Boy's Life

“Boy’s Life is about the dreams and terrors in the life of a Southern boy in 1964, but I hope it is more than that, too; I hope it is a universal key to yesterday, and by the opening of that door for a backward look we may all see today tomorrow in a much clearer, brighter light.” (Robert McCammon) Boy’s Life was an excellent novel that depicted the life of a young southern boy in 1964. Throughout the novel Corey has to deal with all the things that boy’s encounter while growing up like experiencing the magic of still being a boy, realizing that there is evil in the world, and recognizing the prejudices of society.

To begin with, Corey experienced dreams and magic of a young Southern boy in 1964 by imagining that he and his friends were flying at the start of summer. “It was time everyone knew it was time… Ben gave a holler. Wings tore through the back of his shirt.” This experience showed that Corey and his friends were at the stage in their lives where they were still able to experience the magic of being a boy and living a life of imagination.

In addition to experiences in his dreams and imagination, Corey also had to deal with the reality that there is evil in this world. “Who would do such a thing to another human being?” After witnessing the murder at Saxon’s Lake, Corey became conscious of the fact that the world was not a place without evil. Before witnessing this incident Corey thought everyone in the world was just looking out for one another, but after witnessing this incident he understood that there are people in the world who can hate another person so much that they are willing to kill. This murder was an example of one of the many terrors that a young boy had to deal with in the process of growing up.

Finally, there was one other terror a young Southern boy growing up in 1964 had to deal with, and that was racism. In 1964, even though slavery had been abolished, racial prejudice and segregation still existed in the south. In Boy’s Life...