This Boy's Life: A Memoir Literary Elements

This Boy's Life: A Memoir Literary Elements

Genre

Memoir

Setting and Context

The memoir is set in the 1950s in the context of the narrator's life.

Narrator and Point of View

First-person narration in Tobias Wolf’s point of view

Tone and Mood

Somber, violent, resentful, annoying

Protagonist and Antagonist

The protagonist is Tobias Wolf.

Major Conflict

The main conflict is when Toby is born, and his father abandons his mother for another wealthy woman. Toby lives a miserable life after that.

Climax

The climax is when, despite his bad behavior, Jack gets admission to study in a college. Jack dreams of being a novelist despite his dark past.

Foreshadowing

The separation between Tobias’ father and mother foreshadowed his dark future.

Understatement

The marital issues Rosemary goes through are understated. Tobias’s father moves on with life, and he marries a wealthy woman. Rosemary, on the other hand, moves with various boyfriends who subject Tobias to misery and suffering.

Allusions

The story alludes to the challenges of marriage and childbearing. For instance, Tobias lacks the love and guidance of a father and ends up being a liar and criminal.

Imagery

The bowling of an air horn when the narrator's mother's car boiled depicts the sense of hearing.

Paradox

The main paradox is that Jack’s mother is not up to the task of parenting. She is focused on making money and having new boyfriends at the expense of her son’s education and future.

Parallelism

The story of Rosemary’s sexual affairs parallels with her ex-husband.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

N/A

Personification

The truck’s trailer is personified when the narrator says that it shimmed wildly.

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