Monday, September 8, 2008
This Boy's Life
As readers of This Boy’s Life we get a one-sided view of what Toby’s life is like because everything is told to us through Toby’s point of view. We have to be careful as readers therefore, not to take everything he says as the only truth. Rather it is one version of the truth. For this blog, choose one other character in the book that has a lot of contact with Toby. How does that person view him? How might Toby be presented as a different character to us if the story was told through that character’s point of view? Please provide at least one quote (good quote!!) in your response and other specific examples to support your ideas. Then, respond to two of your classmates posts.
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Toby's step-father, Dwight, has plenty of contact with him throughout the book. Dwight views him as a nobody. If Toby was a different character, and his story was viewed by that character it might having a whole different storyline, but there still might be some of the same details. For example, when Toby and Arthur get into a fight, and Toby was in Arthur's shoes it might look totally different. Or when Toby was talking to his brother, and he was in his brother's place the details might be the same with very few details twisted.
Dwight has a lot of contact with Toby because of the fact that for a few years Toby lived with him. Dwight treats Toby poorly and does not really think of him a his own. Dwight feels indifferent toward Toby. He really doesn't care too much for him but he wants him to follow his rules. An example of this indifference would be when Toby earned a lot of money being the paper boy. Dwight took his money earned and said he would save the money for when Toby goes to college. When the time came around for Toby to go to College, the money Toby earned, that Dwight supposedly saved was gone. Dwight had spent it instead of saving it. If the story was told through Dwight's point of view I think Toby would be described as a bad step son and some one that cant do anything right. Dwight gives Toby many house hold chores and worst of all for one winter every night he would make Toby husk chestnuts which would cut up his hands. He was wearing gloves toward the beginning but Dwight made him take them off. Another example was when Dwight teaches Toby how to fight against Aurthur, and for the "Smoker". As Dwight encourages Toby to punch him for practice he blurts "Now come on! Come on! Let's go, god damn it, let's start, you little fuckin' sissy, all your god damn fuckin' life, quitter, gonna be a god damned quitter, let's go, damn you!" You can clearly see he doesn't really care too much for Toby. He calls Toby disparaging names such as a sissy and a quitter. Toby would be viewed in a negative manor if Dwight was telling the story. the reader would see him as a bad person.
Dwight has alot of contact with Toby. Dwight would view Toby as a liar and a thief. When he is in the car with Dwight he said,"Regular man about town. Performer,too. That right? You a performer?" Toby said, "no sir." "Thats a goddamned lie." After this we know that Dwight would always view Toby as a liar when he described him. Also Toby stole whiskey from Dwight and watered it down. When asked about it Toby didn't denied it. Dwight would have all the more reason to call him a thief when talking about him.
Austin: Although I do agree with you on some of your points, I do not agree with the last one you made about fighting. Yes Dwight was smacking him around a little and calling him names, but he was doing it to make Toby a stronger person and a better fighter. Dwight would probably describe it as preparing Toby for the future
Dwight tends to have a lot of contact with Toby throughout the book. Although Toby doesn't seem to see what his mother likes about Dwight, Toby has no choice but to live with him for a few years. Dwight sees Toby as a "sissy," and doesn't even treat Toby like his own. Dwight is constantly yelling at Toby, and he's usually saying abrupt and threatening things to him like, "I'll snatch you bald-headed, you understand?" or "I hear that you're a real hotshot. Come and go as you please. Isn't that right?" If Dwight was the narroator in this story, as you can see, Toby would be described in these graphic terms. Toby would also be thought of as a horrible person, or, according to Dwight, a "sissy." Dwight would also consider Toby a "thief" in the story. Since Toby has a low self esteem, he's easily influenced by his friends. This causes him to drink an excessive amount. In one situation, Toby steals whiskey from Dwights whiskey cabinet and puts water in it to make it less strong, and to make it look like he never took any. When Dwight questions Toby about whether or not he added water to his whiskey, Toby denies it. If Dwight was the narrator, he would naturally have more of a reason to write about how "awful" Toby is to him; being a "thief," a "liar" and a "sissy."
Austin: I agree with you when you said that Dwight treats Toby poorly and does not really think of him as his own. This is very true during the story, and Dwight has no problem of showing it.
