Jack's permanent family in This Boy's Life is his mother, who he loves but who is low-key kind of nuts. To that, he gets Dwight and Dwight's brood, who range from the indifferent to the flat-out psychotic. It's a pretty dysfunctional family, even though they're all trying to pretend that it's normal and happy. They stick to the surface details of what they should do—tending to appearances instead of doing things like loving and caring about each other. Some real love slips in there, but by and large, family here is about who they try to be instead of who they really are. (Nobody thinks of themselves as an abusive alcoholic…or a sponge for that matter.)
Questions About Family
- Does Jack ever feel like his mother is his "real" family? Why or why not?
- Why does Dwight do what he does to make life more "family-like" for everyone? Does that have anything to do with his decision to marry Jack's mom?
- How to Dwight's kids handle the question of family, especially when they head out to have families of their own?
- Does Jack see other people's families as something better than what they really are? Why or why not?
Chew on This
Jack is rebellious because he wants a "real" family and can't have one.
Jack would be rebellious even if he had a "real" family like the kind he wants.