Tobias Wolff Analysis

Tobias Wolff, at the tender age of 7, and his mother, Rosaline, are on the run from an abusive relationship. His natural father is rich but has wartime issues so his Mom and Dad are divorced and they have been left to fend for themselves with next to nothing. Leaving Florida and running from the abusive man named Roy, they search for fortune through a large part of the mid-west. They wind up in Salt Lake City where Roy finds them again and re engages his abuses as a restless whiner, “He would follow my mother from room to room, emitting one ceaseless note of complaint that was pitched perfectly to jelly her nerves and bring her to a state where she would agree to anything to make it stop.” (p. 24) Tobias, at this point known as Jack, starts engaging in …show more content…
Meeting two ladies in Seattle who split the rent while Rosaline finds work as a secretary, Jack’s delinquency grows as he steals and vandalizes. One of the ladies tries to find a suitor for Rosaline and ends up introducing her to Dwight. While Jack originally is opposed to the idea of a marriage between the strange mechanic and his mother he goes to live with Dwight for a little to make sure. He moves to Chinook, an old converted POW camp up in the mountains. Dwight sets Jack to work giving him boxes of chestnuts to shuck by hand, a paper route, and enrolls him in boy scouts, Jack hates it all. Despite Jack and Dwight despising each other between threats from Dwight and his own search for someone to save him, he ends up agreeing to the marriage. Dwight and Rosaline are wed within a few months of meeting and she moves to Chinook. After moving, it’s clear that Dwight is also very abusive, however, Rosaline has lost her will to run again. Jack continues his descent into delinquency which pushes Dwight to hate him even more. Jack falls for his step sister and tries to befriend his step brother, both of whom disregard