This Boys Life
Some say that ignorance is bliss, but others may argue that being “awake” is the true gift In life, something which can never, ever be taken away from you.
Being able to see everything with “open” eyes only comes with experience and determination, something which the author Tobias Wolfe had seen and felt, but also wanted to deny and oppress for fear of losing his ignorance and innocence. In his autobiographic memoir, This Boy's Life, Tobias lives with only his mother, on account of his mother's divorce, and he explains how him and his mother go through painful, joyful, and grim stages as mother and son. Tobias struggles even more as his mother enters an abusive relationship with a man named Dwight, who severely robs Tobias's good childhood. Because of this ongoing struggle at home, Tobias focuses on his imagination and future life, he likes to think that he is a star student, athlete and overall, just a good person, however, he is none of these things and he is so consumed in his imagination that he rejects the reality of everything and tries his hardest to stay “green.” Green, a metaphor, meaning that Tobias wishes to keep his ignorance and inexperience of the world around him forever, wishing to shun everything he has learned throughout his life in order to convince him self he is still “green.”However, at the peak of it all, Tobias ends up being hospitalized for cutting his finger severely during school and while in the hospital, Tobias becomes addicted to morphine(230). After he returns home, Tobias suffers from narcotic withdrawal and the pain from his severely gashed finger, it is a this point in which Tobias explains that knowing that everything comes to end is a “gift.” By using the word gift, Tobias assures that with experience this knowledge is given to you, never able to be taken away. He also states that people “imagine the future as more of the present,” “happiness is endless happiness, innocent of its own sure passing,” and “pain is endless pain.”
Being able to see everything with “open” eyes only comes with experience and determination, something which the author Tobias Wolfe had seen and felt, but also wanted to deny and oppress for fear of losing his ignorance and innocence. In his autobiographic memoir, This Boy's Life, Tobias lives with only his mother, on account of his mother's divorce, and he explains how him and his mother go through painful, joyful, and grim stages as mother and son. Tobias struggles even more as his mother enters an abusive relationship with a man named Dwight, who severely robs Tobias's good childhood. Because of this ongoing struggle at home, Tobias focuses on his imagination and future life, he likes to think that he is a star student, athlete and overall, just a good person, however, he is none of these things and he is so consumed in his imagination that he rejects the reality of everything and tries his hardest to stay “green.” Green, a metaphor, meaning that Tobias wishes to keep his ignorance and inexperience of the world around him forever, wishing to shun everything he has learned throughout his life in order to convince him self he is still “green.”However, at the peak of it all, Tobias ends up being hospitalized for cutting his finger severely during school and while in the hospital, Tobias becomes addicted to morphine(230). After he returns home, Tobias suffers from narcotic withdrawal and the pain from his severely gashed finger, it is a this point in which Tobias explains that knowing that everything comes to end is a “gift.” By using the word gift, Tobias assures that with experience this knowledge is given to you, never able to be taken away. He also states that people “imagine the future as more of the present,” “happiness is endless happiness, innocent of its own sure passing,” and “pain is endless pain.”