Writing Creative Nonfiction PDF

**\ ** **Writing Creative Nonfiction** **What is creative nonfiction?** It involves writing about personal experience, real people, or events. It is writing about fact, rather than fiction. The writer can write about anything, such as a personal experience, current events, or issues in the public...

**\ ** **Writing Creative Nonfiction** **What is creative nonfiction?** It involves writing about personal experience, real people, or events. It is writing about fact, rather than fiction. The writer can write about anything, such as a personal experience, current events, or issues in the public eye. The writer can also inject personal thoughts, feelings, or opinions into the writing. Often, the writer uses the first person "I." Popular types of creative nonfiction include the personal essay, memoir, autobiography, literary journalistic essay, travel writing, and food writing. Creative nonfiction is also known as "Literary Journalism." This article identifies the techniques of creative nonfiction, defines the various types of creative nonfiction, provides some guidelines, and lists several popular books and several resources to help the aspiring writing learn the art and craft of writing creative nonfiction. **How to Write Creative Nonfiction** The creative nonfiction writer produces a personal essay, memoir, travel piece, and so forth, with a variety of techniques, writing tools, and methods. He/she is required to use the elements of nonfiction, literary devices of fiction, and what Lee Gutkind called "the 5 Rs of Creative nonfiction." The following is a brief explanation of each: **Elements of Creative Nonfiction** The creative nonfiction writer often incorporates several elements of nonfiction when writing a memoir, personal essay, travel writing, and so on. The following is a brief explanation of the most common elements of nonfiction: **Fact**. The writing must be based on fact, rather than fiction. It cannot be made up. **Extensive research.** The piece of writing is based on primary research, such as an interview or personal experience, and often secondary research, such as gathering information from books, magazines, and newspapers. **Reportage/reporting**. The writer must be able to document events or personal experiences. **Personal experience and personal opinion**. Often, the writer includes personal experience, feelings, thoughts, and opinions. For instance, when writing a personal essay or memoir. **Explanation/Exposition.** The writer is required to explain the personal experience or topic to the reader. **Essay format.** Creative nonfiction is often written in essay format. Example: Personal Essay, Literary Journalistic essay, brief essay. **Literary Elements** **Creative nonfiction is the literature of fact**. Yet, the creative nonfiction writer utilizes many of the literary devices of fiction writing. The following is a list of the most common literary devices that writers incorporate into their nonfiction writing: **Storytelling/narration.** The writer needs to be able to tell his/her story. A good story includes an inciting incident, a goal, challenges and obstacles, a turning point, and resolution of the story. **Character**. The nonfiction piece often requires a main character. Example: If a writer is creating his/her memoir, then the writer is the central character. **Setting and scene.** The writer creates scenes that are action-oriented; include dialogue; and contain vivid descriptions. **Plot and plot structure.** These are the main events that make up the story. In a personal essay, there might be only one event. In a memoir, there are often several significant events. **Figurative language.** The writer often uses simile and metaphor to create an interesting piece of creative nonfiction. **Imagery**. The writer constructs "word pictures" using sensory language. Imagery can be figurative or literal. **Point of view**. Often the writer uses the first person "I." **Dialogue**. These are the conversations spoken between people. It is an important component of creative nonfiction. **Theme**. There is a central idea that is weaved through the essay or work. Often, the theme reveals a universal truth. **The 5'Rs of Creative Nonfiction** Lee Gutkind, who is a writer, professor, and expert on creative nonfiction, wrote an essay called "The Five R's of Creative Nonfiction." In this essay, he identified five essential elements of creative nonfiction. These include: 1. **Creative nonfiction has a "real life" aspect.** The writer constructs a personal essay, memoir, and so forth, that is based on personal experience. He also writes about real people and true events. 2. **Creative nonfiction is based on the writer engaging in personal "reflection" about what he/she is writing about.** After gathering information, the writer needs to analyze and assess what he/she has collected. He then must evaluate it and expression his thoughts, views, opinions. Personal opinion is permissible and encouraged. 3. **Creative nonfiction requires that the writer complete research**. The writer needs to conduct research to learn about the topic. The writer also needs to complete research to discover what has been written about the topic. Even if a writer is crafting a personal essay, he will need to complete secondary research, such as reviewing a personal journal, or primary research, such as interviewing a friend or family member, to ensure that the information is truthful and factual. 4. **The fourth aspect of creative nonfiction is reading.