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 honour 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 actualising 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 cheque.
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 behaviour 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 apologise, 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 mental institution, 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.
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 realises that he deserves more than the meagre attention and care he is given.
As a mother, Rosemary is unconventional, wanting to travel and explore instead of bake cookies and make 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 of 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 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 victimise others to reassure himself that he is important. Dwight is also exceedingly deceptive and dishonest, 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.
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.
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 like Amir. 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 like Amir to do what he needs to escape.
From Jack's boyhood into his late adolescence, Jack is promised fantastic gifts that never actually materialise. Because of this, he feels overlooked and disappointed like Amir. 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 materialises. 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.
Throughout This Boy's Life, Jack is keenly aware that other people betray him, although he does not realise that he often betrays himself. From his childhood, Jack feels betrayed by his father like Amir and Michele, 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 like Amir seems "the most natural thing in the world" to Jack, as he has long harboured fantasies of self-recreation.
Jack's feelings of guilt and unworthiness like Amir 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 like Michele 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.
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.
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 like Michele 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.
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 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 mould that bear an eerie resemblance to its living form. Jack is comparable to this beaver in that he has become a mere shell of himself while living under Dwight, even though he is physically the same.
It is the summer of 1955, and ten-year-old Toby and his mother, Rosemary are driving from Florida to Utah in their decrepit car. They are on their way to Utah to make their fortune by mining uranium ore, and to escape Roy, an abusive ex-husband of Rosemary's who she has taken up with again. The car overheats and they stop to let it cool. While Rosemary and Toby are waiting, they see a big truck careen over the road's guard-rails and fall hundreds of feet into the river gorge below. For the remainder of the day, Rosemary dotes on Toby and he takes advantage of her sentimentality to buy Indian souvenirs. Toby and Rosemary have faith that their luck will change for the better once they arrive in Utah. Rosemary recalls how when she was a child, before the Stock Market Crash of 1929 she lived in a big house in Beverly Hills. Her father was a "paper millionaire," and Rosemary dreams of return to this comfortable lifestyle. When they arrive in Moab, Utah, however, Toby and his mother find that they are months too late. People just like them have swarmed the state's mining towns looking for fast money and a new life. This sudden influx of people has turned Moab into a dangerous slum. There are no jobs, and the Geiger counters necessary for mining are overpriced. Rosemary decides to buy a "poor man's Geiger counter"—a black light which supposedly makes uranium glow—and to drive to Salt Lake City, where she is confident she will find work.
Toby wishes to change himself, and vows not to be the same boy he was in Florida. Toby wants to change his name to Jack, after the author Jack London, and his mother begrudgingly concedes on the condition that Toby enrol in catechism classes and take Jonathan as his baptismal name. Toby's father, who is now married to a rich woman in Connecticut, does not want Toby to change his name or become a Catholic, and claims that Toby will be breaking with family tradition. This tradition, Toby later learns, is a lie. Toby feels that by shedding the name his father gave him he will shed any attachment to his father unlike Amir, who has never provided for Toby or his mother.
Toby, known as Jack for the remainder of the book, attends Catholic school, where he is taught by Sister James. In an effort to keep her students out of trouble, Sister James develops an after-school program. Jack joins the archery club. One day, as Jack is preparing to shoot at a classmate, Sister James catches him. Jack is very ashamed of himself, feeling deeply guilty and "unworthy," as he often does throughout the rest of the memoir like Amir. Jack feels such shame at being caught, he habitually skips archery and even some of his classes. His mother does not have a phone, so there is no direct way for her to find out.
When Jack isn't playing with his Mormon friends, he is roaming the streets, befriending dogs and strangers. He sees businessmen and imagines that each one is his father. Jack also uses his vivid imagination in his letters to Alice, a pen pal from Phoenix. In his letters, Jack glamorises his life to be what he wants to live, and not what he's living. As he wanders around town, often Jack feels deeply lonely. Like Michele, and like Amir.
Roy has followed Jack and Rosemary to Salt Lake City, and spends most of his time at Rosemary's apartment. Every day, Roy sits in his car outside of Rosemary's office, waiting for her to leave work so that he can follow her home. Jack sometimes comes with Roy, although Roy makes Jack promise not to tell his mother. On one such trip, there is no sign of Rosemary. Roy drives wildly around the block, and when he and Jack return home to find Rosemary cooking dinner, Roy accuses her of having an affair. Rosemary explains that she had only left work early to go shopping. According to Catholic ritual, Jack must go to confession before he can receive communion. Despite his general feelings of guilt, Jack cannot bring himself to confess. To relax him, Sister James gives Jack cookies and milk, and tells him that as a child, she was a "backbiter" and a thief. When Jack re-enters the confessional, he still does not know what to tell the priest, so he lies that he is a backbiter and a thief.
The first and second chapters of This Boy's Life introduce two of the memoir's major themes, namely Jack's feelings of guilt and unworthiness, and his desire to transform himself into the boy he fantasises about being. More than anything, Jack wants to be the privileged, independent boy he describes himself as in his letters to Alice. Jack is determined to impress Alice, his mother, Sister James, and every other person who enters into his life. He makes no attempt, however, to actually realise his fantasies, and can only keep dreaming of transforming himself into the charmed young man he so desires to be. Eventually, these elaborate dreams become Jack's reality, as they are the only thing he can depend on. Even though his elaborate fantasies are untrue, they are a constant source of comfort for Jack, and he relies on them to provide stability in his otherwise unstable life. Ultimately, Jack believes he can make these fantasies real, but he does not yet realise, exactly what such a metamorphosis will take. Jack's visions of himself living an idealised life are what fuel his desire for self-transformation. Jack not only wants to be admirable, but noble and brave, such as the characters he idolises in the Jack London novels. In changing his name, Jack feels that he is one step closer to becoming the hero he wishes to be, and one step further from his father, Amir & Michele wish to be just like their fathers who has, until then, caused Jack and his mother nothing but pain and heartache. Jack's feelings of guilt and unworthiness are also a motivator for his visions of himself as a hero. Jack adopts the responsibilities his father has left him with, and wants to provide for his mother and somehow bail them out of their poverty and unhappiness. Jack is only a child, however, and the situation is far beyond his grasp. Therefore, Jack ignores reality and fabricates his own heroics to achieve a heightened sense of self and a feeling of comfort. When Sister James catches Jack aiming his arrow at another boy, Jack is guilt- ridden because he has betrayed someone who was good to him. Subconsciously, Jack makes a comparison between his father's betrayal and his own betrayal of Sister James. Amir’s betrayal of Hassan; Michele’s ‘betrayal’ of his father Jack's feelings of guilt over betraying Sister James are exacerbated by his fear that he will cause further distress to his mother, whom he wants only to rescue.
Jack pesters Roy to give him a Winchester .22 rifle that Jack is fixated upon. When Roy eventually does give Jack the rifle, Rosemary is angry. She demands that Roy take the rifle back, which he does. Roy begs Rosemary to let Jack have the rifle, and after a few days, she relents, but only on the condition that Jack not use the rifle unsupervised. Jack breaks this rule, at first only taking the rifle out to clean its barrels, but then loading it and aiming it at passersby under the apartment window. Jack relishes the power he has over the passersby. One afternoon, Jack shoots and kills a squirrel. He fears being caught, but is never accused. Rosemary and Jack bury the squirrel behind their apartment. Jack, who loves animals, is riddled with guilt for killing the squirrel and cries himself to sleep. The temptation to shoot the rifle is so powerful that Jack grows fearful of being alone, and for a number of days does not go home after school, but wanders the streets instead.
Jack eventually begins to play with the rifle again. One day, while Jack is looking out the window through the gun's sights, he sees a car full of nuns pull up outside of his apartment building. He watches as Sister James gets out of the car and hides when she knocks on his door. Jack is tempted to answer, but does not for fear that Sister James will not understand his behaviour. She slips an envelope under the door addressed to his mother, which Jack immediately reads and then burns to ashes.
Roy asks Jack offhandedly what Jack thinks about having a little brother. Jack does not like the idea at all, but passively nods at Roy's suggestion that a little brother would be "a lot of fun." The next morning, Jack sees Roy packing up his Jeep and wishes him good luck as he drives away. Jack never sees Roy again. When Jack returns home from school that day, he finds his mother cheerfully packing up her belongings. She excitedly tells Jack that they are moving, although she is not yet sure where they are going. Jack packs the Winchester .22 rifle that Roy has given him, but Rosemary refuses to let him bring it, claiming that there is not enough room for it in their luggage. Jack breaks the rifle down into smaller parts and Rosemary begrudgingly allows him take it with him.
On the cab ride to the bus depot, Rosemary and the cab driver have a meaningful exchange, though their exact conversation is unclear. When she tries to pay the driver, he refuses to accept the payment, and only takes it when Rosemary offers the money a second time. Jack is excited to leave Salt Lake City and suggests they go to Phoenix, where his penpal Alice lives. When they arrive at the bus depot, however, the bus for Phoenix has already left, so Rosemary decides on Seattle instead. Jack is disappointed that they are not going to Phoenix, but is glad they are finally leaving Salt Lake City.
