JACQUELINE DUGAN MEMOIR
In the book, The Glass Castle, Jeanette (the narrator) talked about many life experiences she went through, good and bad. She used these experiences to her advantage. She learned many life lessons out of each and every one of them, learned from her parents, and learned to stick with her family. Throughout the book she was honest and wasn’t afraid to tell the reader what she was thinking when she went through these things. She made sense of who she was and who she is now, and how certain things changed her for the better or for the worse. She also made sure the reader took away from her experiences. She wrote a very good memoir.
In the story, Jeanette talked about how she learned many things from her experiences as a child/teen. When she was younger, she caught on fire while making hot dogs. She was in the hospital until her dad snuck her out because he hated hospitals and the way they did things. When she got home she made hot dogs again and was more careful. She wasn’t afraid to make hot dogs again, but she learned from what happened and she never got hurt making hot dogs again. When she said this, she didn’t lie and say her dad wanted her to stay but he needed her to leave, she told it how it was. He didn’t like hospitals so they left. Throughout every memory she mentions, Jeanette does a good job explaining everything truthfully.
Even though in the story, she had many bad life experiences, she made sure the reader knew that her parents taught her many things and that the reader took away from each memory. When she was learning how to swim, her dad didn’t hold her until she was comfortable enough to go in the water, he threw her in until she was almost drowning and scooped her up and told her that she now knows how to swim. When I was reading this, I thought, “what kind of parent would do that to her child.” But now I know. He wanted her to know that she has to learn how to do things for herself.
Lastly, when Jeanette went through these things, she learned to stick with her siblings. She also made sense of who she was and who she is, and how certain things changed her for the better or for the worse. Before she graduated high school, she made a deal with her siblings that they would all move to New York Together when they all graduated. This brought them all closer together. At the end of the book she mentioned how these things changed her as a person. After she described each memory, she mentioned how she would’ve reacted back then and how she would’ve reacted now.
Overall Jeanette wrote a good memoir. She was honest and made sure the readers took away from the experiences she went through. Also last she made sense of who she is and who she was, and how certain things changed her for the better or the worse.
Your thesis was clear and it helped to introduce me for what's to come in the paragraphs which were very descriptive and had examples relating back to the memoir. You may want to reference William Zinsser's take on a good memoir and a bad memoir with more examples from what he said. Each paragraph revolved around a reference from the memoir to support your main ideas. This was a very good argument on why The Glass Castle was a good memoir.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Amanda that you point to some relevant moments in the text, incorporating details from the memoir--and also that you need to more deliberately connect your thesis to Zinsser's criteria. Your thesis gets very wordy when it could be just one sentence. For each of your points, be very clear from the start what criteria you're referring to (create a clear topic sentence).
ReplyDeleteIn your first point, you bring up the hotdog catastrophe. Give more detail about how that connects to your argument. Isn't it just irresponsible parenting? Why does the family flee the hospital? In your last point, consider more carefully what binds the siblings together.