English Notes
September 25, 2015
This Boy’s Life
Journal #4: What themes are established by the 2 opening epigrams? What, in your estimation, might
this book be about?
“The first duty in life is to assume a pose. What the second is, no one has yet discovered.”
--Oscar Wild
Class responses:
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Man vs. Self
Identity
First duty in life is to figure out how to act in order to pass through society
Roles change depending on who you are (student, boyfriend, teenager)
You don’t know who you’re going to be unless you try
Choose who you want to be and pretend to be who you need to be
Are we always assuming a pose since there is no second lesson?
Is identity an act?
Are we all just acting/pretending right now?
How do you reach the point when you find out that you are yourself?
If you can convince someone of your identity, it’s almost as good as being that person
“He who fears corruption fears life.”
--Saul Alinsky
Class responses:
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Man vs. Life
There is a lot of corruption in life
If you are afraid to be corrupted, it will be tough to live life since it is all around us
If you are going to live life, you are going to be corrupt
In life your values will be corrupted at some point
This Boy’s Life Note the following themes:
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Transformation
Seeking a better life
Truth and fact, perspective and imagination
Domestic abuse
Poverty
Dreams vs. reality
Identity
Chapter 1, Fortune
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Truck went over a cliff, mother and son survive
Mother puts arm around son’s shoulder, son uses this as an emotional advantage to ask for
souvenirs (Indian belt, moccasins, bronze horse with saddle)—1950s when boys would play
cowboys and Indians
1955—mother and son drive from Florida to Utah to get away from a man his mother was
afraid of and to get rich on uranium
Drove through states, saw people offering help to the “pretty Yankee lady”
Narrator is “caught up in my mother’s freedom, her delight in the freedom, her dream of
transformation” (5).
Mother—grew up in Beverly Hills before the stock market crash of 1929, father lost all of his
money, she was chosen to ride a float in the Tournament of Roses called “The End of the
Rainbow”—ironic since there is no pot of gold—family lost their fortune
Hope of reaching Utah—hope for a rags to riches stories of finding uranium
Narrator wants to help his mother out of her misery—she had a rough life as a soda jerk,
secretary, was broke, had a long affair with a violent man
Made it to Utah—no jobs, corruption (prostitutes, murders), Geiger counters cost too much,
rooms were expensive, billboards have bullets in them
Mother feels that there must be some ore somewhere since no one had found any.
(Remember, no one found any uranium, the town had been destroyed, but she is overly
optimistic.)
Mother “knew she’d get a job”dreams vs. reality
Chapter 2
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Narrator has his own dreams of transformation
Wanted to call himself Jack after Jack London (he had a girl named Toby in his class and didn’t
want a name that could be confused for a girl’s name)
Narrator takes Jonathan as his name--attended catechism classes, took it as a baptismal name,
changed it to Jack
Father heard that Toby changed his name and was unhappy. However, father bought furniture
at antique stores so it looked like old family furniture, invented a coat of arms, family was
Jewish but he pretended to be Protestant. (Toby’s father is a liar. Connect to assuming a pose in
the epigram.)
Mother stuck up for new name because the father didn’t like it (parents are divorced).
Father got rich from marrying a wealthy woman—never gave mother and son Child Support
money
Narrator recalls Catholic school—Sister James had clubs to keep kids from converting. He joins
the archery club. Boys try to hit cats, and then each other, with the arrows. Sister James
catches the boys and tells Toby that “Practice is over.”