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In Tobias Wolff’s confronting memoir “This Boy’s Life” the struggle to find ones personal identity is seen throughout as it provides an intimate description of the emotional events encompassing
Wolff’s adolescence amid the wandering of the United States together with his itinerant mother. It introduces us to the critical and sensitive adolescent years of Jack. The beginning of the memoir is a good illustration of how the young Tobias Wolff feared other peoples perceptions of his true self while fighting for personal identity amongst those who are able to see through his transparent barrier. It is soon made apparent to the audience that as a coping mechanism in conjunction with his desire to reinvent his identity, a theme posed throughout the narrative, Jacks only means of escape is his wild and vivid imagination. As a result Jack became overcome by his fantasies and stories so much that even he began to believe them as he continuously repudiates his responsibilities “I had become convinced of my own innocence”. Characters such Rosemary, the antagonistic Dwight and Roy alongside miner characters of Marian, Silver and Taylor often more than not hamper his ambition to be different “I was not the young gentleman I pretended to be”. As
Victor Frankl states, “when we can no longer change the situation we are forced to change ourselves.” When one is continuously faced with unrelenting barriers growing up they may be forced to take on a different persona in order to assist in the reinvention of their identity. Such is seen to be the case in this poignant yet reflective retrospective.
In the beginning the audience is immediately drawn to Jacks own dreams of transformation and freedom however by being influenced by his “mothers freedom. Her dream of transformation”, it roadblocked his ambition to reinvent himself as Jack is continuously troubled by fits of unworthiness and constant speculation that his identity is a ‘transparent facade’. Jack constantly yearns to become the