ESSAY TOPICS
- “I had my own dreams of transformation”. The reader feels that T and his mother are never going to be able to improve their lives. Do you agree?
- It is not only about hardship; it is also about determination and resourcefulness
- JACK is both repelled by and attracted to violence. What role does violence play in Wolff’s memoir”
- In his autobiographical memoir, This Boy’s Life, Toby Wolff portrays a boy who is aggressive, reckless. It is about a school boy who has no redeeming features. Discuss.
TOBIAS Wolff : Views and values, key statements
- In This Boy’s Life, most of the male figures lack a “robust sense of identity”
- Wolff suggests that many struggle with an image of the robust, sturdy masculine war hero that contradicts their own emotional situation.
- Wolff suggests that many of the father figures become obsessed with guns because it gives them a false sense of superiority and confidence.
- In this regard, the sense of power they derive from their ownership or obsession of guns covers up their feelings of inadequacy.
- Roy and Dwight gain a sense of “false” power through humiliating and degrading Toby, and
- Wolff suggests that they falsely derive a sense of power through making others fearful (21)
- Many of the father figures are emotionally dysfunctional/damaged or suffer from a feeling of alienation or insecurity.
- Wolff suggests that the women struggle to express themselves and find voice.
- Wolff presents a young boy who struggles with his sense of self and feels the “poverty of his identity”. He constantly hankers for approval.
- Rosemary is silent because she too becomes a victim of the image of the strong and masculine role model.
- Wolff suggests that he is also repulsed by violence because he has firsthand experience of the misuse of power and the damage it wreaks.
- Wolff presents a young boy who is confused about his identity. There are glimpses of who he could be , who he should be and who he would want to be, but Toby is always withdrawing and trampling on his opportunities because of a sense of fear.
- So fragile is Toby, that he not only fears that he might be discovered (Sister James and Marion), but he also doubly feels that he may be mocked in his attempts to be taken seriously
- As a result, he prefers to live in a state of denial so that he does not have to confront his worst fears and his fear of rejection.
CHARACTERS, CLOSE PASSAGE ANALYSIS AND QUOTES
Father figures: a series of wounded soldiers
Toby’s sense of self is influenced by a string of negative father figures who make him feel inferior and inadequate. His father, despite being wealthy, refuses to give Toby’s mother any money even for child support. Nor does he write to Toby or wish to have any contact with him. Nevertheless, there is a sense that he is idolized throughout his child – a myth that is deflated when he finally lives with his father, just prior to his committal to a mental asylum.
In this instance, Toby finds himself at the mercy of the predatory behaviour of one of his father’s friends.
At one time, his father tries to recreate their lost family by inviting Toby to La Jolla. Geoffrey would join them from Princeton and later the mother. “We would be a family again.” (178). Suspiciously, the mother contends, “don’t bank on it”.
(narrative devices) Symbolism: The car careening out of control becomes a feature of Toby’s escapades, symbolizing the recklessness of his own life as well as the lack of power he has over circumstances that shape his fate. For example, later Toby will recall his terrible ordeals with Dwight as he drives recklessly on the mountain after his drinking episodes. Dwight seizes upon Toby’s sense of fear to humiliate and terrify him. It is in the car, as well, that Dwight intimidates and imprisons Rosemary; drunk, he pulls out “his hunting knife from under the seat and held it to her throat. He kept her there for hours like that, making her beg for her life, making her promise that she would never leave him. If she left him, he said, he would find her and kill her.” (174) Reflecting upon their eventual escape from Dwight, Toby notices how they become “ourselves again” – “restless, scheming, poised for flight” (221).
A string of unstable surrogate father figures play a game of “father and son”.
Rather than build his confidence and help him find his place in the world, the step-fathers humiliate and traumatise him.
Literally, a wounded soldier, Roy becomes one of the first negative surrogate father models that reinforce Toby’s sense of lack. Like all negative father figures in the novel, Roy is emotionally dysfunctional. His strangeness soon becomes “ordinary”. There are many dinners when they “didn’t talk” (14)
Roy plays a game of control with Rosemary; manipulating her, following her and holding her to constant account (14). Paranoid, he queries her when she leaves work earlier than usual (14). There is no sense of home; rather an overriding sense of loneliness (11). Roy, too, tries to recreate himself as the heroic soldier despite his disability. The tattoo was “full of heroic implication” (11). Toby is constantly yearning for a sense of home, as he wanders the neighbourhood tapping on doors and sitting on their steps, playing with their dogs (10).
Symbolism of the game (sense of being unworthy) : Playing the game of archery in the school and throwing around the arrows there is a sense that the rules are being broken (9) which symbolically set the pattern of Toby’s rebellious childhood. The tacit, underlying, hidden motive of the game was to “bring somebody down”. It is a game of vengeance and power; the aim is to hurt others before one is hurt. “Among the trees I achieved absolute vacancy of mind”. “I had no thought of hurting others of getting hurt”; it is a convenient means of escape (9) — all to hide a gnawing sense of unworthiness. He has a sense that “everyone but my mother saw through me and did not like what they saw” (10). He had hoped that he had left it behind in Florida, but the sense of unworthiness constantly dogs him, making him feel furtive around those, like Sister James, whom he believes sense his problems (10).
