In a capitalist country, it is to be expected that every family or individual will see the world from a new perspective. In her 2005 memoir, author Jeannette Walls recounts how her personal worldview was shaped throughout her childhood and continues to change during her adult life.
Walls’s blatantly truthful memoir begins with a deceptively hopeful outlook of the future. With tax collectors or the like on their tails, the Walls family is forced to make a speedy escape—otherwise, they would not be able to pay the bill. However, although the situation is dire, and the young children must their home and most of their belongings behind, their father is able to lighten the mood. He tries to explain that “doing the skeddadle,” as he calls their sudden move, is nothing more than a fun adventure; as the car rolls away, he describes “all the fun things we were going to do and how we were going to get rich once we reached the new place we were going to live” (Walls, 18). Rex Walls’s phrasing in this time is powerful, and puts itself in a position to manipulate the young and shapable minds of his children. In the memoir, the shaping of this memory not only reveals the hope and excitement Jeannette Walls felt, but gives the audience a taste of her emotions, as well. This passage can be easily interpreted so as to show a family decieving their children, attempting to instill the belief that they will be okay. The children don’t know of any life other than their own at this …show more content…
Thoughout her narration, Walls examines the taboos that money and class have become, and uses them to illustrate the inflexibilities in America’s social structure. Each individual in a capitalist country may see their place differently, but through communication, what may once have seemed like a jumble of stories finally starts to
Walls’s blatantly truthful memoir begins with a deceptively hopeful outlook of the future. With tax collectors or the like on their tails, the Walls family is forced to make a speedy escape—otherwise, they would not be able to pay the bill. However, although the situation is dire, and the young children must their home and most of their belongings behind, their father is able to lighten the mood. He tries to explain that “doing the skeddadle,” as he calls their sudden move, is nothing more than a fun adventure; as the car rolls away, he describes “all the fun things we were going to do and how we were going to get rich once we reached the new place we were going to live” (Walls, 18). Rex Walls’s phrasing in this time is powerful, and puts itself in a position to manipulate the young and shapable minds of his children. In the memoir, the shaping of this memory not only reveals the hope and excitement Jeannette Walls felt, but gives the audience a taste of her emotions, as well. This passage can be easily interpreted so as to show a family decieving their children, attempting to instill the belief that they will be okay. The children don’t know of any life other than their own at this …show more content…
Thoughout her narration, Walls examines the taboos that money and class have become, and uses them to illustrate the inflexibilities in America’s social structure. Each individual in a capitalist country may see their place differently, but through communication, what may once have seemed like a jumble of stories finally starts to