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Dwight is the book’s primary antagonist; an insecure and stupid man, he seeks to control everyone around him because of his own inability to exact control over the lackluster, somewhat depressing circumstances of his own life.
- Roy
At the start of the story, Rosemary and Jack are fleeting to...
- Pearl
Dwight ’s youngest daughter, who is the same age as Jack....
- Geoffrey
When Geoffrey gets wind of what’s really going on with...
- Mr. Howard
The timeline below shows where the character Mr. Howard...
- Roy
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- Personality
Dwight Hansen is the main antagonist in the movie This Boy's Life. He is the abusive stepfather of young Tobias Wolff, and the abusive husband of Tobias' mother Caroline.
He is a fictionalized version of Wolff's real stepfather, who died in 1992.
He and Caroline, the mother of the protagonist Toby, who also goes by “Jack”, meet each other at some moment. When he visits Caroline in his apartment, he sees Toby imitating him. Although frustrated, he shows himself as jovial and polite, even complimenting on the good taste of the coffee. He invites them to celebrate the Thanksgiving to his home in the town of Concrete and tells Toby he entered him in a turkey shooting competition. Caroline and Toby accept. Dwight presents them his three children: Skipper, Norma and Pearl. He shows them his whole house. He then takes them to a global visit of Concrete. While walking, he begins to show a bit of his true nature when Skipper complains about the school's distance by yelling him to "shut his pie hole". Back home, he announces to Jack that he has learned that the contest does not allow minors. Caroline decides to take her place and she scores a large number of points in the contest, higher than Dwight's. Dwight is envious of her result but congratulates her anyway. The family has fun in the evening by playing music and singing.
Toby is then sent for some time in Concrete to live with Dwight and his children, where he will soon discover the man's true personality: arrogant and violent. In the road, he takes a bottle of alcohol and drinks it. He aggressively asks Jack to imitate him and when Jack refuses, he threatens to break every bone if he sees him imitate him in a ridiculous manner. Dwight tries to make Toby become a better person but often ends up mistreating him boy, such as calling him a "hog" when Toby eats chocolate cherries despite Dwight forbidding it.
Some time later, Caroline and Dwight are now married and join her family in Concrete; the woman understands Dwight's dominant attitude towards everyone around him, however adjusting to her new life in the absence of better alternatives.
Meanwhile, Toby fights a classmate, the misfit homosexual Arthur Gayle. Dwight is pleased about this and teaches Toby how to fight. Later however, Toby befriends Gayle. Time passes and now in his last year of high school, he decides to leave, enrolling in the same university attended by his brother some time before, in order to leave this life. Dwight throws away his college papers because he doesn't want Toby to go there.
However, as his grades are not very positive, Toby with Arthur's help decides to forge them and is eventually admitted with a scholarship; the success achieved only increases Dwight's anger and frustration with the boy this time around, but his stepfather is more ruthless than ever, ultimately causing Toby's reaction. A violent brawl ensues which does not culminate in tragedy thanks to the intervention of Caroline who finally, with the support of her son, manages to find the strength to leave Dwight forever.
While being abandoned by Jack and Caroline he tries to make himself more sympathetic repeatedly asking “what about me?!”, and once he understands that they are never coming back he angrily shouts “I’ll tell you one thing you’ll remember me!” The ending of the movie states that he since lived alone until his death in 1992.
Although he appears at first as a nice and good-hearted man, Dwight is in fact brutish and cruel, a monster whose only motivation is to degrade and bully those who are weaker than him. The worst of Dwight's brutality is directed at Jack, who is rendered helpless by Dwight's unflinching adult authority. Dwight is an alcohlic, often seen drinking.
Dwight mercilessly berates Jack for his every move and, at his worst, uses physical force to make his power known. Dwight derives satisfaction from exercising his power over other people, primarily Jack and Rosemary, and needs to belittle and victimize others to reassure himself that he is important. Dwight is also exceedingly deceptive and dishonest, either making various promises he cannot keep, or simply lying outright, relishing his self-serving underhandedness, even although telling Jack he hates lies, which makes him a hypocrite. This deception is best exemplified when Dwight steals Jack and Rosemary's hard-earned wages, spending the money on himself after he has assured them both that he is depositing it into their respective bank accounts.
Dwight is unmistakably the antagonist of the memoir, a villain who steals Jack's happy childhood right out from underneath him. Dwight is cruel, a monster whose only motivation is to degrade and defile everyone he can.
This Boy's Life (titled onscreen as This Boy's Life: A True Story) is a 1993 American biographical coming-of-age drama film directed by Michael Caton-Jones. It is based on the eponymous memoir by author Tobias Wolff. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Ellen Barkin.
- This Boy's Life, by Tobias Wolff
- Fitch Cady, Art Linson
Character Analysis. Ah, Dwight. What can one say about an insecure, obsessive compulsive, verbally abuse, drunk, borderline sociopath? Well, if you're Jack's mom, you say "I do," and rob your only son of any shot at a happy childhood. That's the central dilemma that Jack faces in the book. Two Faced. Dwight starts out "very nice, very considerate."
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Apr 23, 1993 · Their journey's end is the ominously named town of Concrete, where Caroline meets a man named Dwight who wants to marry her. She can't think of a better idea. Dwight offers security, a paycheck and a father figure for young Toby. This time, Caroline is determined that the marriage will work.
Dwight. A cruel and violent man who convinces Rosemary to marry him and move to Chinook to live with him. Dwight is especially resentful of Jack and treats him with the utmost brutality. Dwight drinks to excess, steals Jack's and Rosemary's money, and often instigates physical altercations with Jack. Read an in-depth analysis of Dwight ...
