Paper Abstract
A 3 page essay that offers a characterization of Jack from Tobias Wolff's memoir This Boy's Life. The autobiographical memoir of Tobias Wolff, This Boy's Life, begins by picturing himself and his mother on the road to Utah in 1955 to make their fortune by mining uranium. While they are in Utah, Tobias changes his name to "Jack," after the author Jack London and also to distance himself from his father, who abandoned Jack and his mother shortly after Jack's birth. This is the first of many attempts by Jack to reinvent himself, to find some middle ground between the person whom the world considered him to be and the person that he felt he was on the inside. Examining Jack's character and perspective throughout this narrative shows Jack's struggle in defending his inner sense of self from the onslaughts provided by a dysfunctional family life. No additional sources cited.
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