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This Boy S Life Practice Essay

Decent Essays

6. It is Jack’s lack of a stable, male role model that is to blame for his actions. To what extent do you agree?
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 …show more content…

Following this quote, Wolff uses an author intrusion when he brings forward the fact that “over time the innocence [he] laughed at began to irritate [him]. Wolff’s intrusion brings to light the foolishness of his actions which he had caught from a ‘lousy’ role model. Wolff presents the idea that “Power can be enjoyed only when it is recognized and feared”, and that power can make an individual undertake actions they normally wouldn’t. Jack’s association with an abusive man such as Roy shows that Jack has been influenced by Roy’s unjust habits, and that he is to blame in terms of the actions that Jack chooses to undertake.
INCOMPLETE: Similarly, Dwight’s abusive and violent traits have an impact on Jack, and the actions that he undertakes. Chameleon like identity
On the contrary, Jack chooses how to act regardless of his role models, meaning that he can be held accountable for his own actions. From the beginning of the memoir Jack is depicted as an immature child whose dream it was to transform into someone different. Jack’s dreams of transformation get further and further from reality predominantly due to how he decides to act and the people he chooses to spend his time with. Jack is responsible for his own actions as he is the one who actually decides how he acts. A moment in the memoire where Jack’s delinquency is depicted is when Jack states that “[he] was a thief.

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