Symbolism In This Boy's Life By Tobias Wolff

The memoir, This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff, provides a personal description of events surrounding Wolff’s adolescence. The records of events demonstrate the struggle to find freedom in a harsh environment that Wolff faced traveling around northwest United States. Therefore, Wolff proposes the theme of Jack’s longing for self-recreation through detail descriptions of symbols, motifs, and anecdotes.
Wolff presents the idea of symbolism in the Winchester .22 Rifle. Given as a gift from his father, Jack believes that “a weapon is the first condition of self-sufficiency” and he admires “the way it complete[s] him when [he] [holds] it” (23). Suggesting that the rifle gives Jack the power and control he craves, and symbolizes a new identity and authority. However, Jack realizes he cannot control the power he has over the innocent because, he shoots a squirrel and leaves him in the street. In the killing of the squirrel, Jacks commits an act that is monstrous and reveals an undiscovered part of himself. This self-discovering is shocking; he is afraid of himself and his capabilities. At this point, Jack reveals that he “[does] not know who [he] [is]” and that “any image of [him]self, no matter how grotesque, [has] power over [him]” (27). Thus foreshadowing the

For instance, when Jack corresponded letters with his brother, Geoffrey, Jack describes himself as an A+ student and star athlete. In lying to Geoffrey, Jack sees that he can change into the outstanding person he described to his brother. Jacks falls into this deception when he begins to read Vance Packard’s The Status Seekers. This book persuades Jack to lie to his upper class as if it is “the most natural thing in the world” (207), resulting in Jack forging his letters of recommendations to the private schools. This act presents Jack’s earnest desire to recreate himself based on his