** Reading while conducting research is not sufficient. The writer must read the work of the masters of his profession. 5. **The final element of creative nonfiction is writing.** Writing creative nonfiction is both an art and craft. The art of creative nonfiction requires that the writer uses his talents, instincts, creative abilities, and imagination to write memorable creative nonfiction. The craft of creative nonfiction requires that the writer learn and deploy the style and techniques of creative nonfiction in his/her work. **Types of Creative Nonfiction** Creative nonfiction is about fact and truth. The truth can be about a personal experience, event, or issue in the public eye. There are many categories or genres to choose from, such as the personal essay, memoir, and autobiography. The following is a list of the most popular types of creative nonfiction: **Personal Essay.** The writer crafts and essay that is based on personal experience or a single event, which results in significant personal meaning or a lesson learned. The writer uses the first person "I." **Memoir**. The writer constructs a true story about a time or period in his/life, one that had significant personal meaning and a universal truth. The writer composes the story using the first person "I." **Literary journalism essay**. The writer crafts an essay about an issue or topic using literary devices, such as the elements of fiction and figurative language. **Autobiography**. The writer composes his/her life story, from birth to the present, using the first person "I." **Travel Writing**. The writer crafts articles or essays about travel using literary devices. **Food writing.** The writer crafts stories about food and cuisine using literary devices. **Profiles**. The writer constructs biographies or essays on real people using literary devices. **Guidelines for Writing Creative Nonfiction** Not only must the aspiring writer of creative nonfiction learn the techniques, but he/she also requires a good understanding of the guidelines. The following are 12 guidelines for writing any type of creative nonfiction: 1. **Research the topic**. Both primary (interview, personal experience, or participant observation) and secondary research (books, magazines, newspaper, Web) 2. Never invent or change facts. An invented story is fiction. 3. Provide accurate information. Write honestly and truthfully. Information should be verifiable. 4. Provide concrete evidence. Use facts, examples, and quotations. 5. Use humour to make an important point. 6. Show the reader what happened, don't tell them what happened. To do this, dramatize the story. 7. Narrate the story. A story has an inciting incident, goal, conflict, challenges, obstacles, climax, and resolution. 8. Write about the interesting and extraordinary. Write about personal experiences, interesting people, extraordinary events, or provide a unique perspective on everyday life. 9. Organize the information. Two common techniques are chronological or logical order. 10. Use literary devices to tell the story. Choose language that stimulates and entertains the reader, such as simile, metaphor, imagery. 11. Introduce the essay or other work with a hook. Its purpose is to grab the readers' attention and compel them to reader further. Popular hooks include a quotation, question, or thought-provoking fact. 12. End the creative nonfiction piece with a final, important point. Otherwise the reader will think, "So what!" "What was the point? It was an interesting story, but how does it apply to me or my life?". **Reading List** There have been many creative nonfiction books written about a wide variety of topics, such as divorce, abuse, and happiness. To help the aspiring writer learn the art and craft of creative nonfiction, he/she ought read creative nonfiction books by the best writers. By doing this, the writer acquires an appreciation for good writing and learns how creative nonfiction is written. Some of the most popular creative nonfiction books include: **In Cold Blood by Truman Capote** **Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer** **Paper Lion by George Plimpton** **The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe** **The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolf** As well, there are several good books that are currently on many bestseller lists: **Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert** **The White Castle by Jeanette Walls** **Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson** **Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, by Azar Nafisi** **Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert** **The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin** **Nigh by Elie Wiesel** **"This Boy's Life" as a Memoir** **Memoir:** In the Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms, Murfin and Ray say that memoirs differ from autobiographies in \"their degree of outward focus. While \[memoirs\] can be considered a form of autobiographical writing, their personalized accounts tend to focus more on what the writer has witnessed than on his or her own life, character, and developing self.