This Boy’s Life, Tobias Wolff
Set in the post-World-War Two era, in the mid 1950s, the central character Toby and his mother leave Sarasota, Florida for Utah with the eager and ambitious plans to become economically prosperous, on uranium. Toby changes his Christian name to Jack, after Jack London as he feels it will charge him with “strength and competence,” and these acts are done also out of spite and betrayal to his father, as they were abandoned.
He feels unworthy of his life and feels too engrossed in his fantasies and unable to fit into the real world, and he is unable to shake this feeling. Jack feels overly protective of his mother Rosemary, due to her past experiences with violent and volatile men. The two of them share a close bond as they have stuck together through thick and through thin and through these times of abuse and difficulty. They have to deal with the second husband of Rosemary, and also the step-father of Jack, Roy, who follows them both across America from Florida to Utah. Although Jack and Roy …show more content…
Dwight’s abuse and Jack’s unhappiness in Chinook amplify the situation as Jack seeks to leave Chinook to run away, to become a new individual. He wants to create his own sense of living, to become someone that earns respect and who is respected for whom he is rather than just an ordinary person, lacking respect and dignity in his life. His fear of fighting and shyness with girls continue to exist however not in his imagination and fantasy, as he tries to build his own reality in his mind. He tries to portray himself as someone that he not really is, an “A-student”, “star athlete” and as a honourable and respected young man. He has no trouble converting lies into truth, however his portrayal in society is seen as dangerous, and as a delinquent as he gets into trouble easily. He never really succeeds in making a reality of his ambitions and
Set in the post-World-War Two era, in the mid 1950s, the central character Toby and his mother leave Sarasota, Florida for Utah with the eager and ambitious plans to become economically prosperous, on uranium. Toby changes his Christian name to Jack, after Jack London as he feels it will charge him with “strength and competence,” and these acts are done also out of spite and betrayal to his father, as they were abandoned.
He feels unworthy of his life and feels too engrossed in his fantasies and unable to fit into the real world, and he is unable to shake this feeling. Jack feels overly protective of his mother Rosemary, due to her past experiences with violent and volatile men. The two of them share a close bond as they have stuck together through thick and through thin and through these times of abuse and difficulty. They have to deal with the second husband of Rosemary, and also the step-father of Jack, Roy, who follows them both across America from Florida to Utah. Although Jack and Roy …show more content…
Dwight’s abuse and Jack’s unhappiness in Chinook amplify the situation as Jack seeks to leave Chinook to run away, to become a new individual. He wants to create his own sense of living, to become someone that earns respect and who is respected for whom he is rather than just an ordinary person, lacking respect and dignity in his life. His fear of fighting and shyness with girls continue to exist however not in his imagination and fantasy, as he tries to build his own reality in his mind. He tries to portray himself as someone that he not really is, an “A-student”, “star athlete” and as a honourable and respected young man. He has no trouble converting lies into truth, however his portrayal in society is seen as dangerous, and as a delinquent as he gets into trouble easily. He never really succeeds in making a reality of his ambitions and