Throughout Jeannette Walls’ inspiration memoir of her own hectic life growing up with her family, her own character developed and changed in every aspect from how she viewed her life to her mere tone and language as she wrote. Jeannette, like other children when they are young, looked up to her father as a perfect male figure. She remained one of the only members of the family who believed he could find a home, feed the family, or even build them a glass castle. At one point, she mentions how people always stared at her father, but rather than seeing it because he was drunk, she assumed it was, “because he was so handsome or because he called people ‘pardner’ and ‘goomba’ and threw back his head when he laughed,” (pg 12). As time wears on, however, Jeannette realizes she must become the responsible one in the family, whether it was watching over her siblings, or finding earning money to help send herself and her older sister out into the world. As her dad lay dying in the end, he asked her his familiar question if he had ever let her down before and, “he started chuckling because he knew there was only one way [she] could ever answer that question. [She] just smiled,” because she could not offer the answer he wanted (pg 279). Her lack of response gave away to the reader that she had lost faith in her dad and knew he could never be the kind of supportive father she and her siblings needed all along. Her point of view is depicted through her tone throughout the memoir, therefore creating a sensitive story that can be seen through Jeannette’s eyes.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I wrote about the character development of Jeannette as well and as I was writing, I stopped and thought, "it seems like I'm writing more about her father than I am about Jeannette herself." Now I am reading your thoughts on Jeannette's character and see that you also include Rex throughout the entire blog. I think that this observation says a great deal about Jeannette and the memoir as a whole. As readers, when we think of Jeannette we think of the interesting relationship between her and her father and his impact on her life. It is because of her father that Jeannette is where she is now and it is debatable whether or not his tendency to "let her down" was justifiable. The actions of Rex Walls directly influenced the growth of Jeannette as an individual.
ReplyDeleteI actually wrote about Brian and also included a significant amount of Rex in the blog just because of the impact of his negligence on all of the children. I found it hard to not include Rex. I agree with both Emily and Siena, but also I assumed that the reason Jeannette in a way "took over" the job as head of the family was because of her close relatinship to her father. Perhaps because she was the only one of the children who really saw and felt the pain of their father, which persuaded her to somewhat take the burden off of her father.
ReplyDeleteI actually wrote about Rex. He was such a complex character and his influence on Walls and the rest of the family was quite interesting. I think that what most interested me about him was that he has so many biazzare personalities. I think that he had this haughty persona about him that was clearly demonstrated between him and Rose. Like Cassidy I think that whether or not she knew, Walls subconciously took over that role as a leader because she had idolized him as a kid for so long.
ReplyDelete