The fathers, and in particularly, Dwight physically and psychologically abuse him to such an extent that he suffers develops poor self-esteem and sees himself as a failure.
Quotes: In Chinook, he defines home as “a place I did not feel at home in” and his step-father as a “man who was offended by my existence and would never stop questioning my right to it”.
Quotes: Toby defines himself “by opposition to him” (Dwight). Dwight is “someone who was offended by my existence”.
Dwight constantly sets him up for ridicule. For example, he makes him “shuck” horse chestnuts without gloves, which is an incredibly difficult task. His fingers become covered with a yellow stain and people think that he is hygienically unclean. He has to do all the homework while Pearl watches over him. He forces Toby to do the paper round but exploits him and does not give him his money which makes Toby so angry that he pawns his rifles. He is referred to as a “sissy” because he initially he does not want to fight Arthur.
- Toby realizes he will never feel at home. He defines himself “by opposition to him” (Dwight). Dwight is “someone who was offended by my existence”.
- Both Dwight and Roy are frustrated and angry people. They vent their frustration on Toby and blame him for the family’s problems and their inability to relate to people.
Dwight seeks to “improve” Toby. He wants to strengthen him and turn him into a “man”. However, his actions end up harming him both physically and psychologically. For example, he makes him “shuck” horse chestnuts without gloves, which is an incredibly difficult task. His fingers become covered with a yellow stain and people think that he is hygienically unclean. .
Dwight forces Toby to do the paper round for years, which teaches him discipline and gives him a sense of routine. However, Dwight exploits him and does not give him his money which makes Toby so angry that he pawns his rifles.
Whilst he admires his mother’s fortitude and admits “I had never seen my mother give up” (93), he knows their extended family with Dwight is doomed. Despite her unhappiness, Rosemary tries to brighten up the house with her good cheer and spirit. “She filled the house with plants, mothered Pearl, and insisted that all of us spend time together like a real family”. (93). However, as Toby notes, “failure was ordained” because “a real family as troubled as ours would never dream of spending time together” (93). Toby becomes the convenient scapegoat; because he does “screw” up constantly, “even when I meant to do well” (93)
The reason Chuck resists the pressure to marry Tina Flood is because he yearns for the conventional, happy home – so much so that he would prefer to endure years in prison. “The good life he had in mind for himself was just as conventional as the one I had in mind for myself, though without its epic pretensions” (215).
He struggles with the labels of “liar” and “thief” that he cannot shrug, despite his best intentions. He always seems to be paying the price for his reckless, self-destructive tendencies that result from his need for attention and guidance. Significantly, when Father Karl recognises Toby’s attempt to withdraw and “hide”. He notices that he is reluctant to trust which is a consequence of the brutal domestic environment. Toby wants to tell Father Karl that he hankers after the “world’s esteem” but feels unable to reveal his desperate struggle for recognition that fuels much of his unhappiness and restlessness.
Toby longs to escape the brutality and after his accident he spends the night in the forest. “I was all alone where no one could find me.” (87) He thinks about Dwight as “someone who was offended by my existence” . And finally, “we hated each other. We hated each other so much that other feelings didn’t get enough light. It disfigured me.” (196). Whilst he struggles to find comforting images of Chinook, he will always see “Dwight’s face and hear his voice” (196). The enduring image of brutality remains.
In fact, the only sense of connection he ever reaches with Dwight is during the fight against Arthur; know that he has successfully executed the “uppercut”, Toby imagines him “smiling down at me with recognition, and pleasure, and something like love” (187).
Likewise Rosemary’s relationships with men reflect her own troubled childhood growing up with a dominating, overbearing father. Rosemary recalls how her father, an erstwhile “navy officer and a paper millionaire” who lost “all his money and all his shanty –Irish relative’s money” (4) controlled her through violence, which feeds her abhorrence of all types of power, control and discipline. Her father beats her every night to warn her about the importance of being good. He makes her “think” about her suffering well in advance. Owing to the fact that her father ‘spanked her every night’ Rosemary is unable to discipline Toby. (49) “Daddy was a great believer in the rod.” Manipulatively, she must thank him for the meal.
Toby: rebellious streak: Owing to her own wounds, Rosemary has a horror of discipline (49) and as Toby becomes increasingly rebellious, she hands over discipline to others. Toby’s rebellious streak is evident during his confrontation with the vice principal over his words, “fuck you” in the toilet. The mother believes that Toby is not lying. Even when Marian, draws attention to Toby’s shortcomings, Rosemary refuses to discipline Toby (69) which, ironically, hastens her ill-fated decision to live with Dwight.
Toby is directly influenced by the men in Rosemary’s life who threaten and abuse her, stalk her and eventually try to kill her.
