Rhetorical Strategies

Oxymoron: “[S]harp sweetness” (page 12).

Simile: “The cheetah licked my palm, his tongue warm and rough, like sandpaper dipped in hot water” (page 109).

Personification: “[T]he flames leaped up, reaching my face” (page 9).

Allusion: “‘No one else owns them. You just have to claim it before anyone else does, like that dago fellow Columbus claimed America for Queen Isabella’” (page 40).

Hyperbole: “The class laughed violently” (page 138).

Understatement: “‘It’s good we raised you young ‘uns to be tough,’ Dad said” (page 150).

Situational Irony: “‘But you can take my word for it that Jeannette and Brian are exceptionally bright, even gifted.’ She smiled at him...The principal decided that Brian and I were both a bit slow and had speech impediments and that made it difficult for others to understand us. He placed us both in special classes for students with learning disabilities” (page 136-137).



The job of an author is to write the story they know, the story that begs to be written. So when the writer sits down and brings these words up front, they enlist methods that help them get their points across. While it is debatable as to whether or not the writer includes these rhetorical strategies deliberately, no story out there has yet to exclude their presence from its pages. In Jeannette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle, she engages such strategies as similes, hyperboles, and oxymorons. Throughout the length of the novel, the reader waits for that one sentence that exclaims that the whole tale was merely made up, because no one can imagine a family actually living the way the Walls' did. However, they never receive it. Instead the story is delivered as somewhat paradoxical. Her childhood has memories that contradict each other, while at the same time making complete sense. For instance, Jeannette writes about her father in a way that makes the reader unsure about how they feel about him. At times, he proves to be a wonderful--though sometimes quite eccentric--dad to his kids. Yet, in the same breath, he will reach around his family towards his liquor bottle, leaving them behind. Contradictory feelings swirl about her story, which is reflected in the structure of the novel, itself, in its use of these writing strategies.

Character

In The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls is the second oldest of her three siblings and is the narrator, as well as the author, of the memoir. Throughout the narrative, Jeannette’s character develops through all the hardships her antagonistic parents drag her through. Her matter-of-fact tone in the novel creates a powerful notion to the readers as no matter the situation, Jeannette’s thoughts remain sober and realistic--which is more than anyone could say of her father. Also, at times her tone turns detached, especially after her parents drag her away from another house. More specifically, when they move from the only true home they had ever really known in Phoenix, and move to Welch. Their entire stay there, Jeannette never refers to the house as “home” like she did with her previous places. She instead calls the house by its address, “93 Little Hobart Street.” The entire novel is seen through the her eyes, no matter her age, and this often times creates a varied level of diction through the duration of the story. Also, through Walls’ use of language, she provides new insight on their dynamics, as well as her own thoughts and personality. Generally, Walls’ sentences are short and staccato, “School wasn’t so bad,” which can be taken for her own immaturity at the time, because during the memoir, she is writing from the perspective of her younger self and what she remembers thinking (page 44). As the novel progresses, her diction persists the same level of her old thoughts, “I’d pull his hands off and walk away without saying a word and that horndog would return to the television...,” though her perspective becomes more mature in its understanding (page 215). While Walls writes the novel as a grown woman years away from the troubled times she led, she stays true to her story and the brave young leader she was as a child.

Themes & Motifs

Jeannette Walls’ gift for her remarkable ability to recall her story in such detail, leaves the audience wanting more. However, it’s her overall purpose and style with which she formulates these haunting memories into words that demands the reader’s attention. Walls’ purpose is arguable between many points, but it can be summarized into a simple response; to believe and prove with her story that, “everyone interesting has a past.” As the memoir progresses, the reader witnesses more and more of the Walls’ parents mistakes. Some worse than others, Rex and Rose Mary’s parenting comes flawed beyond recognition. Yet, the reoccurring theme throughout is their children’s insurmountable ability to forgive. The children are forced to grow up at such early ages, because they must learn to take care of themselves, that they experience a loss of innocence. They become adults before their own parents do. Although their forgiveness is true and unchanging, it does not mean it came easily to those who asked for it. After years of living with the horrid things they went through to survive their family’s so called “adventures,” they grow a hard exterior. Along with this new development of their characters, their father creates a new tactic, one of Jeannette’s motifs in the novel, guilt. “Have I ever let you down?” he will ask, and every time his children--more specifically Jeannette--will bite their tongues and concede to his will, whether that be for liquor money or other (page 210). With this simple question he knowingly implies that his beloved kids have lost faith in their dad. Obviously, his kids lose most of their sympathy for him and become immune to his advances, but Jeannette has the most trouble turning her back on him. They had always had a very tight bond growing up, and this never escapes his memory. He uses this attachment to his advantage, and because of his exploitation of her soft spot for him she’s often left feeling, “used” (page 210). From early on Walls establishes her family’s complex relationship, and introduces major themes such as forgiveness, and most importantly, lost dreams. This theme is present in the title itself and represents the promise her father made to his family of a wonderful glass castle that he would build for them to live in. Her father was a dreamer, and they lived off of his dreams for a better life in their fantasy home, though it is never achieved.

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.

Personal Review

From the moment I picked up The Glass Castle, I was enthralled by it. Up until that point I had never read a memoir that actually kept my interest for longer than thirty minutes. I found myself reading it because I wanted to, rather than just for the assignment. Jeannette Walls’ unique style of writing and her childlike perspective fascinated me and made it an addictive read. It’s become somewhat of a “phenomenon” in my house as my mother has decided to read it after the reviews I gave it. I really thought it was clever of Walls to separate the memoir by the significant places and/or events that occurred in her life. She wrote the piece beautifully, in my opinion, and it is evident in the way she allows the reader to feel and experience what she really went through growing up. You’re haunted by her memories, perfectly recounted for, both dark and happy alike.