But Brayson:
I don't agree with you on what you said about how Dwight's smacking Toby around and calling him names is at all helpful. Although Dwight may consider it "helping" (?) Toby, I don't think that he's really trying to help him prepare for the future. I think he's just doing it to annoy, or just plain out hurt Toby.
Like many others I have chose Dwight. I chose this because Toby has the most contact with him other than his mother. Dwight doesn't see him as his mother does. He sees him as a liar, thief, and hotshot. He takes this position because Dwight talked to Toby's mom's friend and found out what really Toby was like.
"She says you're quite the little performer. Is that a lie? You tell me that's a lie and we'll drive back to Seattle so you can call her a liar to her face. You want me to do that?
We know from this that Dwight is a very aggressive man and he doesn't change his mind or consider another person’s view point. At this moment we also know that Dwight thinks that Toby is a liar and a thief because he has had enough proof for himself.
Michela:
I would agree with you on how Dwight treats Toby as a thief and a liar but when Dwight calls Toby a sissy A think it is just to get him worked up for when they practice together. Also, I would disagree on the point you made when you said that "Dwight sees Toby as a sissy" because I think he only uses that word to intimidate Toby; not that he thinks he is actually a sissy. An example of this is when Dwight is teaching Toby how to fight. he says "you're acting as sissy as little miss Arthur Gale... I'm gonna call you little miss Jackie Wolff... come on, let's do it." After Dwight says this Toby punches Dwight. Here he doesn't actually call Toby a sissy, but he says that Toby is acting like one to try to get Toby to punch him.
Dwight, Toby's step-dad, has alot of negative contact directed towards Toby during the story. Dwight is always bullying Toby. If Dwight was telling the story, he would probably describe Toby as a low life human being because he has little respect for Toby. For example, I remember the conflict over the mustard jar. Dwight became angry at Toby when Toby had tossed the empty mustard jar in the garbage. Dwight yelled; "Who threw this away?" "Why did you throw it away?" "Does this look empty to you?" "Look again, as he shoved the jar into Toby's eye.
Brayson: I disagree with you when you said Dwight was smacking Toby around to make him a stronger person. I do not think Dwight cared at all about Toby's well-being. That is why I agree with Austin.
Michela: I disagree with you when you said Dwight is calling Toby names to annoy or plain out hurt him. I think that Dwight is just an insecure man who takes out his frustrations on Toby because he has some authority over Toby.
As many others, Dwight had a lot of contact with Toby. During the book, as Dwight gets to know Toby, he despises him more and more. Dwight sees Toby as a liar, a thief, and also a sissy. For reasons that in present day life would not be permitted by anyone, Toby gets slapped and hit multiple times by Dwight when, for example, Dwight finds out that Toby is driving the car after midnight and a truck driver sees him and passes off the news to Dwight or when he threw away a jar of peanut butter when to Dwight, it was almost full. In addition, Rosemary and Dwight also start to have problems towards the middle/end of the book. Toby, however, does not tell his mother that Dwight is hurting him since he feels that if his mother likes Dwight, then he should not be the one to ruin it for her. Morever, Dwight, since he does not really care for what Toby does, but wants him to stay out of trouble, he gives him a few jobs to occupy his time with. First, Toby has to take off the shell of chestnuts until his hands were bleeding and badly cut. Second, he had to do the morning route of the paper, and third, Toby had to also join the boy scouts with Dwight as a assistant scout leader, just to watch over him. Also, a funny thing is that Toby and his mother, Rosemary ran away from home to escape the violence and mistreatments and just to have a newer and better life and now, they have a better life and everything, but the violence is maybe worse since Dwight hits Toby, and drinks every time he goes near that diner/pub. Plus, during the book, Dwight not only thinks that Toby is a nobody, as many other people said in their comments, but also, he thinks that Toby has no chance of being able to do well in school and get somewhere in life. That is why, maybe, some of things happen in the book, some things that Dwight maybe says. In addition, Dwight thinks that Toby will be a disgrace if he is added into his family since his kids are all hard working students and having Toby in the family would just ruin for the family reputation. Therefore, Dwight is an excellent example of someone who has had a lot of contact with Toby, even though it is mostly in a very negative way even if some of what he does during the book, I think, is meant to be in a positive way.