\" **"This Boy's Life " as a Memoir:** This Boy's Life (Grove Press 1989) memoir introduces us to the young Toby Wolff by turns tough and vulnerable, crafty and bumbling, and ultimately winning. It is a story about a mother and son trying to survive in 1950s America. Separated by divorce from his father and brother, Toby and his mother are constantly on the move, yet they develop an extraordinary close. Without good male role models Toby struggles with his identity and self-respect when his mother moves the two of them across the country. - **Jack and his mother Rosemary are day dreamer**. Jack\'s mother struggles financially to support herself and her son, but though she is neglectful at times, she loves Jack very much. Rosemary was abused as a child and cannot bring herself to inflict violence or any sort of punishment on Jack, even though she has the habit of taking up with violent men who inflict that same abuse on both of them. Jack takes advantage of Rosemary's nature. He knows when Rosemary's defenses are down and this allows him to get souvenirs even when he knows that they can't afford it. He understands that his mother does not know how to deal with him properly and that she cannot bring herself to spank him because of her own relationship with her father. The few times she has tried to scold him, he came away laughing. Optimistic nature, Rosemary believes that Jack is really going to change. Although he knows his actions have been hurting Rosemary, he doesn't know how to stop. He refuses to move to Paris because he doesn't want to have to call anyone else 'mother.\' - **Jack and Dwight hate each other.** The relationship between them affects Jack for the rest of his life. Jack was abused and controlled by his stepfather Dwight throughout the novel which makes him become a powerless, hopeless boy. Dwight is known to be an abusive and violent man and was known as being a malicious role model to Jack, which would mentally and emotionally affect Jack. Dwight taught Jack how to fight. He would encourage and persuade Jack to fight by calling him a "sissy" when originally Jack doesn't want to fight. Dwight finds out that Jack isn't masculine enough that what he had hoped. He would try to teach Jack the improper way of the qualities of what a real man should have through abuse and violence. Dwight would end up trying too hard and Jack always falls short. Dwight is actually trying to make Jack suffer and make him weaker, He would always abuse Jack and have done that ever since he first met him in Chinook. For example, he even attack Jack. "Eighty dollars seemed like a lot of money appeared to be a lot of money, more than enough for my purpose, which was to run away to Alaska."(Wolff 155) Here Jack plans on running away to Alaska and living off of the \$80 from his paper route. This statement makes Jack\'s feelings shine through, as he is willing to live off such a small sum of money in an extremely isolated place to escape Dwight's grasp and abusive behavior and once again shows off Jack's rebellious streak. However, this isn't the only time that Jack threatens to run away because of Dwight's lack of father-like qualities; Jack also has a plan for escape when he is at the amusement park, on a yearly scouting trip. He plans on leaving the park with Arthur and not coming out to the parking lot where Dwight would be waiting. This is particularly the case in This Boy's Life a memoir by Tobias Wolff, where he recalls his adolescent life without a strong father figure. In his case, he eventually does get a father figure, Dwight, a man with a drinking problem and an obsession for hunting. Throughout the memoir, Jack struggles without a father, he is constantly in trouble and goes undisciplined, and when Dwight comes into his life, he is abusive, and he makes Jack obsessed with running away. Jack's lack of a strong father figure makes him rebellious. Jack\'s kind older brother Geoffrey who is a student at Princeton while Jack is still in high school. Geoffrey has grown up in his father\'s custody and goes for years without seeing Jack. Six years after their last meeting, he and Jack begin corresponding by mail. When Jack tells Geoffrey of the abuse he endures in Chinook, Geoffrey encourages Jack to apply to private schools on the east coast and arranges for them to meet during the summer. When they do meet, Geoffrey cares for Jack like a father. He is the one who encourages Jack to seek a better education for himself. ***This Boy's Life*** Narrator Toby "Jack" Wolff Point Of View The narrator speaks in the first person, and creates an entirely subjective description of characters and events, frequently expressing personal judgment and bias. **Tone** Jack's narration is consistently subjective and is often informal by means of colloquialisms, slang, and humor. **Tense** Distant past; Jack is describing his childhood and adolescence as a middle-aged adult **Setting (Time)** A period of about ten years from 1955 to 1965. **Setting (Place)** The story begins en route from Florida to Utah, then moves to Washington state, first to Seattle, and then to Chinook. Protagonist Toby "Jack" Wolff Major Conflict Jack continually struggles against Dwight's cruelty. **Rising Action** Jack is accepted to the Hill School and plans to leave Chinook in the fall; he begins to stand up for himself to Dwight **Climax** Dwight injures Jack over an empty jar of mustard, and Rosemary decides that Jack will move out, and that she will finally leave Dwight. **Falling Action** Jack stays with Chuck Bolger and his family and readies himself for school at Hill. **Foreshadowing** Jack's exaggerated portrayals of himself in his letters to Alice and Annette foretell his continuous and profound desire to use writing to transcend his circumstances. **This Boy's Life : SUMMARY** In 1955, Toby Wolff and his mother are on their way to