“This Boy’s Life” by Tobias Wolff and “Into the Forest” by Hegland, Book Review Example

Introduction

Set in two different backgrounds, the books “This Boy’s life” and “Into the Forest” gives an insight into the lives of different people living in two distinctive environments. These books are so captivating to the readers because they highlight the day to day life of people in different environments. Both writers have proved once more that they have come of age with customary skills and self assurance.

The two fiction writers have proved that they are mature literally buy creating real life situations by relating the lives of the characters with life. It is therefore advisable to those who have not yet grabbed a copy to do so and have an insight into the difficulties people undergo to attain success.

“This boy’s Life” is a grim story that Tobias Wolff has used to electrify his critics. The story revolves around a boy called Jack and his early life and how this life came to shape his life in future (Wolff pgs 59-87). Jack and his mother are driving from Florida to Utah; they are running away from a man called Roy who was mistreating their mother.

They are also interested in improving their lives by searching and mining uranium. ”we were going to change our lives”, the journey to Utah was not a bed of roses because the van they were travelling in was in a very sorry state and needed some time to cool off before they continued their journey. His mother came to hate the cab so much that not long after they reached Utah she gave it to a woman she had met. Jack had an older brother called Geoffrey who was left behind under the custody of their father, although Geoffrey grew up in a more privileged background than Jack, they were both victims of domestic abuse and neglect.

During his adolescent, Jack’s life was filled with misery,. He was constantly involved in fistfights, drinking bring and also experienced poor grades. Jack was also a great liar who lied to others as a means of hiding his miserable situation. Young Jack life in Chinook, Washington was filled with disdain and suffering, how he wished he could overcome his miseries by leaving this miserable industrial town. His opportunity came when he got a falsified acceptance into Elite Hill preparatory school.

Unfortunately, his life at school did not last long because he was expelled after only two years. ”The school was patient but not inexhaustible patient. In my last year, I broke the bank and was asked to leave.”  Although he was disappointed, Jack was not disheartened by his expulsion because he joined the military thereafter.  As part of his training, Jack was able to get some elementary Vietnamese which enabled him to be assigned the post of advisor to a South Vietnamese battalion in the Mekong Delta.

In her book and “Into the Forest”, Jean Hegland focuses on the relationship between two teenage sisters, Nell and Eva and their survival in a collapsed society. Several miles from the nearest neighbors, Nell and Eva struggle to survive in a society that has begun to decay and collapse around them (Hegland pgs 34-57). ” There is no neighbors for four miles, and no town for thirty two miles” Their close bond and the adaptability to the environment in which they live in allows them to survive many horrific experiences.

There is talk of war overseas and upheaval in congress. When the electricity runs out and the gas is nowhere to be found, the two sisters are shocked. They are forced to consume whatever resource is left in the house as they wait for the power to come back. ”The electricity will be back, the phones will work”. The story follows the day to day activities of the two girls and their daily struggles.

The author’s use of flashback enables us to learn a few things about their parents and their previous lives. “I thought our new life is miserable because our mother was dead and our father had grown distant and silent”. The forest has bee used symbolically to represent survival since the girls depends on the forest for almost everything. This piece of work is so mesmerizing because of the writer’s ability to create a scene of beauty.

Similarities

Even though the two books have different settings with one being in the urban with a lot of technologies and the other in a rural setting where the two sisters depend so much on  the forest, one thing remains clear, the writer uses the backgrounds of the characters to explain their behaviors. Living in a hostile environment of the mother being beaten by Roy and a lot of other violence makes Jack develop a rebellious character and in fact as a young man, he is taught to fight by Dwight.

These two writers are passing one important message, ‘the changing times’. The writers are so much concerned with the things that are happening in the society and the loss of humanity. When man fails to take care of the environment and consider humanity, very bizarre things happens to them: the electricity is cut, there is no gas no phone no food and other commodities that Eva and Nell had taken for granted. On the other side, in “the boy’s life” Jack gives a good example of how the lost morals in the society, may lead into a society of failures, violent people and liars. Jack life in a failed and violent marriage really makes up as he develops a rebellious attitude and he is always on the run trying to escape.

Another important similarities brought in the book is the use of their plots; the writers both address the issue of survival in their writing. Even in different environment, the most important characters in the books and that is, Jack in “the boy’s life” and the two sisters Nell and Eva “in the Forest’ have been used to show how people may survive in different societies. Dwight makes Jack sell newspapers and brings the money as a way of his survival, Dwight really affects how the boy thinks and that is why later on the young cheats to find him a chance to get into a private school.

The two sisters depend on the forest on barely everything and that is why they are blinded with this good life that they don’t take a time to think of there futures. When electricity is cut the two don’t realize the problem they are facing and in fact sit there waiting for it to come back. One of the characters, Jack in “the boy’s life” survives in a hostile environment while the other two characters in the other book “In the Forest” are so much blinded with the life without hustle that they cannot think beyond their noses.

Differences

There are major differences in the setting of these books, first of all one of the books “boy’s life” has an urban setting while the other book In the Forest presents a classical setting. This thus affects the way the main characters of the books behave. Jack being in Washington an urban enters, he has to sell newspapers as a way of survival but on contrary, Nell and Eva have nothing to worry in their lives but to sit and wait for the day to end for them. The forest gives them everything; we are talking about a life of hunting and gathering.

Another difference is the lives lived in the two different settings and the impact they have on the characters. In the book, “the boy’s Life”, Jack sees his mother being beaten almost daily and this leads to him to being violent and stubborn. Even after lying to be and A-student and good athlete in order to get himself into a private school, his background is reflected in his behavior and thus he is expelled. Nell and Eva are so much used to a simple and smooth life that is why they are unable to cope with changes in their lives, in fact Eva’s liking for dancing makes the reader forget there is any danger to handle when the place runs short of electricity, gas and they experience the explosion.

Work Cited

Hegland, J., Into the Forest: Dial Press Trade, 1998: pgs 1-256

Wolff, T., This Boy’s Life: A Memoir:  Grove Press, 200: pgs 1-304