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, unhappiness, and all of their other chronic afflictions like Michele. It is only when he has the rifle in his hands that Jack feels, for the first time that he has at last acquired some small scrap of authority that has otherwise been impossible to attain. The mere idea that he could take a life elicits a surge of emotions that both thrills and frightens Jack. He is so delighted by his newfound position of authority that he laughs at the passersby who stroll the streets, unassuming and ignorant of the immense power Jack has over each of them. Jack scoffs at their false confidence, and is seized by an ecstasy he has never felt before as he wields his power from the apartment window.
Although Jack thinks he has ultimate control over the creatures on the street, Jack clearly has no control over himself, and this lack of self-control is precisely what scares Jack most of all about the rifle. In killing the squirrel, Jack commits an act he deems heinous and unearths a hitherto undiscovered part of himself. This self-discovery is startling; Jack is afraid of himself and his own capabilities, as he cannot know what they are or how far they will reach. He feels deeply guilty for killing the squirrel, and cannot understand why or how he could have killed an innocent creature. Throughout the book, there are many instances in which Jack's thoughts conflict with his behaviour, like Amir, and these instances are typically followed by a bout of intense guilt, repentance and self-examination like Amir. Without the rifle, however, Jack feels completely without power and control. When asked by Roy how he feels about having a baby brother, Jack knows immediately and definitely that he has no desire for a sibling, but his answer is completely passive. Because he does not think he has any influence over Roy or his mother, or over any of the characters who appear as the book goes on, Jack suppresses his feelings and forfeits his right to feel and to have opinions. Throughout his boyhood, Jack answers direct questions with a passive, apathetic shrug. The only power he seems to have over any aspect of his life is the world he creates in his imagination.
Part Two, Chapters 1–2
Jack and his mother move to a dilapidated boarding-house in West Seattle, where Rosemary is one of three female residents. The other two are Kathy, a simple-looking, timid young woman who is pregnant and unwed, and Marian, the housekeeper. Marian is a large, ogre-like woman who tells Rosemary to discipline Jack more severely. For this reason, Marian and Jack despise one another.
Jack's two best friends in Seattle are Terry Taylor and Terry Silver. Like Jack, both boys are being raised by single mothers. Taylor's father never returned from the ##Korean War# and Silver's parents are divorced absence of positive father influence - compare with Amir’s lack of mother and Michele’s domineering father and powerless mother. After school, the boys cause trouble, stealing from local stores, crashing stolen bikes, and admiring guns, particularly the Luger, a pistol used by the Nazis in World War II. Silver owns a Nazi armband that he swears is authentic, but that is obviously homemade. While wearing the armband, Silver orders Taylor and Jack around and makes prank calls to people in the phone book with Jewish-sounding surnames, whom he screams at in "pig German."
The boys spend all of their time at Silver's apartment. Jack cannot bring them home because Phil, the owner of the boarding-house, has forbidden him to bring children back with him. Phil is deformed by burns and Jack cannot help but stare at him in awe and disgust. Jack, Silver, and Taylor admire themselves in a vanity mirror and try their best to look cool. Afterwards, they watch the Mickey Mouse Club and make vulgar references to Annette, one of the show's stars. Jack writes letters to Annette in which he lies to impress her. Initially, Jack receives form letters in return, but when he continues to exaggerate his life and love for Annette, he ceases to receive mail from her. Jack is bitter and fantasises about suffering a debilitating accident in front of Annette's house, leaving her no choice but to take pity and care for him like Amir wishing for Hassan’s harelip or some such deformity that would make Baba pity him.
From the roof of Silver's apartment, the boys spot a man driving a Thunderbird, a car they regard more highly than even a Corvette. They pound the driver and his Thunderbird with eggs. The driver is furious, but does not see the boys on the roof. Since his car has been hit with quite a few eggs, the driver shows no reaction when he is by yet another egg. This infuriates the boys and renders them silent until Silver screams at the driver, calling him "Yid," a hateful term for a Jewish person.
Jack and his mother attend a mock naval battle where they meet two men, named Gil and Judd, who stand nearby sipping bottles of beer. Gil takes a romantic interest in Rosemary and invites her and Jack back to his and Judd's house for lunch. Initially, Rosemary is hesitant to go. Jack does not like either man very much, although he warms to them eventually. The men promise Jack a hamburger for lunch, and he begrudgingly agrees to go along.
Gil and Judd's house is large and beautiful compared to Jack and Rosemary's apartment. The men nearly forget about Jack's lunch, and eventually give him dish of nuts instead of a hamburger. Gil talks to Jack about sports and is overly enthusiastic in hopes of impressing Rosemary. Gil asks Jack what he enjoys and Jack answers by telling him that he likes riding bikes, although he does not have one of his own. This hits on a volatile topic between Jack and his mother. They have discussed this issue before, and although Rosemary would like Jack to own a bike, she has no money to buy him one. Gil continues to react to Jack's every word with a dramatic flourishes, and feigns incredulity at the fact that Jack does not own a bike. Gil promises that he will buy Jack an English Racer, the best bike on the market. Rosemary argues that she cannot accept such a gift, but Gil insists.
Rosemary goes on a date with Gil later that evening. Marian and Kathy fuss over Rosemary before she leaves, teasing Rosemary about her "mystery man." Marian is appalled when Gil does not come to the door to get Rosemary at the start of the date. Jack worries about his mother until she returns home late that night in tears. Jack goes over to Rosemary's bed and comforts her. Later, when Jack asks about the bike, she does not answer him and he does not dare to ask her about the bike again.
Jack's infatuation with Annette goes far beyond a mere boyhood crush. Throughout his adolescence, Jack feels somewhat unloved and ignored, even by his mother. Jack's desperation for love is most apparent when it manifests itself in his imagination like Amir. He fantasises about suffering a near-fatal accident in front of Annette's house, and thinks that if Annette can only see his helplessness, she will take him in, nurture him, and eventually grow to love him, just as he wishes his mother and father would.
It is clear that Rosemary does love her son, but she often puts her own interests before his, as she does in Chapter 2 when she forces Jack to come with her to Judd and Gil's house, even though it is clear that Jack does not want to go. At Judd and Gil's house, Jack is overlooked not only by his mother, but also by Gil, who has promised to serve him lunch but then only gives him a dish of nuts. Throughout the memoir, Jack fears that he hampers his mother simply by existing, and although Rosemary never explicitly tells Jack that he has encumbered her freedom, he cannot help but feel like excess baggage. In Amir’s case he feels unloved because he thinks that his father blames him for his mother’s death.
The reader gains vital insight into the relationship between Jack and his mother at the close of Chapter 2. When Rosemary returns, crying, from her date with Gil, Jack immediately notices his mother's pain and embraces her, rocking her in his arms like a mother would her infant child. In this situation, and in many others to come, Jack plays the parent to his own mother, and is forced to use more maturity than is normally required of a young adolescent like Michele. Clearly, Jack and his mother depend on one another. Jack does attain a certain satisfaction from consoling his mother, admitting that her need for him makes him feel "capable." This feeling of capability makes Jack feel justified and purposeful in his existence.
It should also be noted that, in her state of weakness, Rosemary is submissive to Jack, just as she has been submissive to Gil, Roy, and Jack's father. This seemingly automatic submission to dominating men, rooted in Rosemary's childhood experiences with her abusive father, figures importantly in her later marriage to Dwight.
Marian, Kathy, and Rosemary decide to rent a house together. Rosemary is put in charge of finding the house, and when she selects a dilapidated house in need of fixing up, the other two women aren't pleased. They move in nonetheless and begin making a new home for themselves. Shortly after, Kathy gives birth to a son, Willy, a sweet and cheery baby. Kathy and Rosemary take day jobs while Marian is responsible for Willy and Jack. Marian believes that Jack needs sterner discipline, but Rosemary cannot bring herself to be harsher, as she suffered physical and emotional abuse from her father during her childhood. As a result of this abuse, Rosemary is docile in the face of violent, tyrannical men like her father, and is not capable of physically punishing Jack. On Halloween, Taylor, Silver, and Jack break the windows of their school cafeteria. The next day, two police officers come to the school and interrogate a number of boys with bad reputations. The principal delivers an ultimatum over the intercom, saying that he knows who the guilty parties are, and that they can save themselves from a more severe punishment if they come forward on their own. The boys know this is a ploy because they have been in the same classroom with each other all day. Ultimately, they are never discovered, and are actually encouraged by the police involvement to be more derelict.
Within months of moving into the decrepit house, both Marian and Kathy are engaged to be married. Marian relentlessly tries to fix Rosemary up with a man of her own, and after a slew of short-lived romances, Rosemary meets Dwight, a relatively unimpressive but decent-seeming man. Dwight drives three hours from his home every weekend to see Rosemary. Jack reports that Dwight "tries too hard" to impress Rosemary, and from the beginning, Jack does not like Dwight. Jack cruelly but comically mimics Dwight's behaviour, doing impressions that have Kathy, Marian, and Rosemary laughing despite themselves.
