Reflection on This Boy’s Life

                                                              English 1A

                                                         Beiyu Lin/ Kevin

                      Reflection on “This Boy’s Life”

The short story "This Boy's Life"(1989), Tobias Wolff best presents his childhood life as truth as possible, as he writes in the book "I have done my best to make it tell a truthful story". In Toby's childhood, he had to move one state to the other with his mother when he was 10 years old in the year 1995. While Toby and his mother drive from Florida to Utah, he changed his name Toby to Jack because of "Jack London"; he wanted to be like the author Jack and also because he had to share the name Toby with a female classmate.

In the continuous story, Jack described his childhood life with her mother Rosemary's complicated life. By the time Toby was born, his father abandoned him and runs away, so his mother Rosemary had to carry him, moving around for a living. Jack's ex-father Roy, is a hunter who served in the military and has a perfectly marksmanship. In the author Tobias Wolff's story, toby clarifies that Roy tracked them down in the Salt Lake city, Ron always spying on Rosemary, from her work to home with his Jeep car: "He waited outside until she got off work. Then he followed her home"

Rosemary, Toby's mother, was living in a wealthy family but with an abusive father, she takes her boy, the author toby, moves states by states, after she successfully get away from Roy and finally married with Dwight in Chinook. Dwight, a guy who seems gentle and friendly for Jack, but overall shows up his true face; he blames Jack's gun is terrible in a turkey-gun competition and feels full of uncomfortable when Rosemary gets the best shoot and wins the turkey. At home, Dwight's two children are full of scary toward him. In the end after Dwight married with Rosemary, Dwight starts to treat Jack unfriendly and uses Jack a tool to make money.  

Looking through the story until here, I am sure that Rosemary loves her child Toby, but she always does things without consideration of Jack and benefit her first. For example, once, Jack did not want to go to Gil's place, but Rosemary forces him. Once, Jack would not be willing to go to Chinook and doesn't like Dwight, but Rosemary did not care about Jack's feeling.

On the other hand, Jack is always full of positive energy, he experiences the things and staff he should not have as a boy at his age. What makes him so tough is probably because of his strong will: "I didn't come to Utah to be the same boy I'd been before. I had my own dreams of transformation". In the story Wolff presents the situation happened during the Archer practicing. Jack full of guilt of aiming at his partner when sister James discovers, he realized that he is wrong of doing that while sister James treats him so nicely, he doesn't know what to fix but to skip the activity for presenting his guiltiness. Jack has the feeling of power over the people he sees from the window when he holds the gun from Roy, he one day could not control himself and shot an animal, after Rosemary comes home, they go to burry the squirrel. That night, Jack cries until sleep. Moreover, after his mother Rosemary dates with Gil and returns home very late with tears, Jack appeases her and hugs her. From the three examples above, Jack is overall a great young man with good heart and honest. Yes, jack has done terrible things, but he has the brave to admit and express the regression. Jack in his young childhood wants to be better but just misses somebody to leads him, his mother is not a thoughtful woman who wants to live in a wealthy family again, both for Jack and her, but she did not think about what Jack really needs.

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