This Boys Life TRANSFORMATION & IDENTITY

Question 1

7 key ideas

Answer 1

GENETICS 
BELIEFS
CAPABILITIES 
DENIAL
PERSONAS 
FANTASY 
LIES

Question 2

Genetics

Answer 2

Toby tells us that the hurts he suffered don’t stop and carry over into his own family.

Question 3

Beliefs

Answer 3

Jack truly believes he can become a better person which fuels many of his lies.

Question 4

Capabilities

Answer 4

Jack does not know whom he will become and his unknown capabilities scare him.

Question 5

Denial

Answer 5

When forced to confront who he really is, jack goes in denial and is not available to be reached. He does this instead of being honest with himself and admitting his own faults and weaknesses.

Question 6

Personas

Answer 6

Jack creates many persons that he believes he will be able to fulfil.

Question 7

Fantasy

Answer 7

Jacks unstable life and dislike towards his true self encourage him to live in a fantasy world where he can be whomever he wants.

Question 8

Lies

Answer 8

When Jack lies about whom he is, he doesn’t see it as lying because he believes he can truly become whom he is describing himself as.

Question 9

9 Identify and transformation quotes

Answer 9

BELIEFS
PHANTOM 
DREAMS 
FREEDOM
IMAGES
LETTERS
DIFFERENT
DUMMY
QUESTION
CITIZEN

Question 10

Beliefs and meaning

Answer 10

It was truth known only to me but I believed in it more than I believed in the facts arrayed against it. I believed that in some sense not factually verifiable I was a straight A student.

And… we’re back to self-deceit. It seems pretty clear here that Jack’s kind of trying to change reality here: that if he just believes in his lies hard enough, they will come true. Fake It Til You Make It Syndrome indeed.

Question 11

Phantom and meaning

Answer 11

And on the boy who lived in their letters, the splendid phantom who carried all my hopes, I saw, at last, my own face.

Here it is again: Jack’s dreams—the mad desire to be somebody awesome instead of a borderline criminal—eventually show him who he really is. Could that be the important thing about his dreams? Not that they come true but that they help him see the truth?

Question 12

Dreams

Answer 12

I didn’t come to Utah to be the same boy I’d been before. I had my own dreams of transformation.

Question 13

Freedom

Answer 13

I was caught up on my mother’s freedom, her delight in her freedom, her dreams of transformation.

Question 14

Images and meaning

Answer 14

All the images of myself as I wished to be were images of myself armed.

Key point here: Jack ties his transformation into gunplay. Carrying a gun, to be specific. It’s probably part of his need for control over his life—a gun makes you feel in control, even if you aren’t—but it plays a big role in his development. And he does ultimately join the army, after all.

Question 15

Letters

Answer 15

I represented myself to her as the owner of a palomino horse named smiley who shared my encounters with mountain lions.

Question 16

Dummy

Answer 16

I was not available to be reached. I was in hiding. I left a dummy in my place to look sorry and make promises.

Question 17

Question

Answer 17

He asked me who I thought I was. I didn’t know how to answer that question.

Question 18

Different and meaning

Answer 18

I recognised no obstacle to miraculous change but the incredulity of others. This was an idea that died hard, if it ever died at all.

This is one of Jack’s big misunderstandings about life. Call it ‘Fake It Til You Make It Syndrome’: all he has to do is pretend hard enough and he’ll change. Sadly, it just ain’t that easy.

Question 19

Citizen

Answer 19

I wanted distinction, and the respectable forms of it seemed to be eluding me. If I couldn’t have it as a citizen I would have it as an outlaw.