Old School

Alex Messick
Ms. Sinnott
English 10, Block A
November 3, 2010
Old School
Individualistic is defined as a person who shows independence and or individuality in his/her identity and behaviors. However, how individualistic can a person be before they realize that they have pushed everybody away? Being more individualistic is a way to escape the responsibility to take care and love for another person; it can also be good for the person to learn what it means to be independent and not always really on other people for everything. This is very important in Tobias Wolff’s novel Old School because our narrator has gone through some times that put him into a position of which he has to choose to have more of an individualistic identity. Individualistic exists in the novel to shows how the influence of the individualistic identities of the authors visits is having an effect on the narrator and the other boys that go to that school. In the novel Old School, by Tobias Wolff, Robert Frost and Ayn Rand are used to influence the narrator and help him create identities that push them to be more individualistic.
Robert Frost’s influences are being used to help create the boys individualistic identities. When Robert Frost spoke to George he said “Mr. Frost told me I was wasting my time in school. He said I should go to Kamchatka; Or Brazil.” (59) What Frost was trying to explain or get George to think about why was he in school and why did he accept the lifestyle that was set before him? Why were all these boys forsaking their lives to just go to school? Frost was explaining that the boys needed to get out and live freely to create their own individualistic identities. He had wanted them to go live then write; because once the people had lived their lives then they can write great novels, because they will have so much to write about. Our narrator thought to himself “what was it about Kamchatka that a young writer should forsake his schooling to go there?” (60) This just...