Boy's Life Analysis

Book one of Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon challenges the famous cliché: “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” McCammon instead shows readers that people more often grow up different than their parents or grandparents. The quote suggests that children grow up to be similar to and resemble those who raised them, but I think more often a child may find flaws or imperfections in the people that raise them and that might incline a child to try to grow up trying to be different than them. One example of this comes from the scene at church in which a hive of wasps entered the church through a breach in the ceiling. Instead of helping Grand Austin when his foot is stuck and the rest of the family escape, Granddaddy Jaybird fled like a coward and …show more content…
In this case, the apple wants to fall far from the tree. Another example of this is when Cory is thinking about his father when his mother accuses Tom of not wanting to visit The Lady because she is colored. Cory discusses that Tom is not a racist unlike his father. Cory thought to himself: “Dad did not hate colored people...but please remember that dad had been raised by a man who saluted the confederate flag every morning of his life. It was a terrible burden my father was carrying, because he loved Grandaddy Jaybird, but he believed in his heart, as he taught me to believe, that hating any other man--for any reason--was a sin against God” (Page 115). This shows how even if a person is extremely racist, or whatever it may be, his or her children and the people closest to him or her could grow up to be the opposite. This was the case with Granddaddy Jaybird and Tom Mackenson. Granddaddy Jaybird was known as extremely racist, but Tom Mackenson was not the same way, even though he was raised that way. These examples show how children can be different than their elders, and the apple can fall a long way from the