Walls Day Two Handout
HMXP 102
Dr. Fike
1. Group activity: 10-15 minutes. Then report to the whole class.
a. Pride and self-delusion: What types of pride did you notice in TGC? What is the role of pride in the family’s dysfunction? References: 12, 46, 55, 73, 118, 121, 129, 134, 138, 159, 171, 225-27, 237, 239, 252, 258, 267, 269.
b. Hatred of cops and resistance to authority: Is pride the origin of Rex’s hatred of all authority? Where does that hatred come from? Does it come perhaps from his relationship with his mother? References: 48, 50, 88-89, 106, 109, 118, 205, 255, 262, 267, 275.
c. Images: Why are they significant?
i. Knives: Dinitia fatally stabs her mother’s boyfriend (200), Rex uses knife to cut piggy bank (228), Rex gives knife to Jeannette (240), and Maureen stabs mother (275).
ii. Venus: 40, 247, 281.
iii. Fool’s gold/iron pyrite: 59.
iv. Drowning woman: 195.
v. Snake biting its tail: 207.
vi. Caryatid: 208.
vii. Gold Cadillac: 224.
d. What is the significance to all the references to fire?
i. 9ff.: Jeannette is injured by fire (in this episode, she gains consciousness; see also the Prometheus myth).
ii. 15: Fascination with fire.
iii. 33-34: Jeannette lights toilet paper; another motel burns; she wonders if the motel fire had been out to get her for flushing the burning TP.
iv. 115: Father lights Christmas tree on fire.
v. 147: Erma fears kids will burn the house down.
vi. 178: Kerosene as fire-starter in Welch.
vii. 183: Uncle Stanley burns down his parents’ house.
viii. 253: Father sets room on fire.
e. Images of things that lie within or beneath: What is their significance?
i. Geode: 60, 90 124, 152, 183, 239. (See “inner spirit” on 104, “inner beauty” on 245 vs. outward appearance.)
ii. Termites: 101. Phoenix house is internally unsound.
iii. Cash jar: 17. It is buried somewhere.
iv. Father’s terminal illness: 278.
v. Monster: 23. Father turns into one.
vi. Violence: 71, 88, 102ff.
vii. Maureen’s imaginary friends: 81, 111; bogeyman on 103.
2. Major Themes: See slides.
a. Turbulence and order
b. Conflicting value systems
c. Generational swing to the opposite
d. Parents’ contradictions
e. The Glass Castle
3. What connections do today’s anthology pieces suggest? Friedman, Camus, the human rights declaration.
a. The Walls family’s situation does/does not conform to the human rights declaration?
b. Does it illustrate Friedman’s suggestion that a rising economic tide floats all boats?
c. The futility or Rex’s situation is like the absurd heroism of Sisyphus’s ability to be happy in spite of repeated and inevitable failure?
d. Maureen as a scapegoat like the child in “Omelas.”
4. Writing in class: What is the book’s moral lesson? Write for a few minutes. Then share.