Jack and Rosemary spend Thanksgiving in Chinook with Dwight and his three children, Norma, Skipper, and Pearl. Jack is disgusted when Pearl, the youngest, runs up to his mother and embraces her. Immediately, Jack feels a strong affection for Norma, the eldest of Dwight's children. This affection soon becomes a serious infatuation. Dwight's home is far from cosy. It is a former war barrack that has been transformed into a cramped duplex. That night, Rosemary and Jack have to share the sofa-bed in the living room. Rosemary has trouble going to sleep and asks Jack what he thinks of Dwight and his family. Jack tells her he thinks they are all right and makes a special note of Norma. Rosemary worries that things feel too hurried and does not want to rush into anything. She finally feels like she is beginning to establish herself in Seattle and does not particularly want to get married.
The following morning, Dwight gives Rosemary and Jack a tour of Chinook. The town is bleak and desolate. Norma complains that there is nothing to keep her amused. Dwight does his best to brighten Rosemary's impression of the factory town as part of his plan to convince her to move to Chinook and marry him. Before Jack arrived in Chinook, Dwight promised him that he would be able to participate in a turkey shoot organized by a local rifle club. Jack looks forward to the turkey shoot and is disappointed when Dwight tells him that he will not be able to participate. The event is for adults only. Dwight uses Jack's Winchester .22 rifle himself and blames his poor performance on the quality of the gun. Rosemary is the only woman participating in the event. The event organiser is taken aback when Rosemary he asks to participate, but concedes when Rosemary lies that she is a member of the National Rifle Association. Rosemary wins the turkey shoot and Dwight is jealous of her superiority.
Norma cooks a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner, and in the morning Dwight drives Jack and Rosemary back to Seattle. On the way back, Dwight stops at a bridge and points out the spawning salmon. Dwight tells them that the salmon come from the ocean to spawn in the fresh water, and that they will soon die.
An essential part of Rosemary's character is highlighted in Chapter 3 when she buys the dilapidated old house, confident that with a little fixing up, it will be a lovely home. This hopefulness is a trait that both helps and hurts Rosemary throughout the duration of the memoir. She envisions everything as being better than it actually is, much like Jack does in his fantasies of a wealthier, happier life. Although Rosemary's faith in the house's potential may not have become a tragedy, her hopes and expectations of Dwight will soon prove an irreversible mistake. Jack's immediate dislike of Dwight is foreboding of their future relationship, one filled with turmoil, hatred, and abuse. Also foreboding of what is to come is Dwight's jealousy of Rosemary's victory at the turkey shoot, and the false promises he makes to Jack.
Also pertinent to Rosemary's character is the abuse she experienced in her childhood, which is referred to in Chapter 3. Rosemary cannot bring herself to physically or even verbally punish Jack for his misbehaviour because she is afraid of scarring him in the same way that her father scarred her. This does not mean, however, that Rosemary has learned to stay away from the tyrannical, abusive men who share her father's most domineering traits. Instead, she seems drawn to men like her father, first marrying Jack's father, a compulsive liar and deadbeat, and then Roy, a violent and lazy gun fanatic. The salmon that Dwight points out to Rosemary and Jack, which are 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 stripped of their pink flesh in rejection of their new environs. Like the salmon, parts of Jack and Rosemary will die once they move and are forced to endure the horror of life with Dwight.
When Jack returns from Chinook, he brags to his friends that he has killed a turkey with his Winchester rifle in the turkey shoot. Jack's friends know that he is lying, and when Silver directly accuses Jack, Jack scratches an obscenity into the bathroom wall with his comb. Not too long afterwards, the vice-principal visits each classroom demanding to know who is responsible for the obscenity in the boy's bathroom. Jack is frightened of the vice-principal, who is new to the school and very serious about punishing misbehaviour. This fear makes Jack so ill that he lies down in the nurses' office. The vice-principal finds him and violently drags Jack into his office by the ear. The nurse tries to protect Jack, but the vice-principal will not relent. The two "weed fiends" who saw Jack scratch the obscenity into the bathroom wall stand outside of the vice-principal's office, obviously having betrayed Jack. Jack denies any involvement in the crime and continues to maintain his innocence. Jack's mother arrives an hour later and ferociously defends her son. The vice-principal is adamant that Jack is guilty. He is insulted when Rosemary asks to see his superior but allows her to see the principal after a brief argument.
The principal has a timid and cautious manner, and is said to harbour a slight fear of children. He examines Jack's fingers for traces of nicotine and delivers a cautionary, personal parable about the dangers of cigarette addiction. When the principal tells Rosemary that he wants the vice-principal to decide what Jack's punishment will be, she refuses and threatens to hire a lawyer. The principal is a bit scared by this and offers two weeks’ suspension as the penalty for Jack's behaviour. Rosemary argues that Jack is innocent and haggles with the principal, eventually convincing him not to punish Jack at all.
When Jack and his mother return home, Marian is suspicious. She badgers Rosemary for the story, and, as usual, demands that Rosemary discipline Jack with more ferocity. Jack retreats to his room and is prepared to defend himself when his mother returns from her talk with Marian. He is surprised when she makes no attempt to scold him, or even mention the day's events. That weekend, Dwight drives down to Seattle and proposes to Rosemary. He suggests that Jack move in with him and go to school in Chinook after Christmas. If all goes well, Rosemary can quit her job and join them. Rosemary is not thrilled by Dwight's proposal, but sees it as a sort of selfless duty. She looks to Jack for his approval, which he feels no choice but to give.
On the drive from Seattle to Chinook with Jack, Dwight purposely runs over a beaver crossing the road. He stops the car and orders Jack to pick up the bloody carcass. Jack refuses and Dwight accuses him of being scared and childish. Dwight picks up the dead beaver himself, unnerved when its blood drips on his shoes, and carelessly tosses it in the trunk of the car. On the way home, Dwight stops at a tavern, buys Jack a hamburger, and leaves him alone in the car for many hours. When Dwight finally emerges, he is completely drunk and nearly crashes the car, intentionally swerving and skidding to frighten Jack. When Jack tells Dwight that he feels sick to his stomach, Dwight cruelly taunts Jack for being a "hotshot" and a "performer." Somehow, Dwight knows that Jack has been mocking him behind his back, and forces him to perform his impersonation of Dwight. Jack fearfully concedes, and when he is through, Dwight warns him that he is in for a drastic change.
Jack is not as afraid of the vice-principal's fury as he is of his vindictive righteousness. Jack's anxiety lessens when his mother arrives, as she serves as a source of protection. As Rosemary argues on her son's behalf, Jack's fear of the vice-principal is replaced by utter disgust for him, and a growing conviction that he is innocent of any crime. Again, Jack is able to convince himself of a falsehood, creating his own reality from the lies he tells to himself.
Jack is also dishonest when he gives Rosemary his approval of her marriage to Dwight and her plan to move to Chinook, although this time he does not lie in a malicious or self-serving way. Clearly, Jack does not want his mother to marry Dwight, nor does he want her to move to Chinook, although he feels obligated to support his mother in her decision, which he feels he has no influence on. Rosemary sees her acceptance of Dwight's proposal as more of a selfless duty than an option, primarily because she wants to provide Jack with a stable family life and a respectable father figure. Dwight's marriage proposal seems like the perfect opportunity to give Jack all of the things Rosemary has never been able to provide for him on her own, for which she feels deeply guilty. Rosemary does not have the foresight to see that accepting Dwight's offer of marriage will not provide for Jack, but will instead rob him of the little stability he does possess.
Jack yearns for the opportunity to recreate himself, something he does in his fantasies throughout the book. Away from the people who have preconceived notions about him, Jack hopes that he can prove himself to be different than the boy he was in Seattle, running with a dangerous crowd and wreaking havoc with the police and school administration. Jack recognises "no obstacle to miraculous change but the incredulity of others," and this belief that he can be somebody different both propels and haunts Jack for the remainder of his adolescence in Chinook.
Jack gets his first glimpse of Dwight's violence on their drive to Chinook. Jack cannot understand why Dwight would intentionally kill an innocent beaver, just as he cannot make sense of why he shot the squirrel in Salt Lake City. Dwight's cold-blooded killing of the beaver denotes his heartlessness and violent temper. Dwight mocks Jack for not being enough of a man, a criticism that Jack will hear consistently throughout his years in Chinook, and will even aspire to remedy. When, as he drives drunk, Dwight warns Jack that he is in for a change, he is in no way exaggerating, as Jack's life in Chinook will prove more difficult than any other hardship he has had to endure in his short past.
Dwight constantly berates Jack now that he is living with his family in Chinook. In Dwight's eyes, Jack can do nothing right. Dwight arranges for Jack to work as a newspaper delivery boy and collects all of Jack's earnings. Dwight claims that he is saving Jack's money in an account, but Jack later discovers that he has spent it all on himself. Dwight also orders Jack to do household chores. Cruellest of all, Dwight forces Jack to husk several boxes of chestnuts, and Jack spends every night that winter in a utility room bloodying his hands husking the nuts. Initially, Jack wears gloves to protect his hands, but Dwight deems them too effeminate. The juice from the nuts turns Jack's hands orange and makes them smell foul, and for this he is criticised mercilessly.
