Graduation Year
2022
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
English
Reader 1
Thomas Koenigs
Reader 2
Tesse Prakas
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2022 Anna C Salvati
Abstract
In this paper, I will begin by exploring the history of memoir, the rise of the “misery memoir,” and I intend to challenge the generalized use of the term. Though the cultural rise of trauma memoirs is real, the genre cannot be a blanket term for memoirs that discuss trauma. I have selected The Glass Castle as my evidence because although it includes disturbing details, Walls effortfully tries to reorient the reader’s focus. The term misery memoir is inadequate to describe The Glass Castle because it is not about misery. It obscures Walls’s message that in order to achieve self-acceptance in the present, one must revisit and forgive the past. The text is a declaration that she cannot simply be defined by the abuse. By paying attention to the book’s organization, Walls’s use of language, and how she internalizes the perception of others, it becomes clear that the book is about Walls overcoming the shame that has accumulated over the course of her life.
Recommended Citation
SALVATI, ANNA CORNELIA, "THE SUBTLE DISTINCTIONS OF MEMOIR: RECLASSIFYING JEANNETTE WALL’S THE GLASS CASTLE" (2022). Scripps Senior Theses. 1939.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1939
