TOW #8 - IRB

Author of The Glass Castle Jeanette Walls grew up in life of disorganized chaos. With two very outward thinking parents her life was no where near ordinary. Her book The Glass Castle tells this story of her childhood and how she finally got out of an unhealthy situation. The first half of the story is mostly about her and her family constantly moving and how she was so young she thought nothing of it and that her life was special. But contrastingly in the second half of the book, her family has settled into one place and her main objective is to be saving money to leave the dreadful situation behind. Overall Walls uses meaningful character evolution and symbolism to get show the long and winding path she took to get where she is today.

As I said that book started with Walls being so young that she believes the way her parents act is normal that her life is one big adventure. But once they get settled down in a run down town, and a few years later her sister decides to leave, she realizes that she needs to get out and see the world. This evolution of her view on her lifestyle flows chronologically with the stages of her life she is in. The story begins with her being naive and standing up for all of the wrong things such as always defending her father for his drinking. Then we see towards the end of the story her seeing all the flaws of the way her family lives and no longer supporting her fathers decisions. This loss of belief in her father can also be seen as symbolic of her trying to grow up from her past and move on to a brighter future. This sense of time and of maturity growth helps the audience follow the author and travel with her into her new life.

I believe that she reaches out to an audience of misunderstood kids or kids in rough situations to give them the spark of hope that they can overcome their obstacles. Family issues tend to be very complex and not the easiest situations to get out of but Walls exhibits that she was able to and she clearly became successful from her efforts. Through such a personal story she really shows that one doesn't have to succumb to the status of their families. They can branch out and be their own person and find themselves as hard of a process as it may be.