Norma is dating Bobby Crow, an Indian boy from Marblemount, and tells Jack that while she and Bobby were getting intimate in a car, they heard a noise and found a bloody hook hanging from the door handle. Norma makes Jack promise not to tell anyone.
When Jack visits Rosemary, who is still living in Seattle, Dwight will not leave them alone together because he does not want Jack to tell her the truth about Dwight's alcoholism and abuse. Dwight even signs up as an Assistant Scoutmaster so that he can monitor Jack at his Boy Scout meetings. Dwight gives Jack an old, over-sized scouting shirt that used to belong to his son Skipper, and buys himself a new uniform with frivolous accessories. Jack enjoys being a Scout, and absorbs himself in an outdated copy of the organisation's handbook, which makes "being a good boy seem adventurous, even romantic." Jack longs to be one of these good boys the book describes. When Rosemary finally tells Dwight that she will move in with and marry him, Jack feels as if it is a fate he must accept. Before her arrival, Dwight recruits Jack to help him paint the entire house and most of the furniture, including a Baldwin piano, a stark, glaring shade of white.
Jack gets in a fistfight with a boy named Arthur Gayle, the biggest nerd in sixth grade. Jack has felt for a long time that he is somehow destined to be friends with Arthur. Because Arthur is overweight and rather effeminate, everyone at school calls him a "sissy." But when Jack calls him this after a brief exchange of insults, Arthur flails at him wildly. Arthur and Jack swing at one another and roll into a ditch while Arthur's dog Pepper tugs at Jack's pants. The fight is fairly even, with neither of the boys emerging as a clear victor. Arthur demands that Jack apologise to him and Jack does.
Dwight is proud of Jack for fighting, especially against Arthur, and gives Jack boxing tips. Jack did succeed in giving Arthur a black eye, which leads Dwight to believe that Jack has incontestably won the fight. After they fight, Arthur and Jack avoid one another, but one afternoon they bump into one another in the same place where they fought. They greet each other and then talk for a while, and everything seems cordial between them.
Dwight and Rosemary are not getting along. They came home from their honeymoon two days early, and since then Rosemary has been acting downtrodden and depressed. Jack fears that Rosemary will not display her usual resilience, but is reassured when she climbs out of her rut and joins the Parent-Teacher Association and the rifle club. Rosemary also finds a job waiting tables part- time.
As Jack sets out on his early morning paper route, he feels oppressed by the predawn darkness and is reminded of "other absences" in his life, especially now that he is on his own. Jack is lonelier than ever in Chinook, and misses his father, his brother, and, most of all, his mother, who seems further away even as the date of her arrival approaches. Jack's loneliness is intensified by Dwight's ceaseless criticism of his every move and Dwight's cruel methods of punishment. The scathing criticism that Dwight doles out does not hurt Jack as deeply as he intends. In time, Jack becomes somewhat immune to Dwight's cutting remarks and eventually they "lose [their] power to hurt" him, as Jack cannot bring himself to believe that they are true. In criticizing Jack, Dwight is trying to redefine him, but Jack is too strong to believe Dwight's insults and insinuations.
However, the blame that Dwight lays on Jack for his own troubles lays the foundation for the guilt complex that plagues Jack throughout his childhood and adolescence. As adamant as Jack is that he will not allow Dwight to control him, he bows to Dwight's pressure to conceal the truth about life in Chinook from his mother, and is disgusted with himself when he tells her that everything is "fine." Jack is disgusted with himself because he is being dishonest with his mother, who he loves more than anyone else, and the only person with whom he shares a mutual trust. Jack's self-loathing is also due in large part to his surrendering to Dwight's control. The time that Jack spends with Dwight and Dwight's family in Chinook undermines Jack's idealized image of the stable and happy traditional family. Dwight and Jack may leave the Scout meetings looking like father and son, but beneath that superficial veneer there is a penetrating hatred. Despite his disillusionment, Jack's fantasy of becoming a "good boy" is not hampered. Jack not only dreams of becoming one of the "adventurous, romantic" young men he reads about in his Scout handbook, but honestly believes that he is already is such a young man beneath his tough exterior.
Skipper buys a dilapidated 1949 Ford with the intention of fixing it up. Skipper puts all of his money into the car and when he is finished, the Ford looks almost new. Skipper mentions that he is thinking of driving to Mexico to have the car upholster ed and tells Jack that he will consider bringing him along. Jack misconstrues this off-handed comment as a promise, and fantasizes about driving through Mexico with Skipper. One night, however, Rosemary raises the subject of Jack's going to Mexico and Skipper does not even remember talking to Jack about it. Skipper tells Rosemary he is bringing a friend along instead.
Picturing Skipper and his friend out on the road makes Jack feel "cheated and confined," and Jack's disappointment makes him think of his biological brother, Geoffrey, whom he has not seen in four years. Jack also misses his father and convinces h imself that his father was not a mean man, but simply had overwhelming responsibilities of his own. Later, however, when Jack is an adult and has his own son, he does not understand how his father could have abandoned him.
Jack makes a habit of hitchhiking to see how far from Chinook he can get. Jack plans to travel to the town of Concrete, but loses his nerve and only gets as far as Marblemount, which is one town over from Chinook. Jack continues to thumb rides, hoping tha t someday he will be able to go all the way to Connecticut to see his father. Skipper returns from Mexico almost in tears, one of only two times that Jack has ever seen him near crying. Skipper's car was destroyed in a vicious sandstorm, and the damage looks irreparable. While Skipper explains what happened, Jack quietly gets behin d the wheel of the car and pretends that he is driving.
Dwight refuses to buy Jack a new pair of sneakers because he thinks Jack outgrows his shoes too quickly. Instead, Dwight buys Jack an ugly pair of brown street shoes. When Jack plays basketball in the brown shoes, he trips all over himself. During the game, Jack is distracted by the shrill and crazy cackling coming from a crazy woman in the stands. After the woman is removed by a security guard, the audience is quiet, almost solemn, and the other team seems to feel guilty for winning the game. Norma and her boyfriend Bobby give Jack a ride home after the game and it occurs to Jack for the first time they fool around in the car while waiting to pick him up. Jack is jealous, and for a moment is even angry, but he feels too tenderly toward Norma to remain angry with her.
Rosemary joins the local rifle club and does very well at competitions. Dwight is as poor a shooter as ever and continues to buy new guns to prove that his old firearms are faulty. None of these new rifles improves Dwight's shooting, and his poor performa nce is a major source of conflict between him and Rosemary. To improve, Dwight fixes a practice target to the front door of the house and points the gun at Jack when Jack returns home from his paper route.
Jack admits to being a thief who steals candy and change from houses along his paper route, and he plans to steal enough money to run away. Jack is ready to do anything to get away from Dwight and even fantasizes about killing him. Jack is not hurt by Dwi ght's accusations that he is a thief and a liar because Jack does not see himself that way. When Dwight calls Jack a sissy, Jack thinks of Arthur, who is his best friend and the biggest "sissy" in school. Jack remembers how the word sissy sparked the fistfight between him and Arthur just a few months earlier. Regardless, Jack refuses to allow Dwight to define him with his relentless abuse and criticism.
One night, as Dwight, Rosemary, Pearl, and Jack return home from a shooting tournament, Dwight is furious that Rosemary has won yet again. Dwight drives to a local tavern, cursing the entire way, and leaves Rosemary, Jack, and Pearl in the car when he goes inside. When Dwight does not come out for a long while, Rosemary goes inside the bar. Jack and Pearl do their best to irritate one another and sing to pass the time. When Dwight finally emerges from the tavern, Rosemary refuses to get in the car unl ess Dwight will give her the keys. Dwight makes no attempt to surrender and Rosemary gets inside the car. The ride home is full of close calls and near-fatal hairpin turns.
Jack is sorely disappointed when his dream of driving to Mexico with Skipper does not conform to reality. Once again, Jack is overlooked and is promised something only to have it snatched away after he has built it up himself in his imagination. Jack also feels, to some degree, that Skipper has betrayed him. Jack's desire to leave Chinook is stronger than ever, and this is why his disappointment at not being able to go with Skipper is so profound. It seems as if all Jack can think about is how he can esca pe his miserable situation, and this urge to flee dictates all of his actions, good and bad. Jack steals from the subscribers on his paper route because he has no other means of income, especially since Dwight steals the wages he earns from the route. Evi dently, Jack is desperate to leave Chinook and to get away from Dwight, and it is this desperation that pushes him to steal.
Although Jack truly wants to leave Chinook, a part of him is frightened of the responsibility that comes with the independence he craves. Thus, while hitchhiking, he tests himself to see how far outside Chinook he can travel without actually leaving. Whil e Jack is out hitchhiking, he also notes that no member of his family has noticed his departure, which reinforces his feelings of neglect and abandonment.
Jack's desperation also manifests itself in his imagination, as is the case when he fantasizes about murdering Dwight, specifically by shooting Dwight with one of his guns while he is berating Rosemary. Jack again wants to play the hero and rescue his mot her from a force that he feels powerless against. In his mind, Jack equates murdering Dwight with justice. In the newspapers he delivers, Jack reads articles that prove to him that one can "kill a man and get away with it," and believes that he is also ca pable of doing so.
