“This Boy’s Life” as a Memoir

Memoir:
In the Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms, Murfin and Ray say that memoirs differ
from autobiographies in "their degree of outward focus. While [memoirs] can be considered a
form of autobiographical writing, their personalized accounts tend to focus more on what the
writer has witnessed than on his or her own life, character, and developing self."
“This Boy’s Life “ as a Memoir:
This Boy’s Life (Grove Press 1989) memoir introduces us to the young Toby Wolff by turns
tough and vulnerable, crafty and bumbling, and ultimately winning. It is a story about a mother
and son trying to survive in 1950s America. Separated by divorce from his father and brother,
Toby and his mother are constantly on the move, yet they develop an extraordinary close.
Without good male role models Toby struggles with his identity and self-respect when his
mother moves the two of them across the country.

 Jack and his mother Rosemary are day dreamer. Jack's mother struggles financially to
support herself and her son, but though she is neglectful at times, she loves Jack very
much. Rosemary was abused as a child and cannot bring herself to inflict violence or any
sort of punishment on Jack, even though she has the habit of taking up with violent men
who inflict that same abuse on both of them. Jack takes advantage of Rosemary’s nature.
He knows when Rosemary’s defenses are down and this allows him to get souvenirs
even when he knows that they can’t afford it. He understands that his mother does not
know how to deal with him properly and that she cannot bring herself to spank him
because of her own relationship with her father. The few times she has tried to scold
him, he came away laughing. Optimistic nature, Rosemary believes that Jack is really
going to change. Although he knows his actions have been hurting Rosemary, he doesn’t
know how to stop. He refuses to move to Paris because he doesn’t want to have to call
anyone else ‘mother.'
 Jack and Dwight hate each other. The relationship between them affects Jack for the
rest of his life. Jack was abused and controlled by his stepfather Dwight throughout the
novel which makes him become a powerless, hopeless boy. Dwight is known to be an
abusive and violent man and was known as being a malicious role model to Jack, which
would mentally and emotionally affect Jack. Dwight taught Jack how to fight. He would
encouraged and persuade Jack to fight by calling him a “sissy” when originally Jack
doesn’t want to fight. Dwight finds out that Jack isn’t masculine enough that what he
had hoped. He would try to teach Jack the improper way of the qualities of what a real
man should have through abuse and violence. Dwight would end up trying too hard and
Jack always falls short.Dwight is actually trying to make Jack suffer and make him
weaker, He would always abuses Jack and have done that ever since he first met him in
Chinook. For example, he even attack Jack.
 “He grabbed me by the hair and shoved my face back down towards the jar. (170)”, “He
leaned across the table and slapped my face. (171)”
Overall, Dwight used his abusive and violent took advantage of Jack’s powerless nature in
which he had controlled and influenced. Dwight makes Jack husk Chestnut’s hours at a time,
and when he is done, Jack sees all of his work goes to waste, as Dwight forgets about them
and they rot in the attic. Also, Dwight makes Jack take up a newspaper job and when Jack
tries to put the money he had earned towards his scholarship to a boarding school, all of his
hard earned money is gone. It is clear that Dwight is not a strong father figure to Jack as his
abuse gives Jack the revolutionary idea of running away to Alaska.
“Eighty dollars seemed like a lot of money appeared to be a lot of money, more than
enough for my purpose, which was to run away to Alaska.”(Wolff 155)
Here Jack plans on running away to Alaska and living off of the $80 from his paper route. This
statement makes Jack's feelings shine through, as he is willing to live off such a small sum of
money in an extremely isolated place to escape Dwight’s grasp and abusive behavior and once
again shows off Jack’s rebellious streak. However, this isn’t the only time that Jack threatens to
run away because of Dwight’s lack of father-like qualities; Jack also has a plan for escape when
he is at the amusement park, on a yearly scouting trip. He plans on leaving the park with Arthur
and not coming out to the parking lot where Dwight would be waiting. A lack of a strong father
figure can have a dynamic effect on a child's life because the child has one less person to look
up to and one less person to discipline them. This is particularly the case in This Boy’s Life a
memoir by Tobias Wolff, where he recalls his adolescent life without a strong father figure. In
his case, he eventually does get a father figure, Dwight, a man with a drinking problem and an
obsession for hunting. Throughout the memoir, Jack struggles without a father, he is constantly
in trouble and goes undisciplined, and when Dwight comes into his life, he is abusive, and he
makes Jack obsessed with running away. Jack’s lack of a strong father figure makes him
rebellious.

 Jack's kind older brother Geoffrey who is a student at Princeton while Jack is still in high
school. Geoffrey has grown up in his father's custody and goes for years without seeing
Jack. Six years after their last meeting, he and Jack begin corresponding by mail. When
Jack tells Geoffrey of the abuse he endures in Chinook, Geoffrey encourages Jack to
apply to private schools on the east coast and arranges for them to meet during the
summer. When they do meet, Geoffrey cares for Jack like a father. He is the one who
encourages Jack to seek a better education for himself.

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