Gr.12 - Blog #1: THe Glass Castle

MSNBC has a collection of characters from all different backgrounds working in their offices, and Jeannette Walls is one of them. Walls and her siblings were raised in poverty by their free-thinking parents, and she has now written a memoire about her childhood, which she has entitled The Glass Castle. In her book, the manner of her upbringing is reflected in the style of her writing: simple, yet colourful, and to the point. However, poor is one thing Walls' writing most certainly is not!
Conveyed to us through the memories displayed in The Glass Castle is the frank and somewhat removed tone of an author who might once have been intensely embarassed by what they are writing. I imagine it would have been excrutiatingly difficult for Ms. Walls to accept her parents as they were, and feel secure enough in herself to write a book about being raised in poverty. This comes through in the tone of her book, and makes it quite humble. She doesn't try to make you feel sorry for her, she just tells the stories as they are.
For an American, and an MSNBC employee, Walls' diction is fantastic. It's simple and to the point, which I think reflects her upbringing. She doesn't try to use extravagant vocabulary to spice up her stories, because then the stories wouldn't fit the characters, who were plain, simple people. "We'd have to be out of our minds to want to trade places with any of them," Walls' father says when talking about city people and the way they live. That easy-going, kind, simpleness bred into Walls from a young age is evident in her writing.