Boy Cry

- Boy Cry

In his telling novel , Real Boys , William S . Pollack spends much of the work making a strong social commentary on some of the issues and problems associated with growing up . For the author , growing up is something that has gotten more and more difficult over the years and certain problems must be handled by society . The book succinctly discusses the various roles that educators , parents , friends , and society plays in raising a child to be a man . It discusses what can be done on both an individual level and a

parental level , while addressing how children respond to different motivations from the outside . The impressiveness of raising these important social questions is bested only by this book 's ability to answer those questions

The most important aspect of young male development to the author is the context in which a boy is raised . By this , it means that a boy in North America has a hard time coming to a firm understanding of both who he is and who he is supposed to become . The book talks at length about the many codes ' by which a boy is required to live in the United States . Instead of being able to find himself within the context of his life , a boy must adhere to a double set of social standards . In addition to adhering to new age principles , boys must do their best to uphold the long standing male tradition of being tough ' and being manly . As Pollack shows with his real life examples , this type of pressure does not allow a boy to realize the proper context . This is important because it eventually stunts development and , according to the author , can lead to some very serious consequences . Among those are drug use , violence learning disabilities , and psychological diss

The author makes the point to state some solutions for these problems instead of focusing solely on the problems . That is one of the important and interesting aspects of the book . One of the solutions has to do with a likely source in a boy 's development . According to the author , parents have to play a pivotal role in a child 's development if that child is going to become a success in society . This is where the idea of parental gatekeeping comes into play . Parents must not only do what they can to raise a child financially and physically , but they must also make a commitment to raising the child 's psyche . This does not mean that parents are always supposed to be the child 's biggest fan , nor are they to be his biggest detractor . In for a boy to eventually grow into a man , the parents have to be something of a middle man in this . They must let enough good in to encourage the boy in his development , while keeping him grounded enough to stay on the right track . This is a slippery slope , but one that parents must tread down if they want to...