The Life of This Boy - Book Report/Review Example

This Boys Life The book d ‘This boy’s life’ by Tobias Wolff was first published in the year 1989. The book practically describes the disturbing trends in the early life of Tobias while he travelled with his mother at various places of United States. His mother raised him as his parents got divorced. In the wake of their journey, his mother is linked with various men. The experience Tobias shared with the men in his mother’s life was usually violent and this provides the backdrop of the story. Toby gets into a lot of trouble in his teenage and how he comes out clean from those situations is the main theme of the story. The story brings up some instances of destructive nature of Toby and suggests some points which could have prevented Tobby from making some bad decisions in his life. Toby’s life would have become a lot better if he had discarded his self-destructive behavior. The story begins in the year 1955 with the journey of Toby and his mother to a place called Utah to earn money and change their fortune. This was also done to escape from the clutches of Roy, the violent ex-husband of Toby’s mother. Tobby’s biological father had left them after his birth and married a millionaire. This led Tobby to change his name to Jack. His mother’s name was Rosemary and due to her abusive childhood, she had a peculiar habit of getting involved with violent men. Roy was one of them. The family moved to Seattle, where Rosemary got involved with Dwight. Here begins another chapter of oppression in the life of Jack. Dwight abused Jack in every activity. He made Jack to work as a newspaper agent but took away the hard-earned money from him. The only pleasure he got out of Jack was by teaching him ways of fighting. The life of Jack did not impress him much and he wanted to fly away from the family. He imagined himself as a noble person and wrote applications describing falsely about himself to gain admission in top-level schools. Jack made many attempts to run away from the family. Jack finally got admission in an elite hill school. His mother arranged him to be stationed at a friend’s house. But here also, Jack ran into trouble as he stole from his friend’s neighbor’s house. He did not apologize for the theft and this angered the family of his friend. He faced turmoil over his friend’s alleged rape of a girl. His friend was directed by the sheriff but later he came out of the trouble. Before joining the school, Jack went to meet his father who went on a vacation with his girlfriend. After joining school, he failed to make the grade and was eventually turned out. He joined the national army and served in Vietnam. The backbone of the story is how Jack overcomes the pains of his troubled past and emerges as a winner. A more detailed analysis explains that Jack always thought of himself as an unworthy boy. His feelings of guilt are widely documented in the book. He always wanted to be well-educated noble boy wanted to be the cynosure of the eyes of the people he loved. This can be known from his feeling of guilt when Sister James caught him shooting an arrow. He says: “I was subject to fits of feeling myself unworthy, somehow deeply at fault. It didn’t take much to bring this sensation to life, along with the certainty that everybody but my mother saw through me and did not like what they saw.” (Wolf, 11) Thus Jack was engulfed in fantasies about himself. These fantasies provided comfort in his unstable life. He disliked his estranged father and wanted to move away from his father as far as possible. He wanted to be brave, honest and noble. He idolized the qualities of Jack London and changed his name to Jack. In his words: “I wanted to call myself Jack, after Jack London. I believe that having his name would charge me with some of the strengths and competence inherent in my idea of him.” (Wolf, 8) That he was comforted by the image of his fantasized self was evident from the letters he wrote to his pen friend Alice. He projected himself as a well-educated noble boy. He disliked his present self as is evident from the following quote: "Because I did not know who I was, any image of myself, no matter how grotesque, had power over me." (Wolf, 27) Before Jack and his mother Rosemary decided to leave Utah and Roy, Jack had performed a self-destructive move by stealing a rifle from Roy’s house and he recalls, “I went to the closet and saw it there with Roy’s things, his boots and jackets and ammo boxes. I carried the rifle to the living room and waited for my mother to come back.” (Wolf, 31) Another instance of Jack’s self-destructive behavior is brought out in the open when he steals from his mother’s purse. His mother catches him and sends him to the church to confess. His words underline the guilt and strength of character he possesses: “I steal money, Father. From my mother’s purse when she’s in the shower.” (Wolf, 21) The guilt and pain Jack felt drove him to do such things, which can be termed as self-destructive. There are many other incidents, which underline Jack’s self-destructive behavior. In Seattle, jack joins a group of boys who would indulge in antisocial activities like stealing and robbery. When Dwight became Rosemary’s husband, Jack enrolled in Boys scout. There he had a fight with Arthur. He concealed the real character of Dwight from his mother, which led the whole family into further trouble. He is so troubled by Dwight that Jack fantasized about killing him. He saved money so that he can run away from the family. Once he was conned of all the money he saved by a group of persons in the carnival. Jack got involved with bad company in school. He regularly started to get drunk. One night he meets with a near fatal accident and lost consciousness. When called by his brother at Princeton, he decided to forge a cheque. He escapes but is caught again. At the house of Howards, he is involved in the theft of gasoline from their neighbor’s house. Therefore, the story underlines the cruelties of life Jack faces in his life due to his troubled past. He is subject to abuse both, mentally and physically which drives him to indulge in self-destructive behavior. These behaviors stemmed from the mistakes performed in innocence of youth. Perhaps it was driven from the troubled relationships of his mother with his biological father and her subsequent partners. Thus his actions and psychological set up was partly due to the circumstances in his life. Jack did not receive love from his father or the other people who came into his mother’s life. Moreover, he was tortured by them, which led Jack to believe that he was not being loved and fantasized himself as a noble person loved by all. If his mother had remained single after the first marriage did not work out then Toby’s life would have been better perhaps. Moreover, his mother could have rectified the mistakes performed by Jack early in his life. In fact, his mother supported him in some cases. In one instance, after he was caught by the school principal for wrong doing, his mother argued and established that Jack was not guilty. All these wrong guidance and unfavorable circumstances compelled Toby towards his destructive behaviors. Reference: 1. Wolff, Tobias. This Boy’s Life: A Memoir, Grove Press, 2000. Read More