Humorous Wedding Speech From 'The Glass Castle'

Andrew: Good evening ladies and gentlemen, I am Andrew Denton and welcome to tonight’s episode of Enough Rope. My guest this evening is a woman with quite a story. Her head-spinning memoir, The Glass Castle, graphically captures horrors of the unconventional, poverty-stricken upbringing she and her siblings had to endure at the hands of their deeply dysfunctional parents. However, through the her crazy and wild recounts of her childhood her inspiring strength stands out and has inspired thousands of people whilst sitting on the New York Times Best Seller list for 261 weeks. May we please welcome to the stage, a lady of great courage, resilience and honesty, Jeannette Walls.
Jeannette: Thanks for having me, it is an honour to be here today.

Andrew: The pleasure is mine. Now I must say, the fact that you have survived such a chaotic childhood, Jeanette is a feat in itself, but to open up so freely as you have done through your novel takes special courage. What inspired you to tell your story?
Jeanette: My childhood was an ongoing adventure into a world, no child should experience and for some time it was a source of deep shame for me. The novel helped me to express my story and come to terms with my past. In a way, it was actually my mother who inspired me to tell my story. I opened the book with a story about my mother as she challenged me to tell the truth and come to terms with who I truly am. When I felt as if I had it all, with my fancy clothes and expensive house on Park Avenue, I saw a homeless woman scavenging through a dumpster and then realised it was my mother (Walls, J. 2005. p.3). Out of shame i hid, scared that people would know my secret if she saw me and yelled out my name (Walls, J. 2005. p.3). When I got in contact with my mum I abruptly asked her, “What am I supposed to tell people about my parents?” (Walls, J. 2005. p.6) and she just responded with “just tell the truth” (Walls, J. 2005. p.6) and that is what inspired me and motivated me to be honest, reflect on my life and come to terms with my past. Before this I was often ashamed of where I had came from, the past I had was something I had kept hidden from everyone I knew. From this moment I learnt a lot about myself, I learnt that my past made me the person I am today and I valued my mums strength to be who she was regardless of what people thought. I realised I had to be honest with myself and the people I cared about otherwise I would never truly grow as a person
Andrew: It’s interesting that your mother encouraged you to tell the truth. Did you ever considered what people would potentially think about you after reading your story?
Jeanette: Oh, in this opening chapter especially, I admitted I was ashamed of my parents and depicted myself as arrogant and selfish.

However, throughout my life I have learnt to be resilient, ignoring what people think about me in order to survive in the world. Despite of my parents and because of them I grew up tough and stronger. I mean, I grew up with dirty unwashed hair, ripped hand-me-down clothes from Lori and hardly ever showered (Walls, J. 2005. p.31) so I have become accustomed to people’s judgement (slight laugh). My dad often referred to our family as “survivors” (Walls, J. 2005. Pg 56) and he was right, times would get so tough we would need to scavenge for food. Although I have matured now and have some source of security I no longer need to do that, thank god! (laughs) I have realised fighting for what you want is a part of

life.
Andrew: it must have been nice to escape to New York to follow your dreams and not have anyone judge you on your past. How big of a change was it from your life at home?
Jeanette: Oh it was tremendous!

It was like a completely different world however it was something I knew I had to do. When I got my job as a gossip columnist, I saw it as a key out and no one knew who I was or where I had came from. This position is what gave me confidence in knowing I was good at writing and once I had proven myself I fought and fought to never give them a chance to doubt me.
Andrew: Your parents certainly had an interesting philosophy regarding parenting. How much did your dads alcoholism and your mothers resentment towards you and your sibling impact the way you have dealt with the world over the years?
Jeanette: Clearly, they were not your typical parents at all and despite my cheery demeanour, my parent’s choices often affected me deeply and painfully without even realising. They rarely valued the same things I did, such as my love for my cat, Tinkerbell, who they made me through away and told me “to not be so sentimental” (Walls, J. 2005. p. 19). From this point my ambivalence changed dramatically as I matured and began to grow resentment towards my parents which triggered me to live a life that was more independent and

wilful.
Andrew: Throughout the book, you describe your family as very dysfunctional and your father for much of your life was depicted as an alcoholic. But you also reveal you saw him as more than just this. How did this effect your perceptions of this world?
Jeanette: It would be fair to say that my dad had a huge impact on my perception of things, and for much of my life I refused to give up on my father’s dreams. Unlike my older siblings, Lori and Brian, who despised Dad at many points, I was so optimistic and maintained a sense of faith in and loyalty towards him. I often see the world as a large opportunity for new things (Walls, J. 2005. p. 288) because of my father. His persistent determination to bring his inventions and ideas to fruition influenced my belief in following your dreams (Walls, J. 2005). However, when I moved into high school I began to be interested in the news and began weighing news reports against my parents' worldview, from here on I could sees how paranoid and skewed my parents' perception of the world were. I started questioning my parents' decisions as I saw the world through my own eyes and realised that dreams did not have to be destructive.
Andrew: This interest in news and reporting became a big part of you and you tell how this early exposure to your dream career inspired you to venture away from Welch to New York. This was a big change, but would it be fair to say that for you, it was momentous?
Jeanette: The move and change was drastic; however, it was what I needed in order to get away from my parents’ dysfunctional and reckless ways. I achieved what my parents never could - a sense of order and plenty. Despite my unconventional upbringing, I had grown up into what I would like to of as, a strong independent women and through my values for security and order, I became the person I wanted to be and accepted my past. It could not be changed but I could reflect on it and learn from my parents’ mistakes
Andrew: Jeanette, your determination to overcome the challenges of a dysfunctional childhood to follow your dreams and live life on your own terms is inspirational. Your life story serves as a lesson to us all, that reflecting on the past can allow us to move forward in strength. Thank you, Jeanette, Her head spinning and inspirational memoir are available now in store and online, so grab a copy today and read one of New York Times best sellers. May we all please put our hands together and thank Jeanette Walls. Please join us next week for another episode of Enough Rope, Goodnight.