’s 2011 essay, “Boyhood” traces the development of children’s, in particular boy literature, from the inception of the word “boy” to the boy-books of the 2000s. Tribunella calls attention to the word “boy” as being originally a derogatory term for males of a lower social status (22), and how the concept of boy as subordinate to man has maintained in some capacity even as the term has shifted to describe a male child (22). He writes “to be a boy means to be a flawed, inchoate, or incomplete man” (22) and asserts that the bulk of boy-literature depicts the struggle of boy to rectify his own incompleteness, or alternatively, to disengage himself from the expectations of being a boy entirely. Meanwhile, Richard Linklater’s …show more content…
Mason Jr. uses alcohol and marijuana for recreation and in social situations, but Linklater implies his experimentation with drugs is part of his larger search for deeper meaning or completeness through the tonal treatment of his consumption; Mason never is in serious danger or puts others at risk of serious danger under the influence of drugs. Instead, Mason’s narrative involving of alcohol and drugs aligns with Tribunella’s definition of the “domestic badboy” where drugs and alcohol take the place of pirate caves and old houses, and like Tribunella’s domestic badboys, Mason Jr.’s exploits are portrayed as mischievous, but essentially harmless feats of exploration, as when he comes to his graduation party high, or when he goes hiking under the influence of edibles. Linklater presents Mason Jr.’s drug use as appropriate and expected given his age and status as a …show more content…
Yet, the varying styles, audiences, and tones of the literature examined by Tribunella and Boyhood constitute tremendously different but thematically similar products. This variance of course is symptomatic of the great breadth of boy-stories available to be told, an aspect of boy culture which the movie in particular struggles to address. In calling itself Boyhood it declares itself to be some sort of end-all be-all coming-of-age film, but fails to meaningfully address any experience outside of the straight, white, lower middle-class, male. Even when the movie does attempt to address the boyhood experience of others, it is in a fleeting and superficial manner, often through Mason’s sister. On the contrary, Tribunella highlights the how girls have historically interacted with boy-literature (25) and the variety of experiences portrayed in literature (24). Ultimately, both pieces perpetuate a certain universality of the boy experience as one of yearning for ascension to adult, but one exemplifies the necessity and ability for media to depict many varying experiences of boyhood, while one inadvertently does the same by limiting its perspective on boyhood to the most traditional