Based on William Zinsser’s “Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir”, the memoir The Glass Castle, is a well crafted memoir based on the big picture of it. Zinsser talks about how, to make a good memoir it has to have two elements “one of art, the other of craft.” I believe that this memoir shows proof of that- meaning, Jeannette didn’t ponder in her sorrows but she moved on to bigger and better things in her life. As the memoir progresses, Jeannette finds who she wants to become and how if she stays stuck in the dark for much longer, her life wouldn’t be anything but a series of misfortune. “They elevate the pain of the past with forgiveness, arriving at a larger truth about families in various stages of brokenness.”, Zinsser explains how finding the better future from the broken past drives the person's life to become better.
The element “integrity of intention”, that Zinsser mentions is about the past, present, and future of the narrator's life. In the Glass Castle, Jeannette talked about all three, while still focusing on her future. With a rough past, Jeannette talks about how she was able to move past the problems she faced on a daily basis to become the person she is today. The new and improved life has shown that Walls has a reshaped lifestyle after she took on the passion she had always dreamed of. The future has much to hold for Walls, as she has become a stronger being. Zinsser describes how “We come from a tribe of fallible people,” he’s talking about how everyone is capable of making mistakes and that you have to smooth out the edges before everything gets better.
Jeannette focuses on how she got to where she is and how her past shapes her future. Going from an unpleasant past to a bigger and better future. Walls wouldn’t be as far as she is today without the unbearable past making her future stronger everyday. If you’re sitting in sorrow all the time saying how much your life sucks at the moment, your future will go no where. She took the high road, making her suckish life become better than she could have ever imagined. The past makes her a stronger person today, seeing how far she’s come from point A to point B. Families may be broken at the time, but eventually it becomes easier. Jeanette's mother (Rosemary) was very self sufficient, she didn’t accept help. And that shows how you have to take things on for yourself to make for the best.
I liked how well constructed and thoughtful your thesis was and the quotes were well placed and the body paragraphs were constructed well with good supporting details the only things that could be fixed are combining more sentences through commas and adding more information to your concluding sentence.
ReplyDeleteYou refer back to Zinsser's criteria at times throughout your argument--just make sure you do so more deliberately in your thesis. Be clear about what exactly makes this memoir good in your first sentence. You've chosen relevant criteria and connect it to Jeanette, but you don't give enough specific details as evidence to make your argument really persuasive.
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