TOW #4 - "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls, IRB part 1

         The narration and description in the first part of Jeannette Walls' "The Glass Castle" propel the story by serving the reader a heaping plate of "What?" with a side serving of "She can't be serious." As Walls depicts her own life for anyone willing to listen at any time, she draws the reader in with a present day tale of her taxi ride home as she passes her homeless mother on the street. The confusion hits the reader like a brick wall as they ask themselves, "Why is her mother homeless if Walls is perfectly well off, even well enough to support both her parents if needed?" She then continues to narrate the story as she writes about taking her mother out to dinner and the reader begins to see inside her mothers brain. Walls, quoting her mother, writes, "'You want to help me change my life?' Mom asked. "I'm fine. You're the one who needs help. Your values are all confused'" (Walls 5). This leaves the reader wondering why her mother and father behave the way they do. Walls predicts this response because she expertly throws the reader into her childhood and introduces her family. Her description is especially effective in this part of the book because she writes just as a little girl would think. She really changes herself into the girl she once was. She also does an incredible job of describing and introducing her father. She writes, "The doctor said bandages were necessary to prevent infection. Dad stared at the doctor. 'To hell with infection,' he said. He told the doctor that I was going to be scarred for life because of him, but, by God, I wasn't the only one who was going to walk out of there scarred" (Walls 13). Walls could have very easily written "and then Dad threatened the doctor", but by depicting the situation descriptively the way she did, the reader has a better understanding of her father's personality. The purpose of the first part of "The Glass Castle" is to introduce the characters and give some background to the current situation. Walls flawless accomplishes this by giving the reader a little taste of crazy and leaving them craving more.