Commentary On This Boy's Life By Tobias Wolff

Through this story, the author shows how difficult life can be, not everyone has the possibility to live a quiet adolescence, sometimes you have just to grow up faster, be responsible and make difficult decisions from which depends the rest of your life.

1. Sheff intrigued me with his story just by the back of the book. The entire story is about his eldest son, Nic, who is an amazing student as a child; however, his childhood begins to fade when he gets into the life of drugs and alcohol. The experiences and hardships that the author goes through is very emotional which really kept me reading.

The book “This Boy’s Life” by Tobias Wolff is a memoir written about the author’s childhood memories and experiences. The author shows many different characters within the book. Many of them are just minor character that does not affect the author much in his life choices and thoughts throughout his growth. But there are some that acts as the protagonist and some the antagonist. One of them is Dwight, the protagonist’s or Jack’s stepfather. This character seems to be one of the characters that inhibit Jack’s choices and decisions. This character plays a huge role in Jack’s life as it leaves a huge scar in his memory. The author here spends the majority of time in this character in the memoir to show the readers the relationship between

Have you ever read the stories "A Boys Life" and "Emancipation?" If you had ever read them, you would see that they have some parts that are the same and some parts that are different. For the Theme for both stories i think the theme is, sometimes when you are taking a chance you can get rewarded.

In one’s life, a person goes through a certain processes to mature into an adult. In the book, Crabbe, by William Bell, a teen boy named Franklin Crabbe runs away from his old life which was preventing him from maturing the way he wanted to. Firstly, Franklin Crabbe experiences personal growth while staying in the wilderness. Secondly, Crabbe learns a various number of new life skills which he can use later in the future. Thirdly, Crabbe while being in the wilderness, he developed his independence. The experiences the main character Franklin Crabbe has while in wilderness contributes to his maturity into adulthood.

The coming of age novel is about a boy name Theodore Decker that goes by Theo. Beginning the novel, Theo and his mother visit a museum that is targeted by a terrorist attack. Theo takes a painting his mother admires on an impulse. Theo takes the painting wherever he goes, keeping the secret that he’s hiding a multi-million-dollar painting. Donna Tartt takes a different perspective on the setting in the book. Instead of being the light filled, energized state that New York is known to be. She describes the other side of the city which is quiet neighborhoods filled which little shops, and restaurants that don’t have many customers. Giving a different perspective on the state instead of following along with the stereotype. The book also, informs youth on the dangers of drugs. Theo is heavily involved in drugs through his childhood and adulthood. Relying on drugs to get through his days, most of Theo’s bad decisions are done while he is on drugs. Showing teens and adults that drugs can have negative impacts on one’s life. Some parents may disagree with their child reading this book because Theo’s experience with drugs are very detailed. Contrarily, many lessons can be learned through the novel. Theo went from a child who was dependent on his mother to a lost, lonely boy who’s trying to find his place in a big world. On the way to doing this he made mistakes, but Theo learned from these mistakes. One thing I really enjoyed was that the book was split up into parts. Since it is such a long book, breaking it up in parts makes the book easier to read in a way. Concluding, I do recommend this novel, because it can teach teens and even adult mistakes to learn from. I would recommend for an AP literature class or test, because it actually is an enjoyable book to read with morals hidden inside. In a class setting, though the book may be too

Growing up themes such as social issues, stress, and family are universal. Two novels which

Richard Wright’s autobiographical novel, Black Boy, illustrates his character development. He encounters a lot of hardships which he eventually grows from. Throughout the course of the story, Richard develops from an oblivious young boy to a responsible young adult.

The memoir, This Boy’s Life, by Tobias Wolff is about a boy fighting an internal battle between bad behavior and good morale; at the end of the book Toby becomes a good boy, but has many bumps in his journey. For example, when Toby and his mother move into Dwight’s house, he doesn’t tell his mother that Dwight is an abusive person. So when his mother was nearby Toby would lie and confirm “all his lying implications that we (Toby and Dwight) were pals and our life together was a good one” (99, Wolff). Toby kept quiet about the violence because he thinks that his mother is happy with Dwight and he doesn’t want to mess up their relationship. Secondly, when Toby is sent off to live at the farm, he siphones gas from the Welch’s car. Just afterwards,

The story has been told many times: a kid starts at a new school and is immediately singled out by the other students and is picked on. He is essentially an easy target to be bullied. The victim’s feelings and reactions are always talked about when bullying is brought up-- but what about the feelings and reactions of the bully? There has to be some trigger that is causing that person to act out in such a way. William Pollack, author of “Inside the World of Boys,” refers to “males wearing masks as an invisible shield” (Pollack 64), but they only focus on the victims what about the masks the bullies are wearing while committing these acts.

This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff is a raw examination of what happens to a young boy who is left to steer life by himself. The grownups in Toby's life are too engaged with their own lives to pay attention to him. His mother is self-centered and irresponsible and never really says that she wants Toby around. His rich father lives with his other son on the east coast and doesn't want any relationship with Toby. This results in toby not wanting to make healthy connections with many people that can have a positive effect on his life.

In “Boy’s Life” the author illustrates the theme of freedom through the plot, or story structure. Beginning with the inciting incident, the boy impatiently waits for the world beyond the classroom to find freedom and

Reality Boy In this story by A.S. King is an intriguing story about a boy named Gerald Faust who has overcome a past filled with neglect and torture from his family at home. His oldest sister, Tasha, is the true source of the family problems but only Lizi, the middle child, knows the entire truth of it. Reality Boy is told in the first person narrative, following Gerald’s life from two weeks before he turns seventeen, to two weeks after. Within this time he finds out who he really is through a true relationship with a peer that has, in his opinion, as many problems as he does.

German Boy by Wolfgang Samuel is the true story of a young boy enduring the horrors of war. He flees his home in the late war, travelling across war-torn Germany in a desperate attempt to escape to the West. His experience in the war, and his innocence, along with the development of his mother, prove the horrors of war, the durability of the human spirit, and the kindness of strangers. Wolfgang Samuel’s German Boy was a successful novel due to the writer’s use of characters, setting, and theme.

The novel About A Boy, by Nick Hornby, depicts the life of a social outcast named Marcus, who is sheltered from the outside world by his mother, and is just trying to be accepted by society. While on the path to achieving this goal, Marcus obtains a newly found self knowledge, within himself, as a direct result of the obstacles and conflicts he faces.