This Boy's Life Analysis

861 Words2 Pages

Deepasha Debnath
Professor Patrick Hendricks
Psych 101
October 9th 2014
This Boy’s Life
This Boy’s Life introduces viewers to the troubled childhood of Toby Wolff, which is pestered by domestic violence and misbehavior. The movie is very successful in depicting the conflicting inner world of the protagonist and the relationships between characters.

Toby Wolff, abandoned by his biological father, followed and lived with his mother, Caroline. Due to the unpleasing circumstances of domestic abuse, emotional neglect, financial problems and criminal activities, Toby relies on his imagination to escape from reality and to recreate himself. He often makes trouble in order to get attention from others and to prove his courage and capability. He also …show more content…

Because of Caroline’s own abusive childhood caused by her father, she couldn’t bring herself to physically punish Toby for his misbehavior. However, Caroline unconsciously and habitually involves herself with violent men who inflict harm on Toby even though it is never her intention. First marrying Toby’s father who is a liar and deadbeat, and then there are Roy and Dwight. Caroline longs for a freer and better life, however, at some point she is strained by Toby. Although sometimes she neglects Toby emotionally, she loves Toby so much that she tries to assume a conventional family-oriented lifestyle for him. For example, she decides to marry Dwight so that they can have a stable home. Just like Toby, Caroline also believes that her situation will become better no matter how difficult her circumstances …show more content…

Although Toby is just a young boy, he is more mature than most boys his age. Toby believes that he has the responsibility to take care of his mother and keep her away from any harmful sources even though sometimes he could not control the situation. On the contrary, Toby also depends on Caroline as a source of protection when he is in trouble due to his misbehavior. Caroline protects Toby from any punishments; she even threatens the principal and the vice-principal with hiring a lawyer if they want to punish Toby. Although Toby occasionally lies to his mother, it is obvious that Toby and his mother depend on one another because Toby and Caroline love each other more than anyone else and they share a mutual

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