In refusing to adhere to Dwight's interpretation of who he is, Jack resists feeling any guilt whatsoever, unlike in his early boyhood, when he felt guilty for nearly every problem in his and Rosemary's lives. It is at this time that Jack also ceases to fe el responsible for his father's abandonment. Jack does not harbor any hard feelings towards his father, at least consciously, and resolves to forget about his abandonment of him. Instead of basing his image of his father on what he actually knows, Jack cr eates him "out of dreams and memories," once more constructing a fantasy far more alluring than reality. Jack's fascination for his father is actually fueled by Dwight's mockery of him for being wealthy and "High-and-Mighty," as Jack relishes the thought that his own father could overpower Dwight. As an adult, however, Jack's respect for his father is rocked when he has his own child. It is then that the feelings of grief and rage he suppressed as a child come rushing back to him.
Jack rifles through his mother's dresser drawers and finds a letter from his Uncle Stephen, Rosemary's brother, who lives in Paris. Jack copies the return address on the letter and writes a letter to his Uncle Stephen in which he exaggerates h is terrible life in Chinook and begs Stephen to bring him and Rosemary to Paris. Uncle Stephen writes back that, regrettably, he is unable to rescue Jack and his mother, but that he will do all he can to help them. In his letter, Uncle Stephen encloses a check and suggests that Jack live with Stephen's family in Paris while Rosemary earns enough to leave Dwight. Stephen suggests that once Rosemary has managed to leave Dwight, Jack will move back in with her. Both Jack and Rosemary approve of the plan. Dwight cannot wait to have Jack out of the house, and Jack cannot wait to leave.
Jack is scheduled to leave for Paris as soon as he finishes seventh grade, but Uncle Stephen writes again with a different plan. In this second plan, Jack will live in Paris for five years, rather than just one. Jack will also have to change his last name , however, as Uncle Stephen will only allow Jack to come stay with him if he can legally adopt Jack as his son. Rosemary thinks this is a generous gesture, but Jack is unsettled by the idea of being adopted. Jack already has one mother and does not want a nother, even if being adopted means leaving Chinook and moving to Paris.
On Christmas, Dwight covers the tree with three cans of white spray paint and ruminates on his admiration for the composer and musician Lawrence Welk, who Dwight once met on a train. Out of nowhere, Norma decides to marry a man named Kenneth. Norm a says that Bobby Crow, her high school sweetheart, is going nowhere. Kenneth comes to Chinook to spend Christmas with Norma's family, and everyone hates him right away. Kenneth is very religious and tries to push his beliefs on everyone. He kisses No rma in front of the entire family and accuses Dwight of being an alcoholic. Years later, Rosemary divulges to Jack that Kenneth made a pass at her.
During dinner one night, Bobby Crow arrives to speak to Norma. They speak outside for a long while, and when Norma comes inside, she is bawling. It is evident that Norma does not love Kenneth, and Dwight pleads with her not to marry him. Regardless, Norma marries Kenneth and bears him a child. When Jack goes to visit her, she looks tired and aged. When Jack sees Bobby Crow about a year later and says hello to him, Bobby viciously demands to know who Jack is talking to.
On Christmas Eve, Dwight remembers the chestnuts that he ordered Jack to shuck over two years ago, and tells Jack to retrieve them from the attic. When Jack finds the chestnuts, they are covered in mold, as is the beaver that Dwight ran over years before. The beaver had been left to cure in a basin, and has sprouted two feet of mold that eerily resembles the beaver's living form.
Wolff tells his story with several deliberate series of events, the purpose of which is to emphasize the transformation that each character undergoes as he or she matures. This chronology is best exemplified in Chapters 6 and 7, where the changes in chara cter, time, and situation are more drastic than they are in most other sections of the memoir. Norma, for example, seems to change almost overnight from a sprightly young woman into a morose and weary shadow of her former self. She marries out of desperat ion, and in doing so, surrenders her bright and hopeful self. Bobby Crow also seems to mutate into an entirely different being. Once popular, successful, and good-natured, Bobby becomes pathetic and temperamental, made vicious by Norma's rejection. The ou tcome of Norma and Bobby's breakup is undeniably sad, and we can only wonder if they would have saved themselves and their happiness had they married one another.
The passage of time is also marked by the mold that has sprouted on the chestnuts and the beaver carcass in the attic. The image of the chestnuts Jack spent a miserable winter shucking now covered in mold is profoundly sad. For all of Jack's hard work, no thing has been gained. Like the chestnuts, Jack's youth and energy have wasted away, all because Dwight has made a point of showing off his power over Jack. Jack also reports that the two feet of mold that are growing on the beaver are eerily reminiscent of its living form, as if the beaver has returned from the dead to haunt Dwight after he has deliberately killed it with his car. Dwight has robbed the beaver of its life out of cold blood in the same way that he robs Jack of his freedom and happiness for the sole purpose of wielding his authority.
Jack equates going to Paris with the opportunity to recreate himself, which he has yearned to do throughout his boyhood. However, it seems that whenever the opportunity for such self-recreation is presented to Jack, it is quickly removed again by Jack's o wn bad actions and choices. Jack's opportunity to recreate himself in Paris is not completely unfeasible, but Jack simply cannot agree to change himself so drastically that he would have to renounce his mother. Rosemary has been the only constant in Jack' s life and Jack therefore cannot abandon her. Jack overcomes his disappointment over not going to Paris as he usually does, imagining himself there among the cobblestone and sidewalk cafes, using fantasy to repair the disappointment of his reality.
Jack plans to run away to Alaska with eighty dollars he has saved by stealing money from his paper route subscribers. Jack's Scout troop has a meeting in Seattle called The Gathering of the Tribes and Jack intends to make his getaway while Dwight is out drinking with the other Scoutmasters. Jack tells Arthur about his plans to run away and Arthur agrees to come with him. At first, Jack does not actually want Arthur to come with him, but changes his mind when he realizes that he is afraid of go ing alone.
Cal, Arthur's father, is an agreeable man who enjoys even the corniest of Jack's jokes. Mrs. Gayle, Arthur's mother, is a snob. She takes Jack and Arthur along on her shopping sprees. Whenever Jack sleeps over, Mrs. Gayle allows the boys to stay up late w atching old movies. One night, Jack and Arthur kiss, which comes as a surprise to both of them. After the kiss, Jack and Arthur become defensive whenever they feel particularly close or sentimental. They often have small fights with one another and then r eturn to being friends as if nothing had ever come between them.
During the Gathering of the Tribes, Jack tries to stay away from Arthur, who does not "look like a serious Scout." Jack participates in the swimming tournament and, although he is confident he will do well, actually loses badly. One troop, Ballard, is cle arly the best of all the Scout troops at the Gathering, but is disqualified from the events because they are wearing "non-regulation caps and boots." In the cafeteria later on, Jack befriends the Ballard boys. He accompanies them to the football field, wh ere they smoke cigarettes and marijuana. Arthur joins them, but leaves when one of the Ballard boys offers him some of the drugs. Another Ballard boy shows Jack a near-empty box of condoms and boasts that it had been full the night before.
Jack and the Ballard boys reunite in Glenvale, where the Scouts from the meeting are attending a carnival. Jack brings his overnight bag with him, prepared to run away. While Jack and the Ballard boys are in line for a ride, Arthur approaches them again a nd asks Jack if he wants to leave. Jack tells Arthur they will leave in a while, and Arthur disappears. Arthur approaches Jack again shortly after, however, impatient to leave for Alaska. Annoyed, Jack assures Arthur that they will leave eventually, just as soon as he is done at the carnival.
Jack is conned out of all his money by Smoke and Rusty, two men who run a carnival game called Blackout. The men encourage Jack to play the game until he runs out of money, then ignore him completely and find new customers to prey on. For his eighty dolla rs, Jack is left with a stuffed pink pig.
When the park closes, Jack begs Arthur, whom he has ignored all day, to drive back to Chinook with Jack and Dwight. Dwight hates Arthur because he is a "sissy," but Arthur is especially reluctant to ride with Dwight and Jack because Jack has treated him w ith such disrespect. Begrudgingly, Arthur agrees to go along, and seems to have forgiven Jack for mistreating him. Feeling both grateful and guilty, Jack gives Arthur the stuffed pink pig he won at Blackout with his eighty dollars.
Chapter 8 highlights the transformation that alters Jack's relationship with Arthur. Friendships often gradually dwindle, and this is the case for Arthur and Jack, whose friendship never seems to recover after the boys kiss. This kiss does not seem to ind icate any sexual feelings the boys might have for one another, but more precisely indicates feelings of closeness and affection. These feelings, especially the kiss, scare Jack and Arthur so much that they refrain from any and all sentimentality from that moment on, and turn on one another at the slightest indication of affection. This fear of emotional closeness can be attributed to Dwight's expectations that Jack be masculine, and to Jack's fear that Arthur's effeminate demeanor is somehow contagious, a nd that he too will become a "sissy."
