The Glass castle is a good merior, because of it carpency, art and the author’s optimism and forgiveness.
To begin with The Glass Castle has very clear and direct construction. The order of the whole book is time sequence, and the book describes a story that a little girl gradually become a young and brilliant woman. In view of the clear construction, it is pretty easy for me to understand the story and expect what will happen. To a foreign reader (me), this really help me a lot.
Secondly, this book really affected my mind. Before reading it, I am not satisfy with my life--- too much homework, no time for hanging out and too many rules. However, when I learnt that there is somebody in the world is grow in desolate desert with her terrible parents and suffer from starvation, suddenly, I am so glad that I can have such wonderful life. This book really teach me to be thankful, and be satisfied with what I already have.
Thirdly, during the whole book, the author never blames her parents, her siblings and her fate, though she experienced countless hardship and had a miserable childhood. If I was her, I would not be as optimistic as her in such harsh environment. However, she did, she always enjoys everything that she owned, and never blames that her fate is unfair.
I completely agree with everything that you said and I love the comment that you made about the book making you more thankful for the life you have. I also agree that the fact that she never blamed anyone for the life that she has had and that is the key to making this a successful book. Overall I enjoyed reading your response and I think you had some excellent points in your blog.
ReplyDeleteYou point to three important criteria from Zinsser as you craft your thesis arguing that this is a good memoir. Your first paragraph directly addresses the carpentry of the memoir, but you need to be more specific about how it's organized and built. What central overarching themes/messages do all of the episodes in the memoir help to convey? Consider how she organizes the memoir by location too. In your second paragraph, you need to be clearer about what it means for the memoir to be "art." Give more evidence to support that point. It's a great point that Walls never blames her parents. Just be more detailed. What could she blame them for, and why doesn't she?
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