Memoir Unit

The Glass Castle

Week One

AGENDA

Formative Analysis ReflectionMake foldablesChoice Reading

From the desk of Zach…Rex Walls explained to his children that the shimmering

heat waves, which radiated from the tops of flames, as the boundary between turbulence and order. The Walls family greatly reflects this line between chaos and control.

This border is portrayed as the Walls’ reside in Welch. Jeannette’s mother protestingly agrees to apply for a teaching position. The occupation accrues a steady income for the household, yet no stability. Jeannette epitomizes the situation, “So even though she had a steady job, we were pretty much living like we were before” (Walls 198).

The boundary between turbulence and order is exemplified though the Walls’ house on 93 Little Hobart Street. With the failed attempt of Jeannette’s to improve its appearance, the house became two-toned. It consisted of, “Instead of a freshly painted yellow house, or even a dingy gray one, we now had a weird-looking half finished patch job..” (158).

Zach…The dual-colored dwelling symbolized this boundary

with the fresh paint representing order and with the dingy gray displaying tumultion. However, neither color dominated and both were ever present.

The final manifestation of the Walls’ life habitually residing in the gray area between turbulence and order is the idea of The Glass Castle. This essential ideology of the family is based upon order and array as it would be a habitable, permanent residence. Their current lifestyle is mostly chaos, but the castle is so deeply rooted in their psyche that it drives them not to completely fall into the fire. Jeannette and Brian even begin to dig the foundation, “We found a shovel and a pick axe… and spent just about every free minute digging” (155).

From the desk of Patricia…“The speedometer needle crept past 100, the last number on

the dial, and pushed into the empty space beyond.” This quote from page 119 of Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle is a stomach-dropping excerpt from the everyday life of the Walls family. Rex Walls, Jeannette’s dad, tells his children one day when they set a shed on fire to look at the shimmering place between the fire and the sky, where colors blur and molecules separate excitedly, and tells them that this is the zone known in physics as the boundary between turbulence and order- which draws a strong connection to the life they lead.

Later, when he challenges their old car to go as fast as it can, for a second or two they cross that boundary. The zone in physics is also known as a place that no rules apply, and when the speedometer climbs past 100 and into “the empty space beyond” it seems that anything could happen, since nothing is written after that number. Who knows whether the car will continue to speed up, or explode, or go “Back to the Future”? Turbulence is in its element for Rex Walls and his family.

Patricia…Order, however, also demands a turn. If one were to

read on, one would find that “white steam that smelled like iron started pouring out from the sides of the hood…with a terrible coughing, clunking noise, the car began to slow” (119). As the family nears some kind of metaphorical impossibility, the car breaks down (which makes the laws of physics and the laws of the universe in charge of the family again).

The Walls family is never completely in turbulence nor in order. When either one goes on for too long, they are catapulted by their own inner nature into each other.

Title, author, yearConcise claimSupport and quotes

Set the scene Quote to qualify Loop for logic

Rhetorical Vocab.

Interruption (2)Omission (2)Repetition (6)Comparison (6)Balance (8)Word Play (9)

AGENDA

SAPGRAPESSS AnalysisDavid Sedaris

Video Clip Me Talk Pretty One Day excerpt

SAP

SpeakerAudiencePurpose

G.R.A.P.E.S.S.S. analysis

G- GenreR- RhetoricA- AudienceP- PurposeE- Effect (tone)S- SpeakerS- SubjectS- Situation

Meet David Sedaris

“The ‘rock star’ of writing”~Writer’s Digest

Me Talk Pretty Excerpt

AGENDA

Group discussion on Current Events GRAPESSS analysis

SSR and conferring

Current Events

USA TodayCNNMSNBCFox NewsNBC NewsBreakingnews.comDigg.com

GRAPESSS

GenreRhetoricAudiencePurposeEffect (tone)SpeakerSubjectSituation

Homework

Find a Current Events ArticlePrint, Read, and AnnotateGRAPESSS Analysis on page 8-9 in

notebook for a formative assessmentReady to share tomorrow

AGENDA

SSR and conferringTone Discuss Current Events article

AP 30 Book Challenge

Keep track in notebookConferring provides evidenceAward at end of the year!

THANK YOU MRS. STEELMAN!!

Tone

What is tone?How is it established in a piece?

Written and visual

Why is it important?

Tone

“That was the thing about the hospital. You never had to worry about running out of stuff like food or ice or even chewing gum. I would have been happy staying in that hospital forever” (Walls 12).

Tone in The Glass Castle

“All we had to do was find gold, Dad said, and we were on the verge of that. Once he finished the Prospector and we struck it rich, he’d start work on our Glass Castle” (Walls 25).

Tone in The Glass Castle

“After a while, it got cold and uncomfortable in the back of the dark U-Haul. The engine made the floor vibrate, and we’d all go tumbling whenever we hit a bump. Several hours passed. By then we were all dying to pee and wondering if Dad was going to pull over for a rest stop. Suddenly, with a bang, we hit a huge pothole and the back doors on the U-Haul flew open. The wind shrieked through the compartment” (Walls 49).

Current Events

Group discussion

Share: GRAPESSS analysis Thoughts on article

AGENDA

Formative Analysis #3Choice Reading

Focus Question #4

Look at the last sentence in The Glass Castle:

“A wind picked up, rattling the windows, and the candle flames suddenly shifted, dancing along the border between turbulence and order” (288).

How is the tone of this last sentence consistent with the ending of the story?

Writing Plan

1. Explain the tone of the passage from the book (remember the details!)

2. Analyze the word choice in the quote that makes up the tone and qualify your claim

3. Explain what happened at the end of the memoir

4. Explain how the two are consistent with each other (tone and ending)