As a defense mechanism against Jack and Arthur's sudden closeness, Jack disassociates himself from Arthur at the Scout Gathering and feigns a masculine over-confidence to impress the boys from the Ballard troop. Arthur is the only one with whom Jack has s hared his plans to run away and it is therefore clear that he trusts Arthur implicitly. This trust becomes frightening for Jack, however, and his decision to prioritize the Ballard boys over Arthur is a manifestation of Jack's denial of their intimate rel ationship. Jack's coolness toward Arthur at the carnival forebodes what their relationship will hold in the future. Over time, this coolness will develop into a noticeable and irreparable rift.
In reality, however, Jack is not prepared for the independence that being a man entails. In trying to impress the Ballard boys, for example, Jack is conned out of the eighty dollars he has saved to run away with. For the first time, Jack is actually tryin g to realize one of his fantasies by making a serious attempt to run away from the situation he has dreamed of leaving for so long. Jack longs for the freedom he equates with adulthood and with running away, but he is clearly not ready for any of it. Jack 's impressionability and gullibility are made obvious when he is conned out of his every cent at a carnival gambling table, all to impress a group of boys he has met only hours before. Jack may have magnificent dreams, but here he learns that it takes far more to actualize and live out such elaborate fantasies.
When Jack returns home one night, he is startled by a large, ugly dog who growls at him as he enters. Dwight introduces the dog as "Champion," and tells Jack that he bought the dog with the Winchester .22 rifle Roy gave to Jack in Salt Lake City. Jack is livid, and Rosemary demands that Dwight return the dog and replace Jack's rifle. Dwight agrees, but dog remains and the rifle never reappears. Dwight brags that Champion is a hunting dog, but Champion cowers at the sound of a gunshot when Dwight takes him hunting. Dwight brings Rosemary on a hunting trip that is meant to last a week, but ends after only three days. Rosemary tells Jack that Champion got lost, then relieved himself all over the seats of the car.
One night, Champion startles Jack so violently that Jack hits him over the head with a sponge mop. Jack strikes the dog repeatedly, but afterwards feels terribly guilty for the harm he has inflicted. Jack apologizes to Champion, speaking in a soft voice and stroking the dog affectionately. From then on, Champion has a special affinity for Jack, and is always at his heels. When Jack sneaks out of the house late at night to joyride in the car, he takes Champion with him to keep Champion from barking and waking up the whole house.
Late one night, Jack gets the car stuck deep in mud, and a man driving past gives him and Champion a ride back to Chinook. Jack does not get home until very early that morning and stays home from school that day. He is exhausted and sleeps until lunchtime. When Jack wakes up, Dwight confronts him about taking the car. Coincidentally, Dwight met the man who gave Jack and Champion a ride home. Jack pretends not to know what Dwight is talking about, and Dwight, enraged by Jack's defiance, jumps on top of him, pounding Jack with his fists. Dwight continues to beat him, but Jack tries to fight back.
Eventually, Champion kills a number of neighborhood cats, and it is ordered that he be killed. Dwight drives the dog upriver and shoots him. Jack notices that Dwight does not bring a shovel with him, meaning that he does not care enough about Champion to bury him.
At the start of his freshman year at Concrete High, Jack brings home good grades, although he though he earns them by copying from other students. When Jack gets involved with the school's troublemakers, his grades drop drastically. This group includes Chuck Bolger, a troubled boy with a gentle side who Jack seems to like the most of the entire group. Jack's circle of friends also includes Psycho, a stupid boy who has been arrested for theft and for kidnapping a cat, and Jerry Huff, who is handsome, vain, and a relentless bully. Jack does not like Huff at all. Arch Cook, Huff's cousin, is mildly mentally handicapped and relatively harmless. The boys spend much of their time at Arch's sister Veronica's apartment. Veronica wears sexy outfits and makes frequent passes at Chuck. Every time Jack has the opportunity to be with one of the women who is drawn to his group of friends, he backs down and wishes for a girl he can love. This girl turns out to be Rhea Clark, who moves to Concrete from North Carolina during Jack's freshman year. She dances with Jack at a school dance, but shortly after begins dating another boy and does not even remember Jack when she passes him in the hallway.
One afternoon, Jack and Chuck are drinking alcohol on the roof of the school. Jack passes out and then regains consciousness. Still drunk, Jack steps out onto a tree branch that hovers above a gully paved with cement. The branch snaps and Jack is hurled toward the concrete below. The fall knocks Jack unconscious, but he is eventually roused by the sound of voices calling for him. Jack is happy lying there in the gully, knowing that people are looking for him and care about him, and does not answer the voices. Jack sleeps in the gully that night feeling satisfied. When Jack returns home the next morning, Dwight is amused by Jack's story.
Champion evokes Jack's compassion because the dog reminds him so much of himself. Jack feels that, like Champion, he is neglected and unloved by his family, and feels as if his life were unimportant to them. Jack's sympathy for Champion is only exacerbated by the guilt he feels for striking him, especially because his violence toward the dog is reminiscent of the violence that Jack has suffered at Dwight's hands. Jack's newfound awareness that he is capable of inflicting the same kind of cruelty as Dwight both startles and scares him. Jack's ongoing desire for independence is also what inclines him to sneak out in the car at night, driving a little further each time and hoping that someday he will have the courage to just keep driving. Jack's feelings of unworthiness and inadequacy become debilitating when he cannot bring himself to confess his love for Rhea Clark. He is petrified that she will laugh at him, or even be insulted by his admission of love. Even when Rhea agrees to dance with him, he attributes this to her naivete—because she is a new girl at school, Jack reasons, she must know nothing of his reputation. This rationale fuels Jack's already strong desire to escape to a new place where he can create the life he imagines for himself. Jack's lack of self- confidence is so severe that he fears disappointing even the promiscuous girls who throw themselves at him. Jack also rejects these girls, however, because he is strong enough to maintain his principles, even in the face of temptation. Although it may seem strange that Jack is pleased to have fallen into a concrete-covered ditch, and that he chooses to spend the night there, this gully should be seen as a place of emotional relief. As he listens to his friends calling out to him, expressing concern for his well-being, Jack is refreshed and reassured. Although he is lying bruised and battered at the bottom of a ditch, Jack, for the first time, can finally experience his fantasy of being loved and wanted, as he is finally in his "perfect place."
Unexpectedly, Jack receives a letter from his brother, Geoffrey, whom he has not seen in six years. The brothers begin corresponding, and Jack decides that he will hitchhike to Princeton, where Geoffrey is attending school. Jack has no money to get to Princeton, so he plans to steal and forge a bank check. Jack's Scout society is holding a banquet in Bellingham, and Jack decides that this outing will provide him with the opportune time to run away. In Bellingham, Jack steals a convenience check from the town bank, then goes to the library for a library card, for which he uses the alias "Thomas Findon." Jack is nervous about forging the check, and walks the streets for an hour before deciding to try cashing the check with a naive-seeming drugstore clerk. The clerk is wiser than Jack hoped, and asks her boss to examine the forged check when Jack cannot remember the address he provided on his counterfeit library card. Jack runs from the store and the clerk chases after him, even though she clearly feels sorry for exposing him.
The clerk chases Jack for many blocks, but he finally outruns her and goes inside a diner to use the men's room. He changes into his Scouting uniform and washes himself in the sink. Jack looks at his uniform and expresses his resentment toward Dwight for inexplicably refusing to let him become an Eagle Scout, the group's highest rank, even though Jack has done the work required to earn the status. At the banquet that night, Jack sees the drugstore clerk and learns that she has two sons in the Scouts' honor society. Initially, the clerk recognizes Jack, but soon convinces herself that she must be mistaken, and that Jack is simply another boy who resembles the thief.
Geoffrey and Jack continue their correspondence. After Dwight harasses and slaps Jack for throwing away an empty mustard jar, Jack calls Geoffrey and exaggerates Dwight's maltreatment. Geoffrey is appalled and demands that Jack leave as soon as he can. Geoffrey suggests to Jack that he apply to eastern boarding schools so that he can move in the fall. Jack lies to Geoffrey, saying that he is a star athlete and an excellent student, and Geoffrey assures him that with these attributes, Jack will easily be accepted to private school.
Meanwhile, Rosemary is depressed. The political campaigns she has been working on are over, and now she has to return to waiting tables at the cookhouse. Rosemary had mentioned to someone that she wanted to leave Chinook, but when Dwight got wind of this, he pulled a knife and warned Rosemary that if she were to ever leave him, he would find and kill her.
Jack reads Vance Packard's The Status Seekers to better understand the upper class, and decides to take Geoffrey's advice to apply to private schools. Jack convinces Arthur, who works in the school office, to steal some official letterhead and envelopes for him so that he can forge recommendations and transcripts to send to the private schools.
Jack's biological father calls and invites Jack and Rosemary to join him and Geoffrey in LaJolla, California that summer. He, too encourages Jack to apply to private school. Rosemary drives Jack to Seattle to take the SAT test, which Jack does well on. Afterward, Jack comments on the differences in dress and demeanor between himself and the other boys who have come to take the test.
