A Boy's Life Themes

Makin’ of a Man
Intro:
As a man Tobias Wolff is a professor, author and a Vietnam vet. But if you knew him as a kid you wouldn’t have thought that’s who he is today. In his book A Boy’s Life, a memoir he wrote, there are three themes that run throughout the book. Those themes are father figures, masculinity, and powerlessness. These themes helped shape him as who he is today.
Body 1: Toby Wolff has two main father figures while he grows up. Roy, the first one, is not the best fatherly figure for a kid. He didn’t work and lived off of a small inheritance and disability checks he receives. But, he takes Toby fishing, hunter, and other activities. “If I was lucky he would but a couple rifles in his Jeep and we’d drive into the desert to shoot at cans and look for ore.” “He was and expert hunter who always got his buck. He taught both my mother and me to shoot.” Toby’s other father figure is Dwight, also is not the
Toby was a part of the Archery Club where he took catechism classes. “… we began hunting each other.” “… we would drift beyond the targets to a stand of trees where the old nun couldn’t see us. There the game began.” They start out hitting trees near a person to actually hitting someone. Toby also has the rifle Roy taught him to shoot with. “From cleaning I went to marching around the apartment with it, and striking brave poses in front of the mirror.” Sometimes he would dress up in Roy’s old uniform and go about his pose. While Toby lives with Dwight he is a part of a Boy Scout troop; sometime he enjoys as he lives in the small town. “My uniform, baggy and barren though it was, made me feel like a soldier. Roy who really is a soldier, hunts as well. He also yelled and sometimes gets brutal with Toby’s mother, Rosemary. Dwight shows his masculinity in unique ways. “just the other side of Concrete he pulled the car hard to the left and hit a beaver that was crossing the