Power in a Child's Voice

                                                   

                                                            Power in a Child's Voice

             Jeannette Walls The Glass Castle is at the top of my list of books that have inspired and influenced my thesis. After reading this everything seemed to fall into place—tone, style, scene section, voice, point of view and most importantly the angle of discovery. Walls stays under the ironing board in such a disciplined way. She is able to do this because the narrator is 100% a character in the story.

            

             Aside from the first chapter intro Walls’ narrator is completely under the ironing board. She only gives us thoughts, actions and analysis that the child Walls was able to have/do/make. This does so many things. First, it gives the narrator/character credibility because of the matter of fact tone that is displayed. At the same time there is a childhood curiosity that is completely endearing and helps the reader connect with the narrator/character. For example when, Mountain Goat (MG), melts Tinkerbells face off, the scene is set up so innocently and it is very believable, “One time I went out back with my favorite toy, a plastic Tinkerbell figurine. She was two inches tall, with yellow hair pulled up in a high ponytail and her hands on her hips in a confident, cocky way that I admired. I lit a match and held it close to Tinkerbell’s face to show her how it felt. She looked even more beautiful in the flame’s glow. When that match went out, I lit another one and this time I held it really close to Tinkerbell’s face.” This example show something that is very true of most kids, they don’t think about the consequences of their actions, especially when their curiosity is peaked. Walls had the discipline to let this scene sand on its own and stay in the ironing board and not explain the actions of her younger self. She could have easily went into an over reaching narrative and analysis about how she was just trying to reclaim the fire on her own or something else. But she chose to keep it completely in the child’s perspective.

            

             The second thing Walls achieves by keeping the narrator/character under the ironing board is tension. Because of the angle of discovery there is so much that happens that the character doesn’t understand and therefore doesn’t react. MG completely believes in her father for most of the memoir. This is so frustrating for the reader who knows better and can’t react. This builds a complete different level of tension to the work. There are so many examples to choose from to display this, but one of the most frustrating from me happens during the U-Haul scene. MG and her siblings are riding in the back of the U-Haul and the door flies open and they are in danger of falling out. Walls doesn’t tell us through the character how much danger they are in, but does let us know how much danger they are in like when Brain jumps back just in time. In this scene the tension really comes from small details that the character/narrator notices, but doesn’t comment on, like the mother says, “the trip would be about fourteen hours if we took the highway, but we should tack on another couple of hours because we might make some scenic detours.” As a reader we are just furious, because we see the completely absurdity of this statement, the parents taking the scenic detours while their kids sit in darkness. Also the small detail of the Prospector being tied down, “Brian and Lori held tight to the Prospector, which Dad had tied securely with ropes.” This just makes the reader want to rip their hair out because the Dad took the time to secure his contraption but left his kids to tumble. Again the analysis comes from the reader, not the narrator/character. There are so many examples throughout the book were this happens, completely and utter terrible things and circumstances happening and know reaction and only the proper reaction and analysis happening from MG.

The beauty of the Glass Castle, and why it is an inspiration for me is because as MG grows the understand grows and there for the character develops. But this happens over time and very subtlety. As the book goes on we see other’s in the family start to lose the faith, Brain first very subtly. Walls states it as matter of fact just like she does so many things in the story. She doesn’t react, instead she lets the reader pick up on it like so many other things in the story. “’Have I ever let you down?’ he asked Brain and me and then turned and walked away. In a voice so low that Dad didn’t hear him, Brian said, ‘Yes.’”

There is a slow build up to everything Walls does. It is easy to see how conclusions and ideas that show up latter in the book have a history many points of references that MG wasn’t aware they were putting together, but we the reader were all along.

            

Best,

CF