The word "betrayal" adopts a variety of meanings for Jack, who has been betrayed many times in his young life, particularly by his father, and feels that he can wholly trust no one but himself. Jack is careful when selecting a store at which to use his counterfeit check, searching specifically "for someone [he] can trust." By "trust," Jack means an easy target, someone sweet and unassuming like the drugstore clerk he chooses. Jack sees her standing behind the store counter and notes that "her expression [is] as open and direct as a young girl's" and that she has a "guileless, lovely face," traits that signify to Jack that she is the ideal type to prey on. When the drugstore clerk recognizes Jack's scam, he feels somehow as if she has betrayed him, even though he has been trying to take advantage of her. More specifically, Jack believes that the clerk herself knows that she has betrayed him and even feels guilty for it. Jack is highly sensitive to the clerk's feelings of guilt for turning him in to her manager, and recognizes the sorrow in her eyes and care in her voice, which seem to pull him toward her. Jack is not accustomed to such attention, and the clerk's care and concern leave him with a deep and debilitating sense of remorse.
Betrayal is also a crucial theme in the following chapter, in which Geoffrey suggests that Jack apply to private schools, and Jack lies to Geoffrey that he is a star athlete and an A- student. In lying to Geoffrey, Jack seems to convince himself that he can actually metamorphose into the outstanding person he has described to his brother, and he steeps himself in this deception when he reads Vance Packard's The Status Seekers, which instructs him on how he can "betray his origins" and infiltrate the upper class. This betrayal of self and of one's past seems "the most natural thing in the world" to Jack, who has long harbored fantasies of self-recreation. For a long time before he actually forges the application letters, Jack cannot bring himself to complete the forms, for he is afraid of owning up to reality and facing who he truly is. Jack equates realism with surrender and feels only bitterness when he is forced to see himself in realistic terms.
Jack and Arthur have drifted apart somewhat since the start of high school and have become rather brutal in their treatment of one another. Mr. Mitchell, the gym teacher, notices them mock wrestling near the school bus stop and insists that they fight one another in his annual "smoker," an organized school event in which enemies battle one another in a boxing ring. The smokers are unruly and brutal, and Jack knows that Arthur will fight wildly, just as he fought Jack years before. Dwight is excited for Jack to fight Arthur, a renowned sissy, and trains Jack for the smoker. When the fight actually takes place, Jack can feel the pain his punch delivers every time he hits Arthur. When Jack punches Arthur in the face, he recognizes in himself a frightening connection to Dwight. Dwight is proud of Jack for fighting, but Rosemary is sickened and disappointed that Jack would participate in such a cutthroat event. Ultimately, Arthur wins the smoker fight, although the match is close.
Jack is rejected from all of the private schools he has applied to, with the exception of the Hill School. Mr. Howard, an alumnus of Hill, is sent to interview Jack. He picks Jack up from school in his Thunderbird, and Jack suggests that he and Mr. Howard go to the Concrete drugstore, as Jack wants to flaunt both the Thunderbird and his newly acquired father figure. Jack notices Huff in the drugstore and worries that Huff will greet him with a vulgar and embarrassing joke. Luckily, Huff does not see Jack, and Mr. Howard assures Jack that he will recommend that Jack be accepted to Hill. However, Mr. Howard does warn that Hill may be difficult. Jack assures Mr. Howard that he is ready for any challenge that Hill may present.
Jack nearly slices off his finger in shop class and spends an entire week in the hospital, drugged with morphine to dull the pain. When Jack returns home, he craves the numbness he felt while taking the morphine and steals some of Dwight's alcohol to ease the aching in his finger. Dwight notices that his whiskey is watered-down and confronts Jack. When Jack talks back to him, Dwight pushes him. Although Dwight does not push Jack violently, Jack stumbles, landing on his injured finger. This incident proves to be the last straw for Rosemary. She sends Jack to live with Chuck Bolger and his family, and promises that once she finds a job in Seattle, they will leave Chinook and start a home of their own. The Bolgers are reluctant to take Jack, but Rosemary convinces them that he will be on his best behavior during his stay. Jack promises his mother that he will not cause trouble while he is in the Bolgers' care, but it is a promise soon to be broken. As Jack is leaving the house to go to the Bolgers', Dwight extends his hand and wishes Jack good luck. Instinctively, Jack does the same, although neither his gesture nor Dwight's is sincere. On the way to the Bolgers', Chuck and Jack drink liquor in the back seat of the car, indicating the trouble to come.
The closeness that used to exist between Jack and Arthur is over and their match at the school smoker clinches the bitterness between them. Jack does not want to fight Arthur, but he is unable to refuse, possibly because of the feelings of rage he has suppressed. Although this rage is not necessarily aimed at Arthur, the smoker is Jack's first chance to unleash his rage. As a direct result of his changed relationship with Arthur, Jack's relationship with Dwight is altered as well. Dwight begins to express tenderness and patience toward Jack, but only because he is excited by the violent event Jack is going to enter in. The only other instance in the novel in which Dwight behaves similarly is when Jack fights Arthur for the first time, which indicates that Dwight exhibits this tenderness because he is thrilled that Jack is beginning to emulate his own destructive masculinity. Naturally, having been abandoned by his own father, Jack craves a paternal mentor and enjoys the training and attention that Dwight gives him.
When Jack punches Arthur, he can feel the pain that he's inflicting, but this feeling is in no way sympathetic. Instead, Jack feels a "surge of pride and connection" to Dwight, recognizing in himself Dwight's violence, vindictiveness, and brutality. Dwight also recognizes this piece of himself reflected in Jack, and watches him with pride and "something like love." The word "love" used in association with Dwight feels wrong and distinctly perverse, and Jack reacts negatively to the thought of it. Later, in his adulthood, when Jack speaks to his own children in anger, he is both startled and sickened by the sound of his own voice and its similarity to Dwight's, the same way he was sickened that afternoon in the boxing ring.
Jack is afraid of Arthur not because he knows Arthur will beat him in the smoker, but because Arthur is the only person who knows that Jack is merely imitating the person he wishes himself to be. More than anything else, Jack fears exposure, which would mean having to confront a reality that he wants no part of. Jack even lies to himself about who he is and eventually begins to believe he has become a figment of his imagination, a different boy with a different past.
Chuck gets drunk nearly every night and is often violent with himself. After dark, Chuck and Jack routinely sneak out and go to Veronica's apartment, where they drink and play poker. Chuck's father, Mr. Bolger, is a church minister, and although Mr. Bolger does not expect Jack to believe as fervently as he does, Mr. Bolger does require that Jack join his the rest of the Bolger family in attending church. Jack is overcome by the liveliness of the gospel music and wants to wander over to the "Amen Corner," where parish members holler and clap in a show of faith. Jack refrains from doing so, however, afraid that Chuck will mock him and that, even worse, Mr. Bolger will think the gesture insincere and be disgusted. One night, after playing poker and drinking with Huff and Psycho, Chuck and Jack decide to drive to Bellingham. They do not have enough gas to make the trip, so they go to the Welch farm to steal some. The Welch boy, who is also named Jack, goes to school with the other boys, and is shy and "shabbily dressed." Chuck parks the car half a mile from the farm and siphons a few cans of gas from the Welch's tanks. In the end, the boys are too exhausted to drive to Bellingham, so Chuck and Jack go home to sleep. The next morning, the two boys are woken by Mr. Bolger. Mr. Welch has told Mr. Bolger that the boys have stolen his gasoline, and Mr. Bolger demands that both Chuck and Jack return to the Welch farm to return the gas and deliver a sincere apology. Mr. Bolger is patient but firm, and both boys are remorseful. When the boys go to the Welch farm, Chuck apologizes, but Jack panics and can't bring himself to speak or move. When they return from the farm, Mr. Bolger knocks on Chuck's door and asks how things went with the Welches. After a lingering silence, Jack confesses that he did not apologize to Mr. Welch. Mr. Bolger asks to speak to Jack alone, then tells Jack that he will have to call his mother to come and get him. Jack decides that he would rather join the army than return to Dwight in Chinook. The next day, Rosemary arrives at the Bolgers' house and begs them to keep Jack. They agree, but only on the condition that Jack work on the Welch farm after school. Jack would rather not do this, but concedes. Ultimately, however, Welch refuses this offer of help. Mr. Bolger arranges for Father Karl, a spunky and honest priest, to speak to Jack about his bad behavior. Father Karl does not deliver the trite sermon Jack is expecting. Instead, he asks Jack what Jack wants out of life and what he is doing. When Jack does not answer, Father Karl insists that there must be something that Jack wants, but that he is not going to get it by misbehaving.
