Autobiographical Theory - Old School ( Tobias Wolf )

Summary:

The narrator of the story, Wolff’s stand-in, is intimidated by the class snobbery at his school, particularly the hint of anti-Semitism that he senses. (The narrator’s father, like Wolff’s, is Jewish.) He struggles with most of the academic material at school, but finds his niche in English classes and on the staff of the literary magazine. He becomes caught up in a school tradition—the chance to have a one-on-one meeting with a famous visiting writer. These writers include Robert Frost, Ayn Rand, and Ernest Hemingway, said to be a friend of the school’s dean. When the time comes to compete for the Hemingway prize, he struggles to produce a worthy submission. In the end, he plagiarizes a story from another school’s literary magazine, changing only a few details. In the story, “School Dance,” a prep-school girl hides her Jewish identity in order to attend a country club party. The narrator’s version of the story (with the protagonist changed to a boy) is initially praised by everyone at school, but before long his deception is uncovered, and he is expelled the same day. His acceptance to Columbia University is withdrawn, and he drifts for a few years before enlisting in the army.

The last section of Old School tells the story of Dean Makepeace, who left his post for a year at the time of the planned Hemingway visit. It turned out that the dean had never, in fact, known Hemingway, but he had allowed this misconception to circulate on campus for many years. When he finds out not only that Hemingway will visit campus, but also that a student is going to be expelled for dishonesty, he impulsively resigns from his position.

My analysis:

The novel is a very good example of the theory Autobiography because it is about the search for individual authenticity. The life of the main character was described in a way that it is related to Tobias Wolf's. Although Wolff calls Old School a novel, its plot follows the event of his own life starting from the enrollment at prep school up to his struggle to be a personality in the world of literature. The novel's emphasis is on the fluid process of identity creation.