Utah to make their fortune by mining uranium. While in Utah, Toby changes his name to Jack in honor of the author Jack London and also to remove himself from his father, who abandoned Jack and his mother shortly after Jack was born. Jack's father is now living in Connecticut with Jack's brother, Geoffrey, a student at Princeton, and is married to a millionairess. Jack shares an intimate closeness with his mother who, because of her own abusive childhood, habitually involves herself with violent and volatile men. First, there is Roy, Rosemary's second husband, who follows Rosemary and Jack from Florida to Utah. When Roy leaves them, Rosemary moves with Jack to Seattle, where she meets Dwight, who seems harmless until Jack moves to Chinook to live with him, where Dwight reveals himself to be cruel and petty. Dwight criticizes and berates Jack for real and imagined flaws, and his rants are constantly at the forefront of Jack's mind. Dwight assigns Jack chores for no reason other than to exhibit his power and control over the household. Dwight also forces Jack to deliver newspapers and takes the money Jack earns for himself. The only time Dwight expresses a genuine interest in Jack is when he teaches Jack how to fight. Dwight is excited by Jack's display of aggression, especially because it will be directed against Arthur Gayle, a notorious "sissy" who has a short-lived friendship with Jack. Jack takes refuge in his unusually vivid imagination. Dwight's abuse and Jack's own general unhappiness in Chinook only fuel Jack's fantasies. Jack longs to escape from Chinook so that he can recreate himself, but he can only live the life he wants for himself in his own mind. Jack essentially creates his own reality, as is evidenced when he forges ecstatic letters of praise for his application to private boarding schools. In school, Jack tends to run with a dangerous crowd, often getting into trouble with the authorities, but in his applications to private schools, Jack writes that he is an A-student, star athlete, and good citizen. Jack is obsessed with the idea of himself as a virtuous and gifted young man, and has no trouble believing his that lies are the truth. Jack has many dreams of running away, but he never succeeds in actualizing them. Jack's first real attempt at running away involves a plan to flee to Alaska with Arthur. Jack plans to make his getaway after a Boy Scout meeting in another town, but he ends up befriending a group of boys from another troop, distancing himself from Arthur, and being conned out of all of his money. Later, Jack tries to take refuge with his older brother, Geoffrey, at Princeton, but this plan goes awry when Jack is caught forging a bank check. Jack finally gets the opportunity to leave Chinook and start anew when he is accepted to the elite Hill School. Mr. Howard, an alumnus of Hill, interviews Jack and serves as Jack's mentor. Later, when Mr. Howard and his wife have Jack fitted for a new wardrobe, Jack is warmed by their attention and affection, which he has experienced very little of at home. Before Jack leaves home for Hill, he and Rosemary leave Dwight after Dwight shoves Jack in front of her. Rosemary arranges for Jack to live temporarily with his friend Chuck Bolger. Although Jack promises his mother that he will be on his best behavior while at the Bolgers', he breaks his promise and is caught stealing gasoline from the nearby Welch farm. Jack feels terrible about stealing from the Welches, but cannot bring himself to apologize, which infuriates Mr. Bolger. Mr. Bolger arranges for Jack to work at the Welch farm, but the Welches refuse Jack's help. Meanwhile, Chuck Bolger is about to be arrested for the statutory rape of a girl named Tina Flood, who is pregnant, possibly by him. The sheriff offers to excuse Chuck if he marries Tina, but Chuck refuses. Chuck is on the verge of being sent to jail when he is rescued by another of the defendants, Huff, who agrees to marry Tina in his place. The summer before Jack is due to begin at Hill, he goes to stay with his father in California to spend some time with his father and his brother. Immediately after Jack arrives, however, his father leaves for Las Vegas with his girlfriend. When Jack's father returns, he is arrested and later committed to a sanitarium, where he remains for the rest of the summer. Not surprisingly, Jack cannot make the grades that Hill demands, and is expelled midway through his senior year. After he is expelled from school, Jack joins the army and serves in the Vietnam War. ***Characters List*** **Jack Wolff** It is difficult to imagine not feeling at least some sympathy for the young narrator of This Boy's Life, a vibrant protagonist who refuses to surrender his belief in himself and his future despite a turbulent adolescence. Jack relies on his imagination to escape from the grim circumstances of his childhood, which is riddled with domestic violence, alcohol abuse, criminal activity, and emotional neglect. As a coping mechanism, Jack pays little attention to how he is perceived and instead imagines himself wherever he wants to be, free of the restraints placed on him in real life. Jack's imagination is what drives him to overcome the adversity he must endure at home, especially at the hands of Dwight. Sometimes, however, Jack is overcome by the power of his fantasies and is convinced that they are even more real than reality. For example, when Jack forges letters of recommendation from his teachers, he is fully aware that he is writing lies, but