Acceptance Through Reinvention

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Acceptance Through Reinvention

Acceptance through Reinvention
This Boy’s Life, a memoir by Tobias Wolff is about the changing of a young and confused boy into strong and intelligent man. Throughout Toby’s childhood he moves frequently and makes a new life in different places. In every place Toby goes he becomes a new person and re invents himself according to his newest interests. While moving to the west, he has dreams of becoming a rugged, cowboy, independent person. When Toby realizes he has become something that he is not he begins to feel desperate. This urgent desperation to fix his persona leads him to quickly change his life without thinking. He then becomes afraid of who he is and thus reinvents himself again to disguise his unhappiness and struggle for acceptance.
When Toby moves west he dreams of becoming a rugged individual like a cowboy or Indian. Toby changes his name to Jack after Jack London “I wanted to call myself Jack, after Jack London. I believed that having his name would charge me with some of the strength and competence inherent in my idea of him” (8).   Jack London was the author of the book The Call of the Wild, a very rugged and western book. When Toby received a Winchester .22 rifle this was seen as the ultimate accessory for a cowboy. Toby spent many afternoons home alone playing dress up in his mom’s boyfriend’s army suit. At school Toby began associating himself with other boys that acted older than they where. Toby smoked cigarettes, said curse words, and tried to impress everyone by being a tough boy. When Toby was exaggerating on how he shot a turkey his peers did not believe him. To prove he was himself Toby wrote a curse word on the bathroom wall.   Toby’s mom was very disappointed in his actions. Toby was given the opportunity to move away from Seattle. This was a perfect chance, “…I despised the life I led in Seattle…I thought in Chinook…I could be different. I could introduce myself as a scholar- athlete, a boy of dignity and consequence, and without any...

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  • Submitted by: chloe29h
  • Date Submitted: 12/14/2008 10:04 PM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 638
  • Pages: 3
  • Views: 96
  • Popularity Rank: 8684

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