This Boy's Life Thematic/Quote Analysis.
This Boy's Life is a wonderful book. I enjoyed it tremendously studying it, and over my year 12 year I compiled many analysis's of the book. This are some of the ones I found particularly good.
Disclaimer: There is a lot of "Wolff this" and "Wolff that". Much like an essay.
Chapter by Chapter Analysis
Fortune
The story begins with the car
[falling] hundreds of feet. It is a metaphor by Wolff to symbolize Jack and Rosemary's journey. It foreshadows them relentlessly moving forward, without time for pause, heading inevitably towards disaster. It can also be linked with Rosemary’s incautious decision to send Jack away with Dwight, a man she did not know well, or even if she wanted to be with him. This similarly embodies a car without brakes. A decision made in haste, bound for disaster.
They ran
to get away from a man my mother was afraid of and to get rich on Uranium.(p.3) An implausible plan. Its the contrary of the American Dream. The American Dream stands at hard work = success. However, in this case, it suggest the naivety of young Jack and his mother; To suddenly get rich with little work suggests a lack of understanding about how success works. Again this idea is correlated when Jack exclaimed that
everything was going to change when my mother went out West. (p.4)
Again it suggests that their dreams are simply fantasies, as Wolff juxtaposes his mother’s ‘dream’ with his naive idea that simply moving location would fix their problems.
Their naive mindset is also brought forth in the instance where when they headed to Salt Lake City because
there must be some ore somewhere around here (p.6) This exemplifies Rosemary's fallacious belief that the Universe will provide for her and that there is innate justice in the world, despite all evidence to the contrary.
Ah Rosemary mate, at this point in the book i called gg for her. I think she is a wonderful character but Wolff portrays her as very naive early on. Wolff implicitly demonstrates that Rosemary constantly makes the wrong choices. There is several instances in this chapter.
1) Rosemary drew the wrong conclusions.
The fact that nobody else had found any meant we would have the place pretty much to ourselves (P.6) Here rather than understanding that the absence of ore means that its already taken, they take it as evidence of their success.
2)
But his letter was so friendly. My mother just knew she'd get a job out of him. (Pg 6) Not much to be said here, i would be regurgitating from the previous points.
Okay some stuff about Toby/Jack now.
He is an interesting character. For me, it starts at his games (archery + shooting). Jack's own analysis of the arrow game -
never admitting what the real object was; to bring somebody down. p.9. Here we see the start of Jack's cruelty, and the enduring theme of how the suffering of others can help cover his own insecurities. His insecurity is still there when he admits that
everybody but my mother saw through me and did not like they saw. (p9). The reader is hinted at Jack's lack of self-worth.
Jack is complicated.
With Roy, Jack accepts that strangeness as he admits that
over the years, it [became] ordinary to me (p.12) Strange = normal becomes a common aspect in Jack's life. This is proven as he later fails to question situations which he should.
Its never black or white with Jack. While he is rebellious, he is often compliant and eager to please. This is seen as
Roy smiled at me and I gave in. I smiled back. (p.13) This shows he can be manipulated. It also shows that he complies with others.
Another theme early on. Power.
A couple of quotes.
Power can only be enjoyed if it is recognized and feared. (Pg 20)Wolff examines the way having power is not satisfying in itself, it has to impart fear on others and allow one to enjoy the superiority that their status gives them.
I had to shoot. (Pg 21)The temptation to enact of control over something or someone is born from those who have no control. Jack’s compulsion to shoot reflects his desperate desire to take control.
To finish off this section we'll get to a favorite part of mine. Here, late Christmas present, have a big quote.
...did an imitation of someone praying, then did an imitation of someone receiving divine reassurance. I stopped crying. I smiled to myself and forced a feeling of warmth into my chest. Then I climbed back into my bed and looked at the ceiling with a blissful expression until I went to sleep. (p21).
Jack skips real prayer to go straight to its pale imitation. This mirrors many later instances when he opts to offer what he thinks is expected rather than genuine emotion or remorse. Similarly, in the way that genuine repentance is impossible, genuine reassurance is as well. Interestingly, even though Jack knows that his repentance he is asking for his fake and the forgiveness he is asking for is non-existing, he still receives reassurance from the act and goes to sleep with a ‘blissful expression’. Wolff suggests that while Jack has an inability to receive assistance and no chance of genuine ‘reassurance’ he will provide it for himself through imitated acts of contrition; a genuine coping strategy.
Uncool
American Dream will be looked at here.
As Rosemary Rosemary and Jack walked around
stopping in front of different houses to consider them as candidates for future purchase. We went for the biggest and most pretentious. Despite all odds, they still believe in the American Dream and their chance to ‘make it.’ As if suddenly moving up the ladder, skipping many rungs is possible.
People at a party
braced themselves and put on joviality like a party hat. Even I could see the hopelessness in their imitation of gaiety. (p51). The American Dream is a veneer. The happy expressions Wolff sees at parties and on families are false. He is conscious of this and cynical of it, yet there is always the desire to belong.
Jack in this chapter:
The silence made me uncomfortable and in my discomfort I smiled at Silver. Again, despite personal discomfort Jack projects a false representation of himself to match what he thinks he should be presenting.
Jack and his mates attack on the rich
handsome young man was an attack on the rigid social structure that excluded them from the American Dream. Wolff suggests that Jack has outgrown his naïve belief that he can overcome the odds with optimism and he shows the bitterness that instills in people.
Rosemary time:
The price was right, next to nothing, and she believed in it’s possibilities, a word used often by he man who showed it to her. P.47 Rosemary has a defiant belief in ‘possibilities’. The salesman’s use of this phrase suggests how fallacious this belief is.
