This Boys Life by Tobias Wolff Essay examples -- Papers

This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff Mark Twain once said, "We are creatures of outside influences -- we originate nothing within. Whenever we take a new line of thought and drift into a new line of belief and action, the impulse is always suggested from the outside." In the memoir This Boy’s Life, by Tobias Wolff Jack shows that he is a creature of outside influence. Some examples of this are that he copies what his friends do, he doesn't try to shape his own life, and he is heavily influenced by the male figures in his life. Throughout this novel, Jack does whatever his friends do. When he was living in Seattle with his mother, he was influenced by his new friends to do bad things. His friends, Silver and Terry were kids with no one to discipline them. They befriended Jack and together they caused lots of trouble, â€Å"We broke street lights. We opened the doors of parked cars on hills and released the emergency brakes so the smashed into the cars below†¦. And we stole†(61). This shows that although Jack is good on the inside, he does whatever his friends do. Later when he an...