Photo by Jacob Cader
As I read Jeannette Walls’ memoir, I felt true agony at the image of the “glass castle,” the magnificent home Walls’s alcoholic father committed to building. When is she going to realize that this dream is another one of her father’s empty promises, I wondered, and how cruel of her father to deceive his kids with this impossible fantasy? However, on December 4, Jeannette Walls spoke at assembly about “The Glass Castle,” and described her own, much less bitter interpretation of her father’s vision. She saw the glass castle as “a hope and a dream for the future.” It gave her “the belief that maybe all of this moving around and digging food out of garbage cans and sleeping in cardboard boxes was temporary.”
The glass castle instilled in her a sense of possibility and a reason to prevail, and after years of perseverance, she indeed arrived in a glass castle, or at least in an apartment on Park Avenue. But it wasn’t simple. Walls spoke of the internal torment she suffered as she enjoyed her newfound life of luxury. On the one hand, she said, “I had everything I had ever wanted,” but at the same time, “I felt like a fraud and a phony.”
Walls told the story that opens her book – the story that led her to begin writing. “The day that I was heading to some fabulous party,” she said, “I saw my mother rooting through the garbage.” When Walls later asked her mother, “What the heck am I supposed to tell people when they ask me about you?” her mother replied, “The truth.”
The process of writing her memoir was transformative for Walls. After the initial uncertainty she faced as she contemplated going public with her most shameful secrets, Walls eventually understood the power of sharing her story.
“Not long after the publication of my book,” Walls said, “a very pretty young girl approached me who said she was a cheerleader.” The girl told Walls that there was a dirty, poor-looking girl in her class who the cheerleader used to tease, but since reading The Glass Castle, would never make fun of again. In response, Walls thought, “the Lord can strike me down with lightning right now. I have done my job on this planet!”
That is the power of “The Glass Castle,” the power of storytelling. Walls’s story evokes piercing, existential questions, and her speech was nothing short of inspirational. Students left the assembly ready to participate in discussion at the other workshops around the school.
– Livia Bokor (V)
After her moving and engaging presentation, students were clearly excited to attend Jeannette Walls’ memoir writing workshop. Although the number of students crowded in the Stu Fac to hear her speak again was most likely a fire hazard, the workshop produced insights by Walls and students alike. Speaking further about the experience of writing the book and then taking questions from the audience, Walls highlighted key difficulties of the process such as creating three-dimensional characters, finding ways to tell the truth while writing a compelling story, and having to relive the emotional trauma of her childhood. She also explained that writing the book released her from the prison that these secrets had created for her, and has allowed her to meet readers with incredible insights into her own story.
A later MAD workshop on alcoholism and addiction provided new insights into the disease faced by Rex Walls in The Glass Castle. Tom Cirolia, who works at a recovery center for substance abuse treatment in Lower Manhattan, spoke about the ways in which addiction can tear apart a life, and discussed various treatments. He explained the difference between physically addictive opiates, alcohol, and benzodiazepines, which require a medical detox, and other drugs, such as crack cocaine, which can cause instead an emotional or psychological addiction. Cirolia also discussed the connection between mental disorders and alcoholism, often caused by self-medication. The workshop illuminated some realities of addiction comparable to those faced by the Walls family as a result of the father’s inconsequential thinking that is so characteristic of alcoholism.
– Rachel Scharf (VI)
In “The Glass Castle,” author Jeannette Walls depicts the trauma and anonymity of homelessness. Lee Stringer, author of Grand Central Winter and Sleep Away School, led the MAD workshop on Homelessness in New York City. Currently, Stringer works at Project Renewal, a non-profit homeless service agency dedicated to helping the homeless with addiction, mental illnesses, and other chronic health problems. After losing his father, brother, and business partner, Stringer became a crack addict, leading to twelve years on the streets of New York. He told students that “homelessness occurs for many reasons, it is a situation that happens when the life a person is living ceases to be viable and they tumble.” Under track 109 in Grand Central Station, he discovered his talent for writing when he wrote the short story, “No place to call home.” The piece was published by Street News; he was taken on as a writer and eventually became editor. Still crack addicted and homeless, he sought help at Project Renewal. Stringer eventually finished his first book, Grand Central Winter, which received rave reviews from the New York Times, and went on to give a keynote address at the United Nations. But, perhaps more important than his incredible journey, Stringer hoped to leave students with the message that when you pass the homeless on the streets, don’t just think of them as “a homeless person,” but wonder who they are and what their story is. Stringer hopes that his story, Walls’ story, and other stories like theirs, can illustrate the complexity of homelessness.
Throughout her memoir, Walls explores the complexity and tragedy of child trauma. Dr. Amy Banks lead the “Building a House of Glass: The Long-term Impact of Child Trauma” session, to help students understand this type of trauma and its long-lasting effects through the lens of neuroscience.
– Emma Mitnick (V)
