Analysis Of This Boy's Life

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Tabula rasa. A phrase originating from Latin that is translated to “clean slate.” John Locke, a philosopher, coined this term to coincide with his theory that each human is born without any pre-existing traits or views of the world. To those who share Locke’s conception, one could understand how easily Tobias Wolff conformed to the negative impacts he had grown up with. He is the equivalent of an unwritten book with the potential for success and academic achievement but tainted with abandonment and neglect. The antagonists -- Roy, Dwight, and even his own mother -- are the sources of false power and manhood he obtained which has an influence on his actions. Even with all of these influences, the young and naive Jack (a name Tobias Wolff…show more content…
To put more emphasis on the quote, he is currently living in an unloving environment with Dwight which references to his suggestion that he is “on [his] own in this new place.” Because he lived in a state of financial issues, he understands why his mom can’t see him but like any child who wants someone to care and love for them, they are still frustrated that they will be missing crucial relationship developments which were seen in “I understood, but understanding not make me miss her less.”(99).
Another reason that leads to his actions, which is also the reason he wanted to strip the “importance” of his receival of the name Tobias and call himself Jack instead, is his father who blatantly abandoned him and his mother for a luxurious life. Wolff’s father, in summary, was a man who married a millionaire and moved to Paris with Jack’s older brother, Geoffrey, because he had a promising future. As wealthy as he was, the cowardly man refuses to pay his legal pittance. Jack witnesses the effects of the lack of financial support on his mother. This anger leads him to confidently say “We were barely making it, and making it in spite of him. My shedding the name he’d given me would put him in mind of that fact.”(9) The relieved diction seen with the term “shedding” can only allow readers to infer that removing his assigned name was a way to disassociate his burden of a father to him and his mom.
Dwight, the abusive stepfather
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