The sheriff arrives at the Bolgers' one night to inform Chuck that he is going to be charged with statutory rape, along with Huff and Psycho. The victim is an overweight, promiscuous fifteen-year-old girl named Tina Flood, nicknamed "The Flood" by her classmates. Tina is pregnant, but she is not sure who the father is. Tina's father and the sheriff give Chuck an ultimatum: If he marries Tina, he will not go to jail. Chuck adamantly refuses to marry Tina, claiming that he is saving himself for someone he loves. The sheriff arrests Chuck, but he returns home later that night and announces that he is not going to prison, as Huff has agreed to marry Tina instead. Amidst the frenzy of the rape case, Jack is awarded a scholarship to the Hill School. Ecstatic, Jack rereads his acceptance letter obsessively and studies the school's alumni bulletin. Mr. Howard is delighted by the good news and invites him to come to Seattle to be fitted for a new school wardrobe. Rosemary is happy for Jack and tells him that she has found a job at Aetna Insurance in Seattle, where she will start in another week. Meanwhile, Jack's father has arranged for him to take the bus down to LaJolla and spend the summer with him and Geoffrey. Although Jack and Rosemary discover that Dwight has spent the money Jack earned from his paper route and Rosemary earned as a waitress, rather than saving it in a bank, Jack notes that his mother looks more youthful and happy now that she knows she is leaving Dwight.
Throughout the memoir, Jack tries earnestly to impress others and earn the acceptance and compassion he has not found at home. Naturally, Jack wants this same affection from Mr. Bolger, who treats Jack with a distant politeness, even though he seems to be repressing some feeling of fatherly tenderness towards him. The repression of this tenderness stems from the fact that Mr. Bolger knows that, like Chuck, Jack is troubled and volatile, and consequently fears hitting on a nerve that may trigger an emotional explosion. Although Jack desperately wants Mr. Bolger to like him, he does not want to seem eager or insincere, and thus refrains from joining the celebration in the "Amen Corner." Jack is also afraid that Chuck will mock him if he participates, but his real concern is how Mr. Bolger will react, and Jack fears that Mr. Bolger will interpret Jack's participation in church as an insincere attempt to win praise and love.
Jack is repulsed by his own actions when he cannot bring himself to apologize to Mr. Welch for stealing from him. As he looks into the sunken, sad face of Mr. Welch, Jack is paralyzed, and is profoundly ashamed of himself both for stealing and for not expressing his remorse. Importantly, Jack's shame and paralysis are induced by a feeling of familiarity—the Welch farm bears a striking resemblance to Jack's ramshackle home in Seattle. Jack understands the Welches' struggle and poverty because he recognizes that their misery is the same as his own.
While there is a part of Jack that identifies with the Welches, there is another part that condescends them, for they embody Jack's fears of failure. The Welches are Jack's "defeat-dream, his damnation-dream," working themselves weary in an attempt to get ahead without ever actually doing so. Jack sees the Welches as symbols of failure and defeat, so when the Welches refuse his help, Jack knows that this is the "ultimate punishment." When a family Jack has pitied and patronized deems him unworthy of serving them, Jack realizes that while his social status might be slightly higher than that of the Welches', he is much lowlier than them in terms of morality.
In talking to Jack, Father Karl hopes to provoke him to question himself and his motivations. Father Karl has faith that Jack is not a bad boy, even though he is on the wrong path, but he cannot reach Jack because Jack is simply "not available to be reached." Jack is in denial, having "left a dummy in [his] place to look sorry and make promises" instead of being honest with himself and admitting his own faults and weaknesses.
When Rosemary leaves Chinook, Pearl feels abandoned, so Jack sometimes asks her to have lunch with him at school. During one of their lunches together, Pearl mentions that Dwight is planning on driving to Seattle that night to persuade Rosemary to return with him to Chinook. Jack is disheartened to hear this, as he had hoped to see his mother the following day, after he has driven to Seattle to meet Mr. Howard at the tailor's. Now that Jack knows there is a chance Dwight may be in Seattle, Jack does not dare to go.
After talking with Pearl, Jack decides that he will break into Dwight's house while Dwight is away in Seattle. Chuck accompanies Jack to the house and is furious when Jack lingers, reading Pearl's diary and inspecting his old room. Jack steals Dwight's guns, a pair of binoculars, a hunting knife, and a leather shotgun sheath. Chuck places the stolen items in the trunk of the car and covers them with sandbags in case they are stopped on the way back to Chuck's house.
The following day, Jack meets Mr. Howard and his wife at their tailor in Seattle to be fitted for a new school wardrobe. Mr. Howard is welcoming, but reminds Jack that the Hill School is difficult and may not be right for him. Mr. Howard is afraid he has been too influential in Jack's decision to attend Hill, but Jack reassures Mr. Howard that this is not the case and reiterates how excited he is for the fall semester. Jack feels loved and appreciated as Mr. and Mrs. Howard fawn over him in the tailor shop.
After his visit with Mr. Howard, Jack goes into three pawnshops before finding one that will buy the items he stole from Dwight. Jack tells the pawnbroker that his father willed these items to him when he died. The pawnbroker, a rather disagreeable woman, argues with Jack about the value of the items and is only willing to offer him a small percent of what each is worth. Jack is pained when he watches her slam the barrel of his gun shut with obvious disrespect. Jack haggles with her about the prices, but accepts her final offer of sixty dollars. On his way out, Jack drops the pawn tickets into the gutter.
Following his trip to Seattle, Jack goes to California for the purpose of spending the summer with his father and his brother Geoffrey. Just one day after Jack arrives, his father leaves for Las Vegas with his girlfriend, leaving Jack with the keys to a rented Pontiac and a charge account at the grocery store to use while he is away. Jack's father asks a friend to look after Jack, but this friend turns out to be a pedophile and tries to make a move on sixteen-year-old Jack. When Jack calls his father and tells him that his supposed caretaker has tried to seduce him, Jack's father tells Jack to protect himself with the Air Force Survival Rifle he has stashed in his closet and shoot the man if he returns. That night, the man stands outside of Jack's apartment door and sobs while inside Jack clutches the rifle, fearful that he may have to use it.
Only days after returning from Las Vegas in time for Geoffrey's arrival home, Jack's father is arrested and committed to a sanitarium, where he remains for the rest of the summer. As a result, Geoffrey has to forfeit his initial plan of completing his novel to work and support the family financially. Meanwhile, Jack runs wild, but Geoffrey encourages him to read and write.
During Christmas break, after Jack has begun school at Hill, Dwight finds Rosemary at her new home in Washington, D.C. and tries to strangle her in the lobby of their apartment building. Rosemary knees Dwight in the groin, and he steals her purse and runs away. Immediately afterward, Dwight is arrested, but Jack feels guilty for not attempting to save his mother from the attack. Jack actually heard noises coming from the lobby, but because it was a bad neighborhood, assumed someone else was in trouble. This is the last time Jack will ever see Dwight.
Not surprisingly, Jack is thrown out of Hill halfway through his senior year, as he is simply unable to make the grades necessary to compete with the other students. Afterward, Jack joins the army and serves in the ##Vietnam War#
As an adult, Jack remembers driving back to Chinook from Seattle, singing hymns and listening to the radio. He marvels at how free he felt to be starting a new life in a new place, where he would finally have the opportunity to recreate himself.
Robbing Dwight of his most prized possessions does not satisfy Jack the way he had hoped it would. Initially, Jack thinks that this act of vengeance will provide him with some sense of revenge, but afterward realizes that no revenge will compensate for Dwight's having robbed Jack of carefree, happy childhood.
Despite the disappointment he feels after having pawned the items he has stolen from Dwight, Jack remains hopeful for the future, especially now that he has finally been given the chance to leave Chinook and realize the image of himself that he has created in his mind and in his application to the Hill School. Wolff remembers feeling especially overjoyed the night he and Chuck drive back from Seattle, singing as if they have quite literally been "saved." In Jack's case, this salvation comes from Mr. Howard and the Hill School, while Chuck has been saved by Huff, who will marry Tina in Chuck's place. On this night, as he enjoys his newfound bliss and freedom, Jack feels he will "be allowed to stay green forever." The term "green" connotes youth, innocence, and inexperience, all of which fuel Jack's rosy view of what his future will hold.
In this state of "greenness," Jack feels like the glorious fate he has imagined for himself is around the corner, although he thinks without any pragmatism and gives no consideration to how he will actually realize this idealized image of himself. In his naivété, Jack does not presume that his future could possibly hold more tragedy. In fact, in the future Jack's father is committed to a sanitarium, Dwight tries to strangle Rosemary, and Jack is expelled from Hill. As he drives, however, Jack can only savor the future as the chance for a new life and a source of endless possibility.
Source: http://memberfiles.freewebs.com/19/61/81816119/documents/This%20Boy's%20Life%20NOtes.doc
Web site to visit: http://memberfiles.freewebs.com
Author of the text: indicated on the source document of the above text
If you are the author of the text above and you not agree to share your knowledge for teaching, research, scholarship (for fair use as indicated in the United States copyrigh low) please send us an e-mail and we will remove your text quickly. Fair use is a limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work. In United States copyright law, fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders. Examples of fair use include commentary, search engines, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching, library archiving and scholarship. It provides for the legal, unlicensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work under a four-factor balancing test. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use)
The information of medicine and health contained in the site are of a general nature and purpose which is purely informative and for this reason may not replace in any case, the council of a doctor or a qualified entity legally to the profession.
The texts are the property of their respective authors and we thank them for giving us the opportunity to share for free to students, teachers and users of the Web their texts will used only for illustrative educational and scientific purposes only.
All the information in our site are given for nonprofit educational purposes