Symbol

To say Jeannette Walls had a rough childhood, filled with its fair share of hardships, would be quite the understatement. This can be seen in the clever, though not as easily spotted, symbolism Walls includes through her old Tinkerbell doll. After Walls is severely burned from cooking, she goes through a brief phase of pyromania. She is fascinated by fire, and plays with it constantly. Whether she is setting things alight or just lighting a match and watching it twist and burn before her, she yearns for it. Soon, she decides to “show” this new discovery to Tinkerbell. However, the poor doll gets too close and her once flawless face melts. Jeannette is horrified and immediately tries to fix the doll’s features, attempting to “smooth” out the imperfections, but only succeeds in making it worse (page 16). This short memory can be related to Jeannette because she has been burned, figuratively speaking, time after time again by the harsh realities of her life. In this instance, Tinkerbell becomes an indirect symbol of Jeannette herself, especially when her younger self attempts to mend the doll’s disfigurement. In this way, it can be questioned whether Walls could have been hinting towards her own effort to ease the suffering caused by her traumatic childhood.