Jeannette Walls, the author of The Glass Castle, uses open honesty, and true stories to put together a novel that always leaves you in shock. The events of Jeanette's life makes you think about your life, and how you would deal with the situations she was put in. Her parents were adventurous people with one or two screws loose in their head. Jeanette lets you in to her deepest thoughts to let you know how she felt as a child. Letting the world into her head, and becoming vulnerable with so many people is really brave, and you can tell she is really opening up as the story continues. Jeannette's style is helpful to understand, and picture what's going on so that we can truly understand what she went through. She uses blunt sentences, and factual statements to tell the reader exactly what happened. She does this before she goes into detail in the later sentences. The dialogue makes the reader hear her families tone, and voice in your head. Using comparisons to a childs everyday life makes you realize how unusual her life was. When Jeannette gets to the point, and does these comparisons, it makes you imagine what your life would've been like if you were in the same predicament. She uses descriptions while the dialogue is happening which helps to picture what is going on around the people while they're communicating. "I never believed in Santa Claus. None of us kids did. Mom and Dad refused to let us. They couldn't afford expensive presents and they didn't want us to think we weren't as good as other kids who, on Christmas morning, found all sorts of fancy toys under the tree that were supposedly left by Santa Claus.
Dad had lost his job at the gypsum, and when Christmas came that year, we had no money at all. On Christmas Eve, Dad took each one of us kids out into the desert night one by one.
"Pick out your favorite star", Dad said.
"I like that one!" I said.
Dad grinned, "that's Venus", he said. He explained to me that planets glowed because reflected light was constant and stars twinkled because their light pulsed.
"I like it anyway" I said.
"What the hell," Dad said. "It's Christmas. You can have a planet if you want."
And he gave me Venus.
Dad had lost his job at the gypsum, and when Christmas came that year, we had no money at all. On Christmas Eve, Dad took each one of us kids out into the desert night one by one.
"Pick out your favorite star", Dad said.
"I like that one!" I said.
Dad grinned, "that's Venus", he said. He explained to me that planets glowed because reflected light was constant and stars twinkled because their light pulsed.
"I like it anyway" I said.
"What the hell," Dad said. "It's Christmas. You can have a planet if you want."
And he gave me Venus.
-Jeannette Walls(The Glass Castle)
No comments:
Post a Comment