The “phantom” boy (180)
The true self: symbolism of the phantom: Ironically, it is the “phantom” boy in the letter who that best reflects the stifled truth about Toby. The letters testify to the potential that has been thwarted; to the boy Toby might have been and to the boy that he wishes to become. They appear authentic and natural because they truly reflect Toby’s heartfelt desires and capacity for growth. “Now the words came as easily as if someone were breathing them into my ear. I felt full of things that had to be said, full of stifled truth. That was what I thought I was writing – the truth. It was truth known only to me, but I believed in it more than I believed in the facts arrayed against it. I believed that in some sense not factually verifiable I was a straight-A student. In the same way, I believed that I was an Eagle Scout, and a powerful swimmer, and a boy of integrity. These were ideas about myself that I had held on to for dear life. Now I gave them voice” (180)
“I wrote without heat or hyperbole, in the words my teachers would have used if they had known me as I knew myself. These were their letters. An on the boy who lived in their letters, the splendid phantom who carried all my hopes, it seemed to me I saw, at last, my own face” (181).
This Boy’s Life : The Scout magazine: must include
Whilst he is surrounded by desperate and frustrated males, he sees Boy’s Life as a positive contrast.. Their magazine is full of stories of courage.
His experiences with the Boy Scouts and in particular his portrayal of the official Scout’s book, Boy’s Life, shows Jack different models of courage and adventure that are completely lacking in his own life. He wants to believe that he is “no different” and they stimulate his imagination, but also reveal the painful absence of courage and adventure…
(Cf Eagle Scout – a boty of integrity)
Redemption: He fails at the new school; he refuses to apologise to the Welches. He finally finds a sense of place in the army. He leaves readers with the notion that, “I might still redeem myself. All I needed was a war.”
SAMPE PARAGRAPHS
Certainly, the absence of a stable father figure gives rise to Jack’s rebellious and contradictory behaviour and his wayward and often immoral actions. The fact that he constantly invents an image of his father to suit his fanciful longings and to excuse the father’s desertion “…….” becomes one of his first acts of deception. It fuels a a string of deceitful letters that seek to reimagine the father in favourable terms. As a narrative technique, Wolff utilizes the letters to his pen-pals to show his desire for a better life. Jack lies to his pen-pal Alice claiming that his father owned “several fleets of ships” except he acknowledges he hides the fact he “was [only] eleven years old.” Eventually, this leads to the fabrication of his reports and the application to XXX “180” which becomes an expression of the boy he might have become, and would have liked to have become, had he had the opportunity. (letter to eh girl and the quote)
In the absence, of this fixed father image he relies on surrogate father figures that are just as problematic and result in confusing actions. So difficult is his relationship with Dwight that he realises seeks to establish his identity in “opposition” to him, which creates enormous ambivalence and problems. (He thus becomes a defenceless and rebellious boy trying to cope with the distortion and displacement of their own emotional problems) Like Roy, Dwight lacks core values, lacks a sense of common decency and because of his own emotional problems, he seeks to overcompensate by terrorising others, and in particular Jack because of his defenceless position. As a result of the ‘stinging charge of sissy, Jack realises that he is shamefully tormenting and compromising his only friendship and finds himself even imitating Dwight’s derisive behaviour. In fact Dwigt delights in making Jack as scared as possible. Dwight is typical of those whom Wolfe suggest enjoy the sense of power and intimidation. He notes, “fearlessness in those without power is maddening to those who have it”. Certainly, Dwight exploits his sense of power and makes Jack as frightened as possible. (111) driving the car on the mountain .. .”the more we begged him the faster he went, … laughing to show he wasn’t afraid”. .. He not only seeks to humiliate them but reinforce their sens eof shame by pretending that he has no sense of fear at all. Dwight also humiliates jack the moist by calling him a “sissy”
Jack – violence
Jack is attracted to violence because it gives him a feeling of power and control, and the more powerless he feels, the more obsessed he becomes with the idea of the gun. He notes, that “all my images of myself as I wished to be were images of myself armed” because they give him a false sense of bravado. He is exposed to the violence of the gun through his abusive step-fathers who warp his affections. Roy gives him the gift of the gun whilst in Seattle and as Jack holds the gun for the first time, he has a sense that the gun “completes” him. As Wolff states, it also gives to those who are emotionally and physically dislocated, like Toby and his step fathers, a degree of power and control they would not normally have. Their power increases in proportion to the fear they are able to strike in another. Playing the game of the sniper, is Jack’s introduction to the secrecy of power as he has been forbidden to use the gun when on his own. It also comes to symbolise the feeling of power and control for which the young boy yearns. Toby camouflages himself as the sniper with his “fur troopers hat”, his “camouflage coat” and “boots that reached nearly to my knees” which becomes a game that enables him to revel in the “ecstasy of my power over them”, the innocent passers-by who, in this, case are ironically unaware that they are being targeted. The delusional game soon makes him “act like one’. As Wolf states, “power can be enjoyed only when it is recognised and feared. Fearlessness in those without power is maddening to those who have it.”.
Wolff depicts a boy who is particularly intoxicated by violence because of his insecurities. He is emotionally and physically rootless and dislocated and in the absence of strong father figures, he becomes susceptible to the abusive, violent and aggressive power of the step fathers who recognise any sensitivity as a sign of weakness. In this sense, violence and aggression come to represent what “a man should be”. He imitates their aggression which he believes is a sign of masculinity.
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