to him they seem more real than the facts, unveiling the core of virtuosity and intellect that Jack believes are inside of him. Whichever school Jack attends, he has a knack for befriending the school's most notorious troublemakers. Jack possesses a strong sense of self and refuses to allow anyone else, especially Dwight, to define him, but he cannot help but be influenced by his delinquent friends to drink, steal, and generally wreak havoc. At heart, Jack remains a kind person, and is especially caring and compassionate toward his mother. Jack's relationship with his mother is complicated and intimate, and it is not unusual for him to sometimes act as her parent, comforting her when she is sad and offering her guidance. In this way, Jack is more mature than most boys of his age, and feels he must accept responsibility even for situations and events that he could not have controlled, such as his father's abandonment of the family. This sense of responsibility and duty manifests itself in Jack as a deep sense of guilt, which plagues him throughout his youth. As a young boy especially, Jack feels inadequate and unworthy of any good fortune that presents itself to him. However, as he grows older, Jack realizes that he deserves more than the meager attention and care he is given. **Rosemary Wolff** As a mother, Rosemary is unconventional, wanting to travel and explore instead of baking cookies and making babies. It is clear that she loves her son very much, but her well-meaning decisions can prove destructive, such as her marrying Dwight for the sake of providing Jack with a stable home life. In her attempts to assume a conventional, family-oriented lifestyle, Rosemary betrays herself and suffers for it, even though it is never her intention to inflict harm on Jack or on herself. Rosemary's temper is remarkably mild, much like Jack's. Even when Jack has caused terrible trouble or shamed himself, such as when he steals from the Welch's farm, Rosemary cannot bear the thought of striking or even verbally reprimanding him. Rosemary's restraint is the direct result of her own abusive childhood, as she is deeply scarred by the violence and cruelty she has suffered at the hands of her father. Although Rosemary makes a conscious effort not to treat her children like her father did, she is attracted to men who use violence to assert their authority and power. Rosemary is fiercely independent, but whenever she has garnered sufficient courage, strength, and money to leave one bully, she moves on to yet another. Like Jack, Rosemary never loses faith that her situation will improve, however tragic her circumstances. She remains confident that whatever hardship she is enduring will eventually pass. **Dwight** Dwight is unmistakably the antagonist of the memoir, a villain who steals Jack's happy childhood right out from underneath him. Dwight is cruel, a monster whose only motivation is to degrade and defile everyone he can. The worst of Dwight's brutality is directed at Jack, who is rendered helpless by Dwight's unflinching adult authority. Dwight mercilessly berates Jack for his every move and, at his worst, uses physical force to make his power known. Dwight derives satisfaction from exercising his power over other people, primarily Jack and Rosemary, and needs to belittle and victimize others to reassure himself that he is important. Dwight is also exceedingly deceptive and dishonest, either making various promises he cannot keep, or simply lying outright, relishing his self-serving underhandedness. This deception is best exemplified when Dwight steals Jack and Rosemary's hard-earned wages, spending the money on himself after he has assured them both that he is depositing it into their respective bank accounts. **This Boy's Life** **Major and Minor Character's Short Introduction** **Toby "Jack" Wolff** The author and protagonist of the autobiography, Jack leads the reader through his troubled boyhood, which is plagued by domestic abuse and misbehavior. Despite his grim upbringing, Jack remains hopeful and is convinced that he is capable of a better life. In elementary school, Jack change his name from Toby to Jack, after the author Jack London, which his mother begrudgingly allows him to do. **Rosemary Wolff** Jack's mother struggles financially to support herself and her son, but though she is neglectful at times, she loves Jack very much. Rosemary was abused as a child and cannot bring herself to inflict violence or any sort of punishment on Jack, even though she has the habit of taking up with violent men who inflict that same abuse on both of them. **Dwight** A cruel and violent man who convinces Rosemary to marry him and move to Chinook to live with him. Dwight is especially resentful of Jack and treats him with the utmost brutality. Dwight drinks to excess, steals Jack's and Rosemary's money, and often instigates physical altercations with Jack. **Geoffrey Wolff** Jack's kind older brother, who is a student at Princeton while Jack is still in high school. Geoffrey has grown up in his father's custody and goes for years without seeing Jack. Six years after their last meeting, he and Jack begin corresponding by mail. When Jack tells Geoffrey of the abuse he endures in Chinook, Geoffrey encourages Jack to apply to private schools on the east coast and arranges for them to meet during the summer. When they do meet, Geoffrey cares for Jack like a father. **Arthur Wolff** Jack's biological father is a compulsive liar, who makes promises to Jack that he