CREDIBILITY IN "THE GLASS CASTLE"

THE NARRATOR AS CHARACTER: WHAT IN THE VOICE CREATES CREDIBILITY OR RELIABILITY?

This is a hard question for me, because I often questioned the the narrator’s dependability and for the most part of reading “The Glass Castle.” I would have to say, the narrator’s need to believe in the stories her father told and the logic behind why and how her parents justified their way of living would be where the credibility lies. This is memoir, so I’m assuming Walls is portraying the events as she remembers them, for the most pat, as a child. On the ladder, (Intellectually) the language of the piece would range high, but (linguistically) the understanding lower on the ladder up until her teenage years, before moving to New York with her sister Lori. The moment that’s memorable is when she appears to evolve before her father stating that he was never going to build the glass castle (328). Although the children are book smart, much of the common sense doesn’t come from their own understanding, but from that of their father’s. In other words, they don’t have any. Their opinions are formed from their father’s voice (referential). Their reasoning behind why they’re continuously moving around comes from the fabricated stories Rex tells them. Walls needs to believe in her father and his ability to provide for their family, or otherwise things will fall apart. (In my mind, Dad was perfect… (23) She/they, needs to believe this. Not that their entire lives aren’t already in shambles, but their perception of life is that surviving is a game. Each time they do, they use what they learn as tools to overcome the next struggle that is sure to come. This is how they, for the most part, beat the odds because they truly apply the saying mind over matter to everyday obstacles. (Such as not eating in their case.) There is an instance where Rex doesn’t come home for days and Jeannette and her sister Lori begins to eat margarine sandwiches. Her siblings aren’t so sure if their father will return at all, but she believes there is no way he could ever abandon them. In the narrator’s mind, his absence is only due to the fact that he’s in search of food. He only disappears in a moment of stress to provide.

On the contrary, it was very hard to assess the reliability of the narrator when things occurred like, she and Rex petting a leopard at the zoo, or where she said “Mommy says I’m mature for my age” in the hospital after he dress catches on fire (11).” It’s not that children aren’t incapable of repeating things that their parents say, but this part seems like the adult voice was overriding the child’s somehow.

I have much more to say, but have run out of time… Until class!

-Brit