Although a memoir of an erratic, unplanned life, Jeannette Walls weaves fire as a main symbol throughout her story. From the first sentence of her book, Walls states, “I was on fire,” (page 9). This might seem meaningless to the reader, but by keeping this entire statement in capital lettering and slowly unraveling many other events that were centered around flames, Walls clues the reader in on her clever writing abilities. Another story from her years as a small child was when a hotel she and her family were staying caught fire, due to her obsession with the dangerous element. While considering what she did, Walls eloquently describes her life as, “a world that at any moment could erupt into fire,” (pg 34). This is one of the most palpable examples of fire as a symbol because it relates her entire life to flame in one statement. The fire itself represents the lives of everyone in the story, able to be controlled if tended to frequently, but can easily get out of hand. The Walls family frequently has this problem of maintaining a steady way of life due to the parents’ irresponsible natures, even though the children try to take the responsibilities of finding, food, money, and shelter. Through to the very last statement, “the candle flames suddenly shifted, dancing along the border between turbulence and order,” (pg 288), Walls refers to life with her family and life as a whole as a flame, reflecting on how life is not always steady and easy, but does not have to descend to chaos otherwise. Flame as her main symbol aids in developing Walls inspirational story into a lesson valuable to all who read it.
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I actually never thought of fire as a symbol while reading the book. Now that you mention it, however, I have another quick insight to add. I remember earlier in the book (just before they moved i think), Jeannette had her Barbie that she really loved. She tried to give it a tan by holding it to a flame, but it melted the face of the Barbie. This could symbolize the how reality forces children to let go of their innocence too early.
ReplyDeleteTrue! I hadn't thought about that. It was actually a Tinkerbell figurine, but I see what you're saying. I think it's so interesting how Walls was able to take different instances and but a theme to go with them. At least that is what it feels like, or maybe we are just being AP students and looking into everything too much! :P
ReplyDeleteI think she did mean to, though, considering she began the memoir with capitalizing, "I was on fire," and ending it with saying a flame was flickering between chaos and order, I think it said.
I was also going to use fire as my symbol of choice, but could not quite figure out how to analyze it in the way that you did. I really loved how you made the connection between the characteristics of a fire and the characteristics of the Walls family members. Also, Bren, I was going to mention the Barbie as well, but in a different way. After the Barbie's face melted, Jeannette said something about loving it anyways and hoping that others would accept the Barbie even though it was melted and disfigured. I thought that this could possibly be a representation of the way that she felt about herself. She grew up with a very different family and had to overcome unusual obstacles throughout her life. She was probably able to relate to the Barbie and love it even though it was different than most.
ReplyDeleteMy belief of the symbol of fire was similar to emily's. I think that fire represented her family, but I also think that it was a symbol of all the challenges and obstacles that they were faced with. The idiom that if you play with fire, you will get burned, applies to this. I think that Walls family played with "fire" too much. I think that when Jeannette melted the tinkerbell face, she was her parents playing with fire and ending up "destroying" the doll's face. The doll itself was the kids. With Jeannette leaving behind her doll, she is representing the idea of independence and self-reliance.
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