Frank...
I would agree with you that Dwight has little respect for Toby because he makes him do many household chores and chuck the chestnuts without gloves on. I also think Dwight not only has little respect for Toby but tries to make him feel uncomfortable. This happens when they are driving back form Seattle and Dwight purposely runs over a beaver. He tells Toby to pick it and put it in the trunk. Toby refuses because he doesn't believe in killing animals and Dwight ends up putting it in the trunk.
Toby's stepfather Dwight would definently see him differnetly. In the way that Dwight might see him as almost a work horse for him then more of a son. Such as before him and his mom were married he made him peel chesnuts for two years instead of really getting to know him. By making him peel all of those chesnuts he just weakend thier bond and pushed them farther away from each other. Also like when Dwight caused friction with toby at the turkey shoot, whe he said "the bore on this gun must be completely rusted out." that just made Toby more angry becasue he spent everyday cleaning out the bore and using the gun to make sure that it was in perfaect condition.
Good points so far, but I think we've had enough of Dwight's perspective... how about Rosemary, his mother? Arthur, his best friend? Geoffrey, Mr. Howard, is father?
Please, in your response compare an outside character's view to Toby's view of himself
Ms. Chiaputti, I would have talked about Rosemary and Arthur and Geoffrey, but in the question you said to name the character who has the most contact on Toby throughout the book. Therefore, that is why I chose Dwight.
I think that tobys mom has alot of contact with toby in this book. Tobys mom does not know what toby does when he is not around his family. He drinks and he smokes. She views him as a good boy that never does anything wrong and would never smoke or drink. Even when marian is trying to convince her that toby does those types of things, she wont believe her. Mrs. Wolff also does not know the truth about tobys grades. Tobys changes his grades from c's to A's to satisfy his mother and dwight. For example. "The report cards were made out in, pencil and funny enough i happened to own a few pencils myself." She never finds out about this.
Ben: I agree with you when you say that dwight is weakening he and tobys bond by not getting to know him but he is not a good man and probably does not know much about being nice to kids
Brayson: i agree with you in the fact that dwight is not nice to toby and dwight does not care for him as a person and as a stepson.
Michela: I agree with you that Dwight does not treat Toby with respect or as him own. He treats him as though hes nothing and he walks all over him.
bxxingsxxv: I agree with you on the fact that Dwight does find out supposely what Toby's "really like" from his mother's friend. And uses it against Toby.
I think that if Toby’s mom told the story it would be a lot different. Toby would have been described as a good boy and one who don’t have enough breaks. Also so situations would be different like when Toby was accepted to Hill high. His mom would be talking bout how happy and surprised that he was going there. Also when he got in trouble his mom would be backing him up. This is why I think that the story would be different if it was told by his mom
Marina: i think that it would be different if dwight told it but how would the situations look different
Austin: I think that dwight is one of those people who would call toby bad b/c he is always in trouble
Marina: I agree with everything you said except for the fact that that I don't think that Dwight viewed Toby as a total nobody. Some of the things that Dwight does to Toby, such as making him join the boys scouts, make him clean the chestnuts and even make him do the paper route in the morning, are all in the favor of Toby if you really think about it. I think that Dwight did all this because he wanted Toby to stay out of trouble and therefore all this work helped him stay occupied most of the time.
Mike: I also agree with everything in your comment. Toby's mother is a very important role that takes place in Toby's life/in the book. She doesn't know anything about what he does, such as smoking and drinking, as you said. But on the other hand, Toby could have also told her the truth about everything. She would have helped him change in every way possible. But when I said that Toby should have told her mother about everything, I didn't only mean about the school and the drinking and smoking. I also meant about the violence and hitting about Dwight. He could have told her that Dwight was mistreating him for small and unimportant reasons. Toby and his mother had ran away from their original home exactly for this reason: to get away from violence and the new boyfriend of Toby's mother and also to start a new and better life. But instead, it's just like a continuation of the previous life. Dwight is always drunk and hits and slaps Toby.
