Possible Chimera Replacement for Gogol's "The Overcoat": Tobias Wolff's This Boy's Life

Starting this summer, I should make the switch from "The Overcoat" to This Boy's Life. The assignment would be the following:

A wise man once said, "Having a chimera will kill you, but not having a chimera will also kill you." Apply this saying to the character transformation of Tobias Wolff in This Boy's Life.