The Novel ' Reality Boy Bya.s King '

I read the realistic fiction novel Reality Check by Peter Abrahams for my book talk assignment.

When discussing reality, several questions emerge regarding what reality is. A reality, "the real situation that exist," (Merriam-Webster.com) consists of two forms-perceived reality and actual reality. One spends his or her entire life trying to decipher the difference between the two forms; yet to truly understand reality, it is essential that you comprehend both. Plato 's "Allegory of the Cave," Dick Gregory 's "Shame" and Frederick Douglass ' "Learning to Read and Write" illustrate examples of both perceptions. Furthermore, how conceptualization of reality helps establish who one will become.

In the book, The Other Wes Moore, readers are introduced to two naive boys who share the same name and live an almost identical life at the beginning of their childhood. Author Wes Moore tells readers a chilling story about how he and “Other Wes” were raised in neighboring Baltimore neighborhoods and grew up living an almost identical life. The story is based on how the two men face many obstacles throughout their life that essentially depict their own futures. As the boys become more familiar with the idea of violence and drug related activity, the proposal of living the same life suddenly becomes extinct. The two Wes Moore’s eventually end up living two completely different ways of life and it can be argued how they ended up the way they did. The idea of environment, education, and even expectations are all themes readers are presented with in the story. Although all of these factors play a vital role in the development of Wes themselves, their environment is essentially what had the greatest impact on their futures and is what set the tone for the rest of their lives.

Tobias Wolff’s memoir, “This Boy’s Life”, explores the idea that an individual’s actions can be altered due to the people they are exposed to. The protagonist Jack Wolff lives an impressionable life where he undergoes somewhat of a dilemma in relations to his actions, being incapable of changing for the greater good of himself. The absence of a proper male role model plays a large role on Jack’s actions, though is definitely not the only reason. Jack’s actions are influenced by Rosemary’s abusive and power craving ex-husband Roy, as well as Dwight’s violent and arrogant personality. However, Jack is also responsible for his

Three years later Adam is at a bad state trying to get over Mia. The book takes place is New York. Characters: Mia, Adam, Liz, and Bryn.

In addition, this book succeeds in terms of depicting real life situations to young children. As presented in the story, Reed’s father lost his job; thus, causing him to move back in with

Where: The story takes place in Harlem, New York. The settings are at the subway, the school, the brother’s childhood home, Isabel’s home, the narrator’s home, and the nightclub.

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

journey as he learns what to do and what not to do in high school, as well as, balancing activities,

The author of the book, Wes Moore, describes the different opportunities and life style he had with another person who shared the same name. The similarities that those boys had when they were younger were significant. Both boys grew up without a paternal figure and their mothers had to work extremely hard to take care of the rest of the family; they were constantly moving from city to city to ensure education and safety. Their mothers had to work excessive number of hours to cover the most basic needs. Living in poverty changed the future of the boys.

“Whenever my environment had failed to support or nourish me, I had clutched at books.” –Richard Wright, Black Boy. The author suffered and lived through an isolated society, where books were the only option for him to escape the reality of the world. Wright wrote this fictionalized book about his childhood and adulthood to portray the dark and cruel civilization and to illustrate the difficulties that blacks had, living in a world run by whites.

Rick Moody 's short story "Boys" is written with a distinct style. The author uses a form of a stream of consciousness to convey the purpose at hand, which encompasses writing as if without hesitation or editing - whatever came to Moody’s thoughts, he transferred to text. There was also a substantial use of the word “boys”, placing emphasis on the central meaning of the story. The style is thoroughly descriptive and fails to leave any details of the boys ' lives out. This quality donates a sense of reality and creates a bond between the reader and the characters. The tone of the story comes of as particularly unbiased and serious, as if the author were just stating purely factual information. As events become more somber in the boys ' lives, the author approaches a more sympathetic tone. The boys were supposed to be kids, fooling around playing games and living a care-free childhood, but these boys found themselves in scenarios no boy or child should ever encompass.

     In the context of this extraordinary real life story a boy, depending on which society you

Mark Twain once said, "We are creatures of outside influences -- we originate nothing within. Whenever we take a new line of thought and drift into a new line of belief and action, the impulse is always suggested from the outside." In the memoir This Boy’s Life, by Tobias Wolff Jack shows that he is a creature of outside influence. Some examples of this are that he copies what his friends do, he doesn't try to shape his own life, and he is heavily influenced by the male figures in his life.

I enjoyed the book, This Boy’s Life and I found the lack of stability in Jack’s life interesting. Jack and his mother, Rosemary, move around a lot in the book, causing Jack to never really have a place to call home. In the beginning of the book, Jack and Rosemary are moving from Florida to Utah to escape Rosemary’s ex-husband, Roy. However, Roy follows them to Utah, so Jack and Rosemary move to Seattle. Then, Rosemary meets Dwight and eventually decides to marry him. This leads to her and Jack moving to Chinook with Dwight and his children. At the end of the book, Jack moves to California for the summer to live with his father and brother. After the summer, he starts prep school at Hill in Washington D.C. Here he gets kicked out his senior year and then decides to join the army. Each time Jack moves, he wants to start a better life for himself, but is never able to accomplish this task. I think that the lack of stability in his life, from moving all the time, is the main reason he cannot change his life around.