Even though Toby is seperted from his mother in the book, she still knows him (or thinks she does) very well. if tobys mom was the narrator, the story would probably show toby as a much more positive and "good kid" kind of person, because he changed his grades to be better and didn't talk to his mom a lot while he was in Concrete High. her perception of him would've been similar to tobys brohers, because she believed what he told her. she also brushed off his rebelious childhood as a phase, defending Toby on pages 79-83, saying he didn't lie and that he would never carve swears on a wall when he did. If Toby's mother told the story, it wouldn't be about a troublemaker, a burnout, or a mean self-titled "outlaw" (almost) flunking rural high school with an abusive parent but a sweet, sensitive, possibly misguided boy scout enjoying some time in a quiet community with his family.
Marina:
I agree with you. Dwight does not only view him as a nobody but completely dislikes him and will physically abuse him.
Austin:
i agree with you austin, especially about Dwight trying to belittle Toby.
I would have to agree with a lot of the comments saying Toby's step-father Dwight has a great amount of contact with Toby during the book. Dwight and Toby do not have a good relationship and by having Toby as the narrator of this book we only get to hear his side of the story. If we were to hear from Dwight's side of the story he would have called Toby a "sissy" and he is "getting prepared for the real world" On the other side all we hear is that Dwight doesn't care for Toby. Although even if Dwight was the narrator of the story then I would side with Toby. For example, Dwight says to Toby, "let's start you little sissy, all your god damn life, quitter, gonna be a god damn quitter!" Of course when Dwight would tell the story he would call him a sissy and a quitter but still what he said was wrong.
Frank: I agree with you that Dwight is an insecure person and is taking it out on Toby because he feels he has some authority over Toby.
Brayson: I disagree with you that smacking Toby around and being disrespectful to him is not at all making Toby a stronger person. I think that hurting him and calling him names just makes Toby's self esteem go lower than it was.
Austin, I agree that Dwight doesn't treat Toby as his own son but he also treats Toby as if he is being punished twenty four seven.
I chose Dwight because Toby and Dwight have so many conflicts during the time they spend together that is described in the book Dwight views Toby as an annoyance. When Dwight found a mustard jar in the trash which was clearly empty, he made Toby clean the small amount of mustard still in the jar with a butter knife. He even slapped him a couple of times because he thought Toby was wasteful. Toby had to take this kind of abuse from Dwight all the time. He even described it as a type of bad weather. On page 100 Toby writes “I experienced it as more bad weather to get through, not biting, just close and dim and heavy. If the story was told from Dwight’s point of view, Toby would be viewed as a punk with no purpose but to harass Dwight.
David, I also think that the story would be very different if it was told from Toby's mom's point of view. She was always trying to do right by Toby and thought he was a good boy.
I believe that Toby's mom had a lot of contact with him. She believed that he recieved A's at school, that he didn't drink or smoke, and that he hung out with the good kids in the grade and not the bad kids in the grade. What she didn't know is that he was the exact opposite of this: he recieved C's instead of A's and simply erased what he got on his report card, he drinks and smokes, and that he hangs out with the bad kids in the grade because he is one himself. For example: "we smoked cigarettes in a shallow gully in the back of the school, and often stayed there after the bell rang for class, then cut downhill.....". His mother never learns about this and despite everything that Marian says about him to his mother, she refuses to believe any of it.
Frank: i would have to agree with you that dwight has contact with him in that sense, but also he wouldn't really know as much about him as his mother.
mike: i agree with you about the fact that his mother knows a lot about him, but on another point of view she doesn't have a clue about whats going on with him because she's getting the wrong impression.
hi
Toby’s mom had some of the most contact with him out of all of the characters in This Boy's Life. Toby's mom thought Toby was sweet, innocent, and hard working in school. His mom had no idea that Toby smoke, drank, and lied about his bad grades by erasing them on his report card and adding As. Toby's mom also refused to believe Marian when she tried to inform her of Toby's bad behavior. Though Toby's mom thought her son was very well behaved and good in school she still knew him fairly well.
Ms. Chiaputti,
Sorry this is really late, I had a hard time getting on to the site and I accidentally erased all the work I had before.
