This Boy's Life Tobias Wolff Analysis

In This Boy's Life, a memoir by Tobias Wolff, as Jack ages, he loses innocence. In the novel, innocence is portrayed as simplicity and childishness, which Jack aims to lose as he develops. Wolff develops this theme through Jack's quest for masculinity, which he views as power. Guns and abusive male figures serve as recurring motifs for his diminishing innocence. Jack's search for masculinity dilutes his idealistic core as he changes his character to match what he believes is powerful; thus causing the withering of his innocence and complete loss of innocence at the end of the novel.
Jack held idealistic beliefs, which marked his innocence. For example, he states on page 89, "I was tempted by the idea of belonging to a conventional family, and
With Terry and Silver, Jack would often do rebellious things, such as skip school, prank call homes, and smoke. They did such things as a show of their masculine coolness, but, in reality, they were eleven and quite childish. Jack would watch the Mickey Mouse Club with his friends, which proves their innocence as they enjoyed a children's cartoon. However, as not to appear too childish and more masculine, Jack and his friends would yell vulgarities at Annette, pretending that their sexual attraction to her was the only reason they watched the show. Jack said, "We all said things like that- It was a formality- then we shut up and watched the show. Our absorption was complete. We softened. We surrendered" (44). This process of yelling vulgar, sexual comments was only seen as a tradition to them and held no real truth. However, the fact that Jack wanted to push his innocence far away (as illustrated there, he did not want to show that he thoroughly enjoyed the show), caused him to lose certain innocent aspects of himself. His early sexual awakening, disguised as a "formality", marked how he wanted to masculinize himself, which ultimately resulted in his loss of innocence