The
second part of Jeannette Walls' memoir focuses on her life in Welch,
a little town in Virginia, and how she got out of Welch. This second
part is a story of growth and realization that her parents aren't all
that she thought they were. This is Walls growing up, and out growing
her parents' way of living. First she chronicles the years of her
life spent in dreary Welch, an old mining town fallen into poverty.
It is a place one strives to escape, as the young Walls sets that as
her goal. After she and her sister have escaped, they start new lives
in New York City, but their parents still haunt them. In the end, it
is a story about how she grew into her own person, but her parents'
crazy lives will always have a lasting impact on her own, no matter
how hard she tries to hide it.
Walls
didn't seem to have a specific purpose in writing her memoir. She
wanted to tell someone about her crazy childhood and life, she wants
people to understand her story, but I think mainly she wants people
to see that where, or how, you grow up, doesn't have to influence who
you are. Her family influences her life majorly, but she also makes
something out of herself without forgetting them and their different
way of life. A scene that really captures this is the last one, where
Walls' two lives are colliding, the calm, serene one with her husband
and farmhouse, and the crazy one with her mother coming over for
Thanksgiving. While there are still some bitter thoughts, for the
most part they are all happy and laughing as a family, remembering
the good times. This ultimately, is the feeling that one pulls away
from the memoir. That family can be crazy, and not so great, but in
the end it always pulls together because of the shared memories.
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