David: I agree with you because in Toby's mom's eyes Toby practically never does anything wrong. So her perspective of the story probably would have been way different than Toby's.
Michela: I agree with you because I think Dwight treats Toby like hes worthless.
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If This Boys life was told from Arthur's piont of view he might have portraid Toby in a better light twords the begining, when they found each other as kindred spirits and not juged him so harshly "I was his perfect witness and he was mine. We listend to each others storys of increasing novalty that grew in preposterous intracy with every telling. But we did not feel as if anything we said was a lie. We both believed that real life was told by our present unworthy circumstances." Twords the end of the book when they were drifting apart Arthur might have said that he just being difficult and trying to go aganst society when he refused to get a girlfriend and hangout with kids his own age and that he was becomming a jerk when he told Artur they were going to run away and then instead blew him off to hang out with cooler kids at the scout meet. The story would also end earlier because when Toby moved away it would have been the end of Arthurs knoledge of his actions.
i think that tobys mother, rosemary, saw toby as nothing like he was. i think she saw him as an honest, good worker which was nothing like she really was. everytime someone would tell her something bad about toby, she would disregard it and continue to think that toby was good. toby is obviously a bad kid, which is ortrayed when he changes his report card to make it seem that he got A's instead of C's.
eric:
i agree with you that dwight is exeedingly mean to toby but i think for a different reason to you. i think that instead of viewing toby as a punk, i think dwight mereley mislikes him and is always looking for ways to make his life harder.
brayson:
i agree with your points about dwight. i think that those are valid points for why dwight mislkies toby so much
mrs.chiaputti:
sorry it got in so late. it was my fault and i should have done it sooner.
i would like to choose Dwight, but as you said you would like for me not to do that. so i chose Toby’s mother because unlike Dwight his mom was still loving and always helps him. Although as Dwight starts to get closer to his mom Toby begins to think that his mom like Dwight better than him and there bond begins to go away. Eventually Toby feels let out and I can tell how he feels that he is being treated this way, and on top of that his own mother doesn’t believe him. I can’t believe someone so close would rather trust Dwight.
Austin: I believe you are right about a few things, but just like my brother he hits me to make me tougher. That’s what I think Dwight was doing.
BXxkingsxXV: i completely agree with you. Dwight was a great choise because he never listens to enyone and when he thinks someone did something then he doesn't care about the facts as long as he has some proof he wont let enyone tell him otherwise.
One person who has close contact with Toby is his mother Rosemary, who views him as a pretty good kid whom she can trust, even though most of the time he is not. For example, when Toby (Jack at the time) was accused of writing "F*** you" on the bathroom wall, she said "If he says he didn't do it, he didn't do it, he doesn't lie." Rosemary is also very protective of Toby. When she and Toby were leaving Roy to go to Seattle, Rosemary does not want Toby to take his gun. She says "Don't make a scene; I've had enough of those things. I'm sick of them. Now put it back." Although Toby ends up taking his gun in the end, she gives her best effort to keep him from hurting himself. If Rosemary was the narrator of this story I think that the story would have been about how Toby was felt bad for because of Dwight's verbal and physical abuse, and how he had to move around various times. Also the story would have none of Toby's bad antics (drinking/smoking, getting into fights, cheating his way into private school).
Marina: Though I agree with you that Dwight has close contact with Toby, I think that he views him as more than a nobody. If he thought he was a nobody, Dwight would probably not spend as much time abusing him. For example when Dwight and Toby are alone in the car, Dwight says, “I hear you’re a real hotshot. Come and go where you please, when you please.” Also during that car ride, he calls Toby a liar, and someone who puts up an act. Therefore, I think Dwight thinks of Toby as a lying hotshot and not as a nobody.
Brason: I agree with you that Toby should not have stolen the whiskey from Dwight, but that does not give Dwight a reason to call him a thief. No one should be called names, especially from their stepfather. Also you said that “Dwight would have all the more reason to call him a thief when talking about him,” after you said that Toby watered down the whiskey. He had no reasons in the first place to call him a thief, besides from what Marian said, which he just assumed was true. Also I think that by slapping Toby, Dwight was not trying to make him a stronger person as you said in your response to Austin’s comment. He slapped him out of anger, not to help him.
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