cannot keep. When Jack goes to stay with Arthur for the summer, Arthur leaves for a vacation with his girlfriend on the day of Jack's arrival. When Jack's father returns, he is arrested and committed to a sanitarium, where he remains for the rest of Jack's visit. **Arthur Gayle** The overweight, outcast boy who spends most of his time with his dog, Pepper, and eventually becomes Jack's best friend. After Jack calls Arthur a sissy, they get into a fistfight. After the fight they become friends, although ultimately, because of Jack's insensitivity, that friendship does not last. **Chuck Bolger** The son of a minister, Chuck Jack's gentle, somewhat alcoholic friend who impregnates Tina Flood, an overweight fifteen-year-old girl at their high school. Chuck refuses to marry Tina, and is pardoned when his friend Huff agrees to marry her instead. Jack lives with Chuck for a short period. **Jerry Huff** **A short but physically** strong boy, Huff is popular with the girls at school and is exceptionally vain. Huff bullies even those who have beaten him in fistfights. He later marries the pregnant Tina to save himself from doing jail time as an accessory to statutory rape. **Roy** Rosemary's alcoholic and abusive ex-husband who follows her and Jack from Sarasota to Salt Lake City after she has fled from him. Roy is extremely possessive of Rosemary and checks up on her obsessively. Roy has a fascination for guns, and gives Jack his Winchester.22. **Norma** Dwight's eldest daughter, for whom Jack harbors a secret infatuation. Norma is sweet and chipper in her youth, and loves Bobby Crow, a good-hearted boy from school whom she calls "Bobo." Later, Norma decides that Bobby is not ambitious enough to marry and settles for Kenneth, a miserable man who turns her tired and morose. **Bobby Crow** Norma's high school sweetheart, a Native American boy from Marblemount who is a star football quarterback at Concrete High. When Norma decides not to marry Bobby, he is heartbroken and turns angry and bitter. **Kenneth** The detestable, argumentative man Norma suddenly chooses to marry instead of Bobby. Kenneth is a strict Christian and attempts to impose his values upon everyone else. **Pearl** Dwight's coddled youngest child, who is nearly the same age as Jack. Pearl and Jack despise one another, particularly when they are young, and do everything possible to get on each other's nerves. Pearl especially enjoys seeing Jack bear the brunt of Dwight's wrath. **Skipper** A few years older than Jack, Dwight's second-eldest child, Skipper, is reserved and polite. He spends months transforming a beat-up 1949 Ford, only to have it destroyed in a sandstorm on his way to Mexico. **Mr. Howard** An alumnus of Hill Preparatory School who is sent to interview Jack before his acceptance. Mr. Howard is exceedingly happy when Jack is accepted at Hill, and generously takes him to his own tailor in Seattle to be fitted for a new school wardrobe. **Jack Welch** A simple, gentle boy with whom Jack is sometimes made to wrestle in gym class. The Welch boy's father owns a farm from which Jack and Chuck are caught stealing. **Sister James** The honest and spunky nun at Jack's elementary school in Salt Lake City who organizes after-school activities to keep her students out of trouble. Sister James shows a particular concern for Jack, and when he has trouble confessing his sins to the priest, she takes him to the kitchen, where shares her own stories of childhood delinquency. **Marian** The obnoxious, overweight housekeeper in the Seattle boarding-house. Marian and Jack have nothing but disdain for one another, principally because she is always urging Rosemary to discipline Jack with more force. Marian shares the ramshackle house with Kathy and Rosemary. **Kathy** A plain and shy secretary who tries to conceal her out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Rosemary first meets Kathy while they both reside in the boarding-house in Seattle. Later, before Kathy gives birth to her son, Willy, she shares a ramshackle house with Rosemary and Marian. **Terry Taylor and Terry Silver** Jack's delinquent friends from Salt Lake City. Together with Jack, Terry and Terry egg passersby from the roof of an apartment building and watch the Mickey Mouse Club while making vulgar remarks about one of the show's stars. **Uncle Stephen** **Rosemary's brother a**nd Jack's uncle, who lives in Paris. After Jack writes to Stephen with an exaggerated tale of his grim family situation, Stephen invites Jack to live with him and his family in Paris, but only if Jack will agree to forfeit his name so that Stephen can officially adopt him. **Mr. Mitchell** The gym teacher at Concrete high who organizes the "smokers" and forces Jack and Arthur to battle one another in the ring. **Tina Flood** The fifteen-year-old girl who is impregnated by Chuck Bolger. Tina's father charges Chuck with statutory rape and also holds Huff responsible. Huff marries Tina so that he will not have to do jail time. **This Boy's Life : Themes** **Escapism Via Imagination** Throughout the novel, Jack uses his imagination as a place of refuge, which is otherwise absent from his unhappy domestic life. During his years in Chinook, Jack wants nothing more than to escape from Dwight's authority and from the preconceived notions that people there have developed of him. Jack's actual attempts to run away are unsuccessful, so he frequently retreats into figurative escapes, where imagines a better life for himself. For example, when Jack cannot go