The Essential Human Need

For books to connect well with people, the characters must be well thought out and given human characteristics. In Tobias Wolff’s first novel, Old School, he attempts to portray a narrator starting with his final year in a New England prep school. The school is noted for its literary prowess with examples such as, “If the school had a snobbery it would confess to, this was its pride in being a literary place…” (Wolff 5). Enhancing the reputation of the school was the fact that three important literary figures come to visit the school each year. The seniors of the school would compete for the distinction to meet one of these figure by writing and submitting pieces of literature which were then judged by the author. These competitions play a key role as Wolfe starts his novel during the beginning of the first stage of the competition to meet the famed poet Robert Frost.

Throughout the novel, Wolff tries to flesh out his character by examining an aspect of life everyone struggles with: the search for a true identity. It is important to note that the author never reveals the narrators name or any significant details about the author’s description or past history. In a way this helps to signify to the reader, that the narrator has not come to grips with his character. The narrator’s lack of identity also seems to hinder him from making friends. Remarks such as “Nobody got along better, even if real friendship eluded us” (Wolff 13) and the vague descriptions of the other characters help to show the speakers difficulty in making lasting relationships.

The narrator struggles with the idea of conforming to the school’s environment while still trying to build up his own identity. An example of this contrast can be seen by the way he hides his family history and religion. Though the school is not blatantly Anti-Semitic, passages such as “It was one of the marks of their [Jewish boys] apartness” (Wolff 73) show that there was a bit of bias against Jewish people. The narrator has a tough time coming to grips with his “Jewishness” and lower economic background in the predominantly wealthy, Christian school. On the other hand, the narrator struggles to find a sense of individuality in the school. His search for individuality leads him to claim, “I wanted out. That’s was partly why I’d chosen Columbia….No other boy in my class would be going there” (Wolff 109). His struggle for an identity allows many readers to empathize with him. I find myself going through many of the same problems the protagonist goes through regarding the ability to belong to a group yet still keep a sense of the individual.

As alluded to above, the competitions play an important role in the main character’s development. As the narrator strives to win each competition, he comes to grip with his inner-self. I find it ironic that the narrator ultimately finds his true self through the plagiarizing of another student’s story. Wolff has used some of his own experience’s here, as he openly admits that he forged letters of recommendation to get into an elite prep school. When the narrator plagiarizes another student’s story, he gets the courage to reveal parts of himself, but even then he does not claim to be the person in his story when confronted by his roommate Bill. Rather, the consequences of his actions cause him to start a life on his own where he is able to learn enough about himself to become a writer. In particular the narrator’s acceptance to come back to his old school exhibits his comfort with his identity.

Tobias Wolff ends the book in a similar manner to which he started: just enough details to move the reader along. The narrator reveals very little about his life except for a key moment that impacted his life. Yet Wolff reveals just enough to show that finding an inner-self can ultimately lead to a life of fulfillment—another theme which can resonate with each and every person (675).