In "This Boy's Life," a memoir by Tobias Wolff, I discovered an interesting passage located on pages 44 and 45 that revealed a softer side of Toby and his friends Taylor and Silver. This soft side was masked behind immature and wreak less behavior. In this passage, Toby and his friends who normally act tough are suddenly tamed and open to their feelings when a program called "The Mickey Mouse Club" comes on the television. Not only did they never once laugh at the somewhat corny program, but "joined the club." What struck me as interesting was how the boys surrendered their laid back, rebellious act and indulged in the program when they, if they were as bad and as tough as they seemed, would have normally criticized and laughed at it. They watched every minute of it. This is why this passage was interesting. Not only does this passage present a softer side to the boys, but their acceptance of it as well. .
When the boys "surrendered.[and] joined the club," a breach in their bad, rebellious attitudes was revealed, exposing that deep down, they weren't as tough as they thought they were. The way they sat dumbfounded, gazing at the television also exhibited this. When this program came on, they were totally different people than how they acted. What was also interesting is how one of the boys was so indulged in the program that he "sucked his thumb, and [Toby and Silver] let him get away with it." Not only did one of the boys succumb to the "Mickey Mouse Club" and childishly suck his thumb, but the other boys allowed him to do it, possibly because they both felt the same way. They all seemed to loosen up and watch "The Mousketeers. have wimpy adventures and talk about their feelings, and [not] laugh at them." It was intriguing how they all had mutual feelings about the show, even though they would never verbally admit it. It was almost as if they wanted to be "Mousketeers" and only acted like "tough guys" because they either had no chance of being like them or were afraid to.