to Paris as he had hoped, he envisions himself among the city's cobbled streets, green roofs, and cafés. Similarly, Jack imagines that the successful-looking men who pass him on the street are his father coming to greet him. Jack uses his imaginative fantasies as a vehicle to escape from the misery of his home life, and it is because of these fantasies that he is able to endure. **Desire and Desperation For Self-recreation** Often, the lies that Jack tells seem all too real to him, and he even goes so far as to adopt some of them as the actual truth. This staunch faith in his own lies can also be read as Jack's belief in himself, for, despite his poor grades and record, Jack is convinced that he is actually a member of the elite. This belief is especially powerful when Jack forges letters of recommendation from his teachers, all of which are full of ebullient, exaggerated praise that Jack thinks of as true and honest. Jack studies a book called The Status Seekers that instructs him on how he can "betray his origins" and infiltrate the upper class. Jack wants to leave home not only because he is unhappy there, but also because he yearns for the opportunity to recreate in a place where he does not have a tarnished reputation. He does not believe that he is the thief and liar that Dwight claims he is, but that he is a good-hearted boy pushed by circumstances to do what he needs to escape. **Promises Made, Promises Broken** From Jack's boyhood into his late adolescence, Jack is promised fantastic gifts that never actually materialize. Because of this, he feels overlooked and disappointed. From the very beginning of the book, disappointment lies around every corner for Jack. After driving across the country in search of fortune, he and his mother learn that there is no uranium left, and continue to live in poverty. Later, Dwight promises Jack that he will participate in the turkey shoot during his Thanksgiving visit, then rescinds this promise. After Jack and Rosemary begin living with Dwight, Jack wants desperately to escape, and is thrilled when he is offered trips to both Mexico and Paris. Neither trip, however, ever materializes. The ultimate disappointment comes when Jack arrives in California, excited to spend the summer with his father and with Geoffrey. Instead of spending time with Jack, however, Jack's father leaves only one day after Jack arrives in California, and is arrested as soon as he returns. **Family dysfunction** This story deals with the real experiences of the author, Tobias Wolff, and the dysfunction that was inflicted on his family by the mental health issues of the father and mother, and the father's abandonment of them. Rosemary doesn't make the wisest decisions, and it is hard for her not to focus on herself and meeting her own emotional and sexual needs, instead of thinking about her family and putting her son before herself. Therefore, the son acts out, but he needs acceptance, warmth, and justice While there are moments of real familial love, in essence, the family dysfunction happens because they try too much to follow and act in ways that society expects them to. **Men, Masculinity and Violence** The men whom Rosemary attracts are typically somewhat aggressive and violent. She sends signals about her availability that make her an obvious choice for men who are often single because they are unmanaged and abusive. These men include Dwight who almost instantly treats Jack as his mortal enemy or something (at least that's how Jack recalls it). Dwight mistreats Jack and there is violence and bitterness between them. Because Jack resents Dwight's buffoonish violence, he is violent in more crafted, elaborate ways, often stealing. **Mental health and depression** These characters are manic when they mate, but then they settle quickly into old patterns of depression. Having changed scenery (which Rosemary does to Toby over and over again, never letting him establish a feeling for home base) and having changed the people in the family system, having tried alone as a single mother and with a litany of unhelpful men, the family has long-established patterns and tendencies toward isolation, resent, and eventually full-blown regret and depression. By the time this reaches its climax, young Tobias is drafted. **Identity** Because he has been surrounded by unfit parenting his whole adolescent life, with a long line of abusive and negative father figures, Toby has become insecure and believes that his identity has always been inferior to others. It is due to such insecurity and a lack of belonging, that Jack becomes infatuated with immoral acts and violence. **This Boy's life : Motifs** **Betrayal** Throughout This Boy's Life, Jack is keenly aware that other people betray him, although he does not realize that he often betrays himself. From his childhood, Jack feels betrayed by his father, even though he makes excuses for his father, throughout his adolescence. It is only when Jack is an adult that he can truly admit to the painful feelings that he has suppressed for his father. Jack, however, is also capable of trickery, as becomes evident when he takes Geoffrey's suggestion that he apply to private schools. Jack lies to his own brother that he is a star athlete and an A student, thereby betraying not only Geoffrey but himself as well. This betrayal of self and of one's past seems "the most natural thing in the world" to Jack, as he has long harbored fantasies of self-recreation. **Guilt and Self-loathing** Jack's feelings of guilt and