The Glass Castle

P: What has the writer done to engage you , the reader, in a relationship with the books content?

R: I think that the way in which Walls describes scenery, situations, and her feelings towards these things is particularly engaging. To give an example Walls' relationship with fire after her initial burn incident is depicted beautifully so far throughout the text. In one chapter, in reference to her flaming ice cream cake, she states "The flames had a slow, watery movement, rolling up into the air like ribbons" (p. 32). I just think she is brilliant with imagery. She pulls each chapter together like a poem. In the remainder of this same chapter she wonders if all fire is related, sort of like people are related and continues to wonder if the same fire that had burned her tutu was the fire that later burned down the hotel her family was in. She recreates her childhood self and the memories she has of that time in a way that makes you feel like this is just some imaginary character whom she is simply creating circumstances for. It's just astonishing that she can take these times in her life and make them feel so real. Another passage which was filled with imagery came when she was describing the present she had received that year for Christmas from her father. Considering they were low on money this year her father decided to give them each a star. "You could see hundreds, maybe thousands or even millions, twinkling in the clear desert sky. The longer you looked and the more your eyes adjusted to the dark, the more stars you'd see, layer after layer of them gradually becoming visible" (p. 40).