Summary:
Toby plans to run away to Alaska with eighty dollars in his pocket that he earned from his paper route job and money that he stole from other customers. Toby told Arthur about his plan and he didn't want him to come along but he soon changed his mind because he does not want to feel lonely in Alaska. Every November, Toby's scout troop goes the Gathering of the Tribes in Seattle. There, Toby tries to stay away from Arthur, so while he was there, he participated in a swimming tournament. Also, at the Gathering of the Tribes, he meets a trio of boys that came from Ballard, another troop and hangs out with them. One thing they all have in common is that they smoke. When the Ballard boys saw Arthur, they made fun of his name by asking if he is a "king". They asked him to smoke weed, but fortunately, Arthur said no. Later on, Toby made up with Arthur by giving him a stuffed pink pig. When Toby returned home, he met a new dog named Champion. One night, Toby took Dwight's car and took it for a spin. Then, the car got in the mud. Suddenly, a man drives past him and took him home. The next morning, Dwight confronts him of taking the car and he also met the man who was taking Toby home. Dwight knows the incident now and as a result, he went on top of Jack and started beating him up, so he abuses him.
Toby starts off his freshman year at Concrete High with good grades by copying other people's homework. Every morning before school, Toby and his new friend Chuck would smoke. During his sophomore year of high school, Toby receives a letter from his long lost brother, Geoffrey and sent him a Princeton t-shirt. Then Toby had an idea that he could hitchhike to Princeton to be with Geoffrey, but to do that, he had to forge a check and he almost got caught with that fake check. Toby and Geoffrey continued to talk to each other. After Dwight slaps Toby for throwing away a mustard jar when it wasn't "empty", Toby called Geoffrey and told him the story. Geoffrey was disgusted. Then, Geoffrey talked him into applying in a prep school like Choate and Deerfield. Then, Toby's real father called him and told him the same thing.
Quote:
"Then he was on me. He caught me with one hand under the covers...he was kneeling on the bed, his legs on either side of me, locking me in with the blankets...he kept hitting me in a fast compulsive rhythm and I knew he was beyond all hearing..." (Wolff 177).
Reaction:
The first thing I have to say is that this quote from Toby is very explicit. The picture is just....ugly, in a way that a parent or a step-parent should not be doing this abuse to their child. I don't know how Toby can handle this abuse. To think that Dwight was going to be a good step-father. What I notice is that every time that Toby gets abused, Rosemary (Toby's mother) is not present. Sometimes, that does not make sense to me. What I want to happen is that Rosemary finds out all that abuse Toby has been suffering through and for the two to move out and live somewhere else and for Rosemary to divorce Dwight. At least Geoffrey knows about Toby's predicament and he will find a way for Toby to get out of it. One question that I have is that why isn't Toby telling his mom about this? This is important and it has to stop. Another question that I have is why is Dwight abusing Toby in the first place? Even though Dwight doesn't like Toby that much, that is not an excuse for treating the kid like trash.
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