In literature, different contexts are often used to explain the production of different character types with varied opinions, personalities and morals. Additionally, setting is often used to convey a specific idea or emphasize the characters' goal. The rural locations in each of these books push toward a common theme: escape. In the memoirs This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff and Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje, the element of setting is important in that it helps the reader understand the writer's personal goals both at the time of the events and when writing his memoirs. acting as a vehicle for the theme and explaining the character's actions and feelings. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In both of these memoirs, a theme surrounding the idea of ​​escape arises, rooted in the isolation the characters experience in their current context. Running in the Family takes place on the island of Ceylon and This Boy's Life takes place in the small town of Concrete, Washington. Although Ondaatje himself may not have specifically attempted to escape the island of Ceylon, he states that he "realized that he had moved beyond a childhood that he had ignored and that he had not not understood.” which suggests that his life in Ceylon escaped him (22). Ondaatje's father is seen to want to escape Ceylon due to his incessant drinking as well as his attempts to escape the watchful eye of his parents in order to live his own life after arriving in England for school, as they say: “There were two and a half years”. Six months later […] his parents discovered that he had not even passed the entrance exam and was living off his money in England. " (31) Tobias Wolff describes similar escape wishes when he says: "Eighty dollars seemed like a lot of money, more than enough for my goal, which was to escape to Alaska. » (155) The rural and “entrapment” context of these two memoirs helps the reader understand the discontent the characters feel and their desire to escape. In this sense, the isolation that the characters experience through their setting acts as a vehicle for the theme of these two memoirs. As these stories progress, it becomes increasingly clear that each of the writers used their imagination as a place of refuge from the confines of their homes. Ondaatje uses his imagination to construct the answers to past questions that he was unable to answer himself, and Tobias Wolff uses his to reconstruct himself, for example when he steals his high school forms to fill in his own grades and letters of recommendation for internship. applications. As he fills them out, he says: “This is what I thought I was writing – the truth. It was the truth known only to me, but I believed in it more than I believed in the facts opposed to it. (213) Tobias once again attempts to escape from the environment in which he lives. Similarly, Ondaatje constructs “truths” throughout his memoir, as when he describes the death of his grandmother, Lalla, as “her perfect last journey.” (128) Although he was not present at Lalla's death, he describes it in great detail, thus filling a gap in his research through her childhood. He creates a reality for himself in order to escape the unknown in his life and try to piece his life together. The use of both characters' imaginations is a testament to how the setting acts as a way to explain the characters' behavior as well as the author's writing style, which continues to push the theme of the escape.