This Boy's Life By Tobias Wolff Analysis

A clean slate, a blank canvas, a fresh start: these are what define a new beginning. In the memoir This Boy’s Life, many characters struggle to begin anew, and will sacrifice parts of themselves to attain the fresh start they desire. Through the retelling of key moments in his childhood, Tobias Wolff develops the theme of new beginnings through the use of symbols, motifs, and anecdotes. The symbol of the dying salmon that is presented in the section “Uncool” is used to evolve the theme of new beginnings, and signify Tobias and Rosemary’s new life that awaits them in Chinook. Just how the fish “had come all the way from the ocean to spawn here, […] and then they would die”, parallels the parts of Tobias and Rosemary that will die as well as they make their journey to create a new life (75). Not only will parts of Tobias and Rosemary perish, but they’ll also have to brave the cruelness and instability that living with Dwight presents. Dwight displays his vindictive and erratic side when he drives extremely fast and drunk, purposely hits the beaver, threatens Rosemary with a knife, and when “he grabbed [Tobias] by the hair and shoved [his] face back down toward the jar” because the …show more content…
At the very start of the memoir, Tobias tells the story of his and his mother’s travel “from Florida to Utah, to get away from a man [his] mother was afraid of and to get rich on uranium” (4). This signifies the want they both have to start fresh and the beginning of their quest to start over. Likewise, Rosemary wants to turn her and her son’s life around because after living with an abusive man for many years, she feels the need to make up for lost time. Both Tobias and Rosemary believe that Utah will provide them with plentiful opportunities to get rich and ameliorate their lives. They travel a far distance, never looking back, with only the prospect of starting a new life ahead of