Comparison Of Dwight And Rosemary In This Boy's Life By Tobias Wolff

In Tobias Wolff’s This Boy’s life, Dwight and Rosemary are single parents who are drawn to each other and eventually marry but are pulled apart because they differ in the way they raise their children and their shooting ability. For example, Rosemary’s shooting ability is considerably better than Dwight’s. Rosemary enters a turkey shoot by lying to the signup man. “I’m a dues-paying member of the NRA,” Rosemary irritably states. Rosemary wins the competition despite the fact that she is the only female competing. Rosemary competes in the tournament even though she despises guns because of her bad experiences with past men. After the tournament is over, the men competing treat Rosemary as one of them. In contrast, Dwight’s shooting skills are

“Where’d you get this blunderbuss anyway?” Dwight irritatingly questions Jack. Dwight clearly shows he is jealous of Rosemary after she wins because of how humiliating the tournament is for him. Perhaps the most significant difference between Rosemary and Dwight is their willingness to trust Jack. Rosemary always trusts Jack no matter what evidence is presented against him. For instance, Rosemary defends Jack from the vice-principal, even though all evidence points toward Jack. Jack writes “F*ck you” on the newly painted wall in the bathroom. While the vice-principal is searching for the vandalizer, Jack begins to feel sick because he is scared of getting caught. The vice-principal drags Jack to the office and calls Rosemary. When Rosemary arrives, Jack says he didn’t write it. “He doesn’t lie to me,” Rosemary tiredly proclaims. She will believe anything Jack says because of her painful childhood. On the other hand, Dwight does not believe anything Jack says or does. Dwight makes Jack go to boy scouts once a week. Dwight insures that Jack is doing serious scouting by signing up as Assistant