Essay On The Glass Castle By Jeanette Walls

Normally, most of us believe that it is the parents who are in charge of taking care of their children. It is a logical thought. It is not always the case that parents fulfill their duties as guardians though. Occasionally, they themselves are stuck in a mid-life crisis trying to be someone they’re not and forget that they have children they’re responsible for. However, it often doesn’t come to mind to us that children, siblings to be specific, have to fend for themselves. But as always, blood is thicker than water, and as little kids, they will always end up forgiving their parents for what they have done. In the novel, The Glass Castle, a memoir written by Jeanette Walls, she writes about these experiences that she had with her family. Although,

both of her parents were careless, she had a special bond with her father, Rex Walls, who she would forgive if he ever did anything wrong. Throughout the novel, one could feel the emotion written in these paragraphs and it felt genuine. Unlike, Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris, this novel was organized, clear, and relatable, in my opinion.
This novel was very impressive and natural.

By that I mean that, Walls was actually telling her life story and not just writing to publish a book. The purpose of this novel, I believe was to inform people that even though you may have bad parents and a rough childhood, it does not mean that your life will continue that way forever. She wanted to share her story and let people that are going through the same thing as them that they’re not alone and with enough effort and determination they can get themselves out of that position. Jeanette Walls wanted to reassure kids that they are not guaranteed to live the same life as their parents. The purpose also is to show kids more privileged than her that we need to be grateful and value the good things that we have. Moreover, the audiences for the novel are people who may have been raised in the same environment as herself and kids who are more fortunate than she was. The novel was very effective in showing her purpose and also in connecting with the audience. For example, in some instances, when she wrote about the things she would do with her sister and brother, it would remind me of my siblings and

I.
In this novel, we see how Walls follows and doesn’t follow some of Zinsser’s writing suggestions. Some tips that she followed were to choose if she was going to write in first or third person to stick with it throughout the whole writing and to also choose a mood (Zinsser 50), and that is exactly what she did. I feel that this is important both of these tips are important. Otherwise, if she had changed it, it would’ve been confusing for the reader to know who was talking. Using the word “I” helped us comprehend that she was talking strictly about what she was experiencing. For example, in the beginning of the book where Walls is explaining how she saw her mom in the middle of the street she says “It had been months since I laid eyes on Mom, and when she looked up, I was overcome with panic that she'd see me and call out my name”, she is clearly telling us what happened to her and expressing how she felt at the moment Also, as for the mood, it remained the same in the whole novel. Another tip from William Zinsser that she followed was to “keep your paragraphs short.” This catches most people’s attention unlike writing a long passage that will “discourage a reader” (Zinsser 79). During the first couple of pages Walls using a series of brief paragraphs to explain was happening. For instance, she writes, “The taxi pulled up in front of my building, the doorman held the door for me, and the elevator man took me up to my floor. My husband was working late, as he did most nights, and the apartment was silent except for the click of my heels on the polished wood floor. I was still rattled from seeing Mom, the unexpectedness of coming across her, the sight of her rooting happily through the Dumpster. I put some Vivaldi on, hoping the music would settle me down” (Walls 3). In my opinion, this is an ideal length of a paragraph. Although it’s short, it packs a lot of information. It can be read and by the end, the reader will still have interest on what it is followed by.
Zinsser suggests that when writing a memoir, not to write about your whole life, but, to write about the “… the past that was unusually intense” (Zinsser 135).

Walls took this literally, and wrote about one of her first memories, which caught my attention even more. She writes “I felt a blaze of heat on my right side. I turned to see where it was coming from and realized my dress was on fire.” (Walls 5), - this immediately will catch anybody’s eye. It was an event that impacted her life, and she gave us some insight on it. Another one of Jeannette Walls specialty is being herself in her writing. One major part in when I thought she was being herself the most, was when she mention the word skedaddle (“We were always doing the skedaddle, usually in the middle of the night” (Walls 11). I was shocked and at the same time pleased because most “professional” authors would not consider putting this in their writing. However, she was being very genuine and trying to have a connection with her

readers.