Month: January 2018

Midland, Arizona and Battle Mountain, Nevada aren’t all that different today

Cole

As I was reading through the Glass Castle this past weekend, I couldn’t help but wonder why Jeanette and the Walls’ family journey, through New Mexico and Arizona and cross-country to West Virginia, felt so foreign to me. It wasn’t so much the journey and constant movement itself, as I have been in situations like that before, but rather the uniqueness and difference from place-to-place. For every place the Walls family visited, whether it was Phoenix or San Francisco or Battle Mountain or Welch, every place seemed like a completely new universe to Jeanette. At first, I assumed that was largely in part to Jeannette’s writing style – very descriptive and childlike, filled with a sense of “wonder”. However, after doing the map lab activity in class on Thursday, it occurred to me how simple it was to map out and make sense of all of the places Jeannette visited during her childhood. What struck me was how in 2018, it was so simple to pinpoint all of the places the Walls family visited, and how all of these different places such as Midland and Battle Mountain really didn’t seem very different at all when looked at on a digital map. This got me wondering, with globalization taking over the world and the interconnectedness between all of us in America increasing every day, would a child life like Jeanette’s be less distinct and remarkable now than it was in the 1970’s? As America continues to come together to be more like one big state rather than 50 individual ones, I think the changes of scenery that Jeannette went through would be less breathtaking and more normalized.

A big concern about globalization is individualized places losing their sense of “place”. In “The Glass Castle”, Jeannette has intricate, detailed memories of each place she stayed at, which could be attributed to a fantastic memory – but could also be attributed to the fact that all of these places were more distinct from each other because of a lack of consistent attributes between towns, such as cell phones, TV’s, 7-Eleven’s, and paved roads. With nothing to connect her to the outside world, Jeannette was forced to fully experience each city she lived in, which all had very different small details they may not have been noticed had she had a TV to watch all day or a cell phone to be on. Sure, the Walls’ family was poor and may not have been able to afford those things in today’s age. Still, I bet you Battle Mountain, Nevada, and Phoenix, Arizona would have been a little less distinguishable in her memory today in 2018, as both cities have a McDonald’s, a Wells Fargo, and a Shell Gas Station.

The Glass Castle is like grilled lemon parmesan garlic asparagus.

Cole

Oh, the fascinating topic of reading books. I would compare it to eating vegetables. A lot of us young people don’t really like it, and there is definitely a positive correlation between an increase in age and an increase in your taste for reading. Pretty much all old people like to read. Throughout your childhood, your parents would always tell you it’s important to do it, and that you will live a better life if you do so. By doing it, you feel accomplished, in part because society has made the act of reading an admirable quality, saying it’s necessary if you are to become your best self.  There are hundreds of books out there that are dull and tasteless, but if you can find just the right combination of content and style, it will engage you and take you for a pleasing ride. When someone forces you to read, you usually just have to fight through it and choke it down. Wow, I can’t have been the first one to have brought up this groundbreaking analogy…

So just like eating vegetables, reading books is usually more of a chore, but every once in a while you will find just the right one that hits the spot and engages your interest so much that you forget you are even eating vegetables. Oh, wait. So much that you forget you are actually reading a book. And this is what happened to me – and quite a few others judging by what I have heard from fellow classmates – with the book assigned in this class, the Glass Castle. The experience of reading the first half of the book was very similar to eating my Mom’s grilled lemon parmesan garlic asparagus. Who would’ve thought asparagus could taste that good?

I’m not sure exactly yet what it was about the Glass Castle that fully engaged me and caught my interest, but I have a few ideas. First off, Jeannette Walls’ style of writing is incredibly unique and appealing. It is very matter-of-fact, descriptive, and fast-paced, a style of writing I was not expecting to see in a college English class. Second, I am fascinated by the way she grew up in comparison to my childhood – it is a sort of crazy childhood that I feel part of us all would’ve loved to have been a part of, had we not been subjected to a relatively normal one in comparison to hers. Growing up is such an enchanting topic in American society, idealized and romanticized in many different ways, and hers is definitely a storybook one. Finally, it comes down to the fact that her childhood is so completely unpredictable that I have no idea what is going to come next – and I have to read to find out! That quality in itself is something that I believe all authors try to achieve in some way or another, and she does a great job of it. Overall, I am just genuinely happy that this asparagus my Mom made me eat is grilled, seasoned with lemon, parmesan, and garlic, and is so delicious that I forgot I was even eating vegetables.