unworthiness stem from his conflicting desire and incapability to be a hero. Jack adopts the responsibilities his father has abandoned and wants to provide for his mother by saving her from both Roy and Dwight, and also by bailing them out of their poverty and unhappiness. Jack is only a child, however, and the situation is beyond his grasp. Therefore, Jack ignores reality and fabricates his own heroics to find some degree of comfort. Jack also feels deeply guilty for his own existence, which he thinks hinders his mother from enjoying the independence she had before Jack was born. **White Paint** Before Rosemary arrives in Chinook, Dwight recruits Jack to help him paint every wall, and item in the house a stark and glaring shade of white. Typically, white is symbolic of purity, or a new beginning. When Jack and Dwight paint the house white, it does indeed mark a new beginning, but is more symbolic as a mask for what Dwight does not want Rosemary to see. Jack notes that after they have painted the piano, only the black keys show through, a foreboding vision that is indicative of the misery Dwight will cause them. Later, Dwight coats an entire Christmas tree with white spray-paint, as if to cover up for the miserable holiday to come. ***This Boy's Life : Symbols*** ***Jack's Winchester.22 Rifle*** The Winchester rifle Roy gives to Jack serves as a symbol of the power and control Jack so desperately craves. Because he is just a boy, Jack is powerless to protect himself and his mother from violence, poverty, and unhappiness, and it is only when he has the rifle in his hands that Jack feels that he is more of a man than a boy, and has at last acquired some small scrap of authority that might otherwise be impossible to attain. When Dwight takes Jack's rifle to the turkey shoot, he is symbolically revoking and claiming for himself the power that Jack once had. **Dying Salmon** The dying salmon that Dwight points out to Rosemary and Jack, swimming from their home in salt water to fresh water so that they may spawn, are symbolic and darkly foreboding of the move that Jack and Rosemary will soon make from Seattle to Chinook. Having left their home, the salmon are dying, their bodies being stripped of their pink flesh as they reject their new environment. Like the salmon, parts of Jack and Rosemary will die once they move and are subjected to Dwight's cruelty and pettiness. **The Boy Scout Uniform** When Jack joins the Boy Scouts, Dwight joins him and proceeds to criticize Jack's every move within the club. He then gives Jack an old, outdated uniform and buys himself a new, well-adorned version. This represents Dwight's desire to insert himself into every realm of Jack's life and chastise it, under the guise of "teaching him" or "making him a man." **Moldy Beaver** The beaver that Dwight kills while driving Jack "home" to Chinook for the first time is symbolic of the future that awaits Jack, who is about to become like the beaver, helpless and at Dwight's mercy. Two years later, Jack finds the beaver in the attic. It had been left in a basin to cure and was soon forgotten about, just as Jack feels he has been forgotten since his arrival in Chinook. Over time, the beaver has decomposed, sprouting two feet of mold that bear an eerie resemblance to its living form. Jack is comparable to this beaver in that he has has become a mere shell of himself while living under Dwight, even though he is physically the same. **The White Paint** Before Jack and his mother move to Chinook, Dwight paints the entire house house white to impress them, the ceiling, the furniture, the piano keys and all. This is symbolic of Dwight's strange and eerie attempts to cover up his horrible, dysfunctional reality. ***Important Questions and Answers*** **1. How does Tobias Wolff show that marriage is a complex institution?** Wolff is living with his mother, and from an early age, he can observe his parents' marriage life. Wolff's father leaves Tobias and his mother and goes to live with a rich woman. Later, Tobias' mother gets another boyfriend whom she lived with for a while. Tobias' mother parts ways with Roy, her first boyfriend, and she gets a new boyfriend called Dwight. The reader realizes that marriage in America is non-committal because partners can shift as they wish and move on with life. **2. What is the significance of Rosemary's character in the book 'This Boy's Life: A Memoir' by Tobias Wolff?** The author uses his mother, Rosemary, symbolically to represent irresponsible motherhood. Tobias depicts his mother as a woman who is chasing after rich men. Rosemary moves from one place to the other with Tobias to search for able men. She parts ways with Toby's mother to get a new boyfriend called Dwight. Rosemary later leaves Dwight for another man. Consequently, Wolff depicts Rosemary as a get-rich-quick scheme woman, reflecting the reality in life because many women will do anything to get married to a rich woman. **3. Why is Dwight taking advantage of Rosemary?** Rosemary positions herself as a woman who wants to attract any able man. Therefore, Rosemary falls prey to most aggressive and single men because they cannot manage principled women. Dwight is among the aggressive men who are after cheap women who they can manipulate. Dwight takes advantage of Rosemary's vulnerability to misuse her as he wishes. Dwight mistreats Rosemary, and he often abuses Toby. Toby has no choice to endure the sufferings because his mother does not even defend him from her aggressive boyfriend.