Victim Of Circumstance?

As I continue to read, I have begun to see something between Breaking Night and TBL. In This Boys Life, we see Toby who has a somewhat stable Mother and 'okay' overall life, yes it is still a little off the hinges, but it is still a better life then Liz's. In Breaking Night we see that at a younger age than where Toby is,  Liz had to provide for her family and live with her drugged up parents. Liz's life was overall a train wreck and anyone who would look at her childhood would cringe. And yet I see that Liz had a worse situation than Toby by a lot, but she seems to be the better person out of the two of them. What I have found is that Toby is constantly finding himself to be the trouble rather than fixing the trouble or doing what he can to help. Toby has a somewhat stable part to his life and yet he is constantly trying to rock the boat. Liz on the other hand, has a unstable base to her and finds every possible way to steady herself and others. TBL vs Breaking Night has made me think about the ideas of circumstance and bettering yourself. I wonder when Toby will being to think about this too, and if he ever will.