Tobias Wolff

While growing up as a 12 year old boy just before his teenage years, Tobias Wolff is going through tough times since he has no father in his parents divorce and now he has to live with just his poor mother and take care of her the best he can. As a result of not having a normal life family wise, he tends to do things that others in his situation might have been taught properly not to do. You will find him and his friends going around egging nice cars, making cars roll down hills smashing into other cars, vandalizing bathrooms, and using his rifle that his mother told him not to use while she is away.
In addition to his hard times, Tobias and his mother, Rosemary move to a small town in Washington to live with his step-father and his three kids who are all in their late teens. If moving and leaving his friends wasn’t bad enough, Tobias’ step-father is abusive towards him. He controls what Toby is doing at all times and to keep him busy at all times, he makes him crack nuts and put them in a bowl for others to at. He would make him do this for hours and hours at a time every day. This must be hard for Tobias to get used to because all his life, while his mother was away at work, Toby would have all the freedom he wanted, and now that someone is bossing him around, in a matter of a few days, his life changes forever. Even when he does have some free time, there is not much to do since the other kids around him were at least 6 years older than him and would rather not hang out with him even though once in a while they have a game of monopoly.
Since Tobias is not one who is used to being told what to do, he has control of what he wants to do with the rest of his life which includes possibly running away and starting over on his own.