Michael+Aristoklis

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Michael Aristoklis Mrs. Sullivan-2nd Period 12/13/11 __This Boys Life. __ The book //This Boy’s Life// By Tobias Wolff, Is a memoir written to keep the reader on edge and curious to see what is going to happen next. After leaving Florida to go to Utah to get away from a man that Toby’s mother was running away from. Toby also known as jack, had decided to change his name on the way. Jack always seems to be trying to fit in everywhere that he goes, changing himself for the different surroundings he encounters along the way. Throughout the book it seems jack is always trying to find his true self and figure out what his true identity is.  “ I was subject to fits of feeling myself unworthy…. 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.” This quote shows how jack still didn’t feel certain about what people thought about him and what he thought of himself. The Theme in //This Boy’s Life// Is the use of Escaping to get away with the use of imagination. Throughout the book Jack uses his imagination as a place to get away from everyone and everything He used to dress up as a soldier and play with the Winchester that was given to him pretending to be a sniper. Also his use of imagination was used when he could not go to Paris. He used his imagination to imagine himself in the cobbled streets, green roofs, and cafes. Jack also imagines that all of the successful looking men who passed him on the street are his father walking to him to greet him. Jack uses his imaginative fantasies as a way to get away from the misery of his home life. In the book, the character that I feel played a big part in the memoir was Dwight. Dwight was the antagonist of the story. He could be called a villain by robbing jack of his childhood. Dwight is cruel, his motivation is only to degrade and bring down anyone that he can. His main cruelty is towards jack and jack can do nothing because of Dwight being an adult. Dwight throughout the story is very shady and misleading as your read your always finding yourself asking questions and being curious about everything he does in the memoir. This Book was a tough book for me to enjoy and relate to. There were many situations I had never been involved in or endured in my own life. Throughout the book there’s always a theme of him wanting to get away from his own misery and rebelling against his mother and everyone. I can say that this book has had no relation to anything in my life. I know some of the situations that jack was put in were situations that many other people go through but were not relevant for me. I would recommend the book to a reader who enjoys reading memoirs and peoples life stories along with being kept on the edge of their seat throughout the whole book. For me I’m not interested in reading about someone’s life story so for me this book was not so appealing and good for me.