As Rosemary
[listened] with narrowed eyes to show she was shrewd and would not be easily taken in….ended up agreeing….signed a contract on the hood of the mans car while he held a flashlight over the paper.’ 47. Wolff uses irony here to suggest that Rosemary is not shrewd, the place is not close to perfect and she makes a poor decision.
She was so good at making us see it her way that we began to feel that everything needful had already been done p.48 Wolff examines the way that Rosemary constructs hope and instills it in others. Even when it is unfounded, hope can be infectious
But Daddy left some marks on her. One of them was a strange docility, almost paralysis with men of a tyrant breed.P.49. Wolff explores how Rosemary’s manipulative and tyrannical father has made her powerless to oppose other men like this. He suggests that our upbringing can be responsible for our later problems.
Rosemary also has a
contradictory hatred of coercion. She’d never been able to spank me….That wasn’t the way she wanted to be with me and she didn’t think I needed it anyway. 49 Rosemary incorrectly assumes that Jack doesn’t need discipline. She gives him none because she dislikes giving it, rather than diagnosing it as unnecessary.
Oooo Dwight time. This guy lmao, if he was a meme he'd be a rare pepe. After visiting Dwights home in
Chinook, Dwight points out Salmon to Jack.
They came a long way from the ocean to spawn here, Dwight said, and then they would die…They were dying already… Long strips of flesh hung off their bodies…p.62 Wolff is metaphorically suggesting that Jack and Rosemary’s movement away from their home into the unknown is doomed. More broadly, he is examining the way that the constant journey looking for change and security is futile. More than that, the toll it takes is as visible as the ‘strips of flesh’ hanging from the body.
A Whole New Deal
As Dwight had
gone out of his way to run over a beaver. It shows an ominous sign of cruelty.
Just a few things about Jack in this chapter.
‘Unlike my mother, I was fiercely conventional’ p.74 At this point Wolff allows jack’s desire to belong to supersede his rebellion.
‘I was tempted by the idea of belonging to a conventional family.’ P.74 Wolff juxtaposes belonging and conformity. Jack definitely desires community but he is ‘tempted’ by it, rather than convinced by it. Similarly, he is drawn to the ‘idea’, rather than the reality.
‘I could introduce myself as … a boy of consequence’ p.74 This example of reinvention suggests that this description is different to how he actually is.
Citizenship In The Home
‘Dwight’s bill of particulars contained some truth…. It never ended and it lost it’s power to hurt me.’ P.83 Jack is aware of his many flaws however there are so many of them that he refuses to be weighed down by them.
We always left the meetings together, like father and son, smiling and waving goodbye, then walking home in silence.’ P.84 This is food for thought, was this charade from a sense of obligation or desire to belong?
‘Boy’s Life’ – the scout magazine that he
‘read in a trance, accepting without question its narcotic invitation to believe that I was really no different from the boys whose hustle and pluck it celebrated. This reflects Jack’s innate desire to belong and to fit into America’s definite of what a healthy young male is. However Wolff’s use of the words ‘accepting without question’ suggests that the belief is delusional and unrealistic.
Of Dwight’s fighting technique;
‘It was simple really. You just walked up to someone and kicked them in the balls.’ Dwight’s technique reflects what he has learnt from life; the odds are so stacked against you that you can’t be honest in attempting to face them. You have to be duplicitous and snatch whatever advantage you can get.
Skipper becomes emotional when he hears a song about a man who kills another man but the man never finds out that
the jury has acquitted him on grounds of self defence.’ 103 Skipper, who has a clear escape plan himself, can already recognise the tragedy of running needlessly and endlessly, and empathises with those who are doomed to his own fate.
Citizenship in School
Teacher asks them to name their favourite amendment. Every knew the answer was ‘the Right to Bear Arms’ but she wrote ‘Freedom of Speech’. It shows that even in matters of opinions, there is apparently correct answers.
Of Arthur ‘I knew he was no citizen and he knew I was no outlaw’ ‘that I was not hard or uncaring of the future, or contemptuous of the opinion’ 186. Jack is incredulous that his mask and attempt at transformation has not succeeded
‘Knowing that everything comes to an end is a gift of experience, a consolation gift for knowing that we ourselves are coming to an end. Before we get it, we live in continuous present, and imagine the future as more of that present. Happiness is endless happiness, innocent of it’s own sure passing. Pain is endless pain.’ 194 Wolff literally states the knowledge he has over his younger self. He has learnt that experiences are fleeting and both positive and negative experiences move on.
The Amen Corner
‘He wanted a good life. The good life he had in mind for himself was just as conventional as the one that I had mind for myself, though without it’s epic pretensions.’ 215 Jack is aware that the desire of others to be secure is reasonable but he desire to be loved and admired is not.
‘Chuck held onto his dream as if it were actual. He was prepared to go to prison for it.’ 215 Belief can be a powerful motivator. Chuck’s belief that there was something better for him meant more to him than his freedom.
Amen
‘If I worked hard I could stay afloat, as soon as I relaxed I went under.’ 241. While Wolff is referring to his schooling, this could easily be applied to his broader life.
‘Then I went into the army. I did so with a sense of relief and homecoming. It was good to find myself in the clear life of uniforms and ranks and weapons.’ 241. His long-standing belief that the military would fix him shows Jack’s desire for control and order.
‘All I needed was a war. Be careful what you wish for.’ Food for thought. Read the quote above. Interesting huh, there's a toll in everything, even in control and order.
I obviously did not examine everything, probably a small % of the book, however, these notes helped me tremendously and i pass them on as i go onto university. Good Luck.