Changing the Angle

            One of the things that I really enjoyed in the craft of The Glass Castle, is how the angle of discovery changes/widens as the narrator grows. Other memoirs do this too, I believe you have to, but in this one it is done gradually that one could miss it if they weren’t looking for it. The shift becomes evident once Jeannette moves to New York. The scenes are more space out through time and it is much more thought based instead of action based. The narrator is internalizing the things that are happening to her and around her instead of observing them. She has grown up, and there for has come out of the ironing board.  

            I would argue that although things happen gradually there is a breaking point for her where she becomes detached and the “fairy tale” we had talked about last week ends. That is the scene where she “disrespects” her father and mother and he beats her. This is the moment when the narrator completely comes out from underneath the ironing board, “But it never occurred to me to either run of fight. The way I saw it, he was in a tighter spot that I was. He had to back down, because if he sided with Mom and gave me a whipping he would lose me forever.” This is a pivotal scene in the memoir because Walls the author has realized that this moment was when everything changed. Soon after the escape fund is thought up and the book moves at Mock speed (see what I did there) from there on out.  Up until this scene, most of the memoir was holding pretty true to the angle of discover to where Walls was at in that point of her life, not really thinking too far ahead or analyzing what was happing because the character wasn’t capable, but here not only is the character beginning to become capable but the narrator and the author want the reader to know that this is when things changed.

            During the New York years the siblings become more much more involved in the story, which is interesting because they are not together as often. This is true of people in one’s life, we tend to think of them more when they aren’t around. I enjoyed the way Walls handled the moments, like quick check in on their whereabouts and what they were doing who they were becoming. The angle is much different in the New York years, it more about reflection and connecting the dots, and dealing with guilt, anger, and healing, than it is experiencing things because even though things are different they are very much the same. There are two places that show what I mean. One of them is when Rex tries to sober up and is doing well for himself and her mother pretty much calls him back. Walls asks Brian if he thinks he will stay sober and Brian informs her he is already drinking. Then Walls summarize the event, “A few weeks later Dad got back, I saw him at Lori’s. He was sitting on the sofa with an arm around Mom and a pint bottle in his hand. He laughed. “This crazy-ass mother of yours, can’t live with her, can’t live without her. and damned if she doesn’t feel the same about me.” 

The section ends there because there isn’t anything more to say on the matter.

            Another place that shows more of a reflection side of things comes towards the end after Rex dies. Walls says: “I found myself always wanting to be somewhere other than where I was. If I was at work, I’d wish I were at home. If I was in the apartment, I couldn’t wait to get out of it…I felt best when I was on the move, going someplace rather than being there…it took me a while to realize that just being on the move wasn’t enough; that I needed to reconsider everything.” This part of the memoir is another turning point, and is a place where Walls grows up again. She is repeating patters she was taught in her life, moving around, just in a different way. But unlike the way she grew up she reflects on the problem and makes a change, she leaves Eric and finds her home.  Her place in the world, and in my eyes that is the moment when she truly got out. 

Best,

CF