Power In This Boy's Life By Tobias Wolff

Quinn Boone

Holmes

Pre- AP English 1

19 November 2014

This Boy’s Life: Power Tobias Wolff, the author of the memoir, This Boy’s Life, exclaims “Power can be enjoyed only when it is recognized and feared. Fearlessness in those without power is maddening to those who have it” (25). The book’s characters feed off power, but their conception of what makes them powerful changes. Wolff has been setting up this theme since the beginning of the book: Instead of reaching deep within themselves to find out what makes them powerful, the characters turn to other people to tell them how to be and feel powerful. One great example of this reoccurring theme would be Toby, the novels main character. Toby, who embodies Tobias Wolff’s childhood self,

Like many kids of his age, Toby wants to be “cool” because he feels it makes him powerful. First, Toby finds himself a set of “cool” friends, Terry Taylor and Terry Silver, and like many children of their time, they enjoy watching nazi war rallies on television. As they watch, they misinterpreted the true meaning and feel “the real point [is] to celebrate snappy uniforms” (41). When the boy’s think they understand “the real point” it shows how gullible they are to have a “snappy” appearance. Jack and his friends disregard the evil the nazi uniform represents, and just see them as powerful and want to emulate their “coolness.” Then, when the boys cut their hair into a “cool” style, in turn, Toby’s mother “[forbids] [him] to wear it, which [means] [he] [wears] it everywhere” (43). Although his mother “forbids” him to wear the “hairdo,” he defies her because it gives him power over her. Toby’s defiance of his mother shows his need to have a slick appearance because he does not feel powerful giving into his mothers command. Finally, as Toby and his snobby friends stare at themselves in the mirror of their school bathroom with their “collars raised behind [their] necks. [They] should [look] cool, but they [were] not” (43). When Wolff states Toby and his friends “should look cool, but they were not”, he shows his childhood realization that outward appearance does not make him feel powerful. Toby realizes having a slick appearance does not give him that certain power over others in which he yearns for. Toby’s gullibility and admiration for bad role models give him a false sense of what makes a man powerful, when he should look within himself to find what makes him