Zippy Essays and The Glass Castle

Let me reiterate: Stop stressing about your essay grades. You're LEARNING! Please don't expect to be perfect at everything you do. My job is to teach you how to analyze in your writing. If you all scored 9s on every single essay you write, then what would be the point of the class? Trust me, everyone gets better! Here's a link to the Zippy quickwrite review from class today. With the Dahir essays, many of you failed to recognize his true purpose. If you miss the idea the author is trying to convey, you're looking at a score of 6 at the very best. So, if you missed the point, but earned a 5 or 6 that means your writing is already improving.

We also began reading Jeannette Walls' The Glass Castle. As you read Walls', take annotations on the following:
1. The differences between the way Rex and Mary (the author’s parents) view the world and the way the author views the world, based on the rhetoric she uses to convey the differences between these viewpoints.
2. The contrast in the way the author views her life as she grows older
3. The reversal of roles in the parent/child relationship
4. Appeals to pathos, ethos, and logos
5. The symbolism of events, places, people and things. Specifically, how do the parents and children in the memoir view these events, places, people and things differently?

Homework: These are 10 point assignments. Please type your responses.


Due Tuesday, August 31st, 2010: Read through page 25 and answer the following questions:
1. What purpose do you think the quote from the Dylan Thomas poem at the beginning of the memoir serves?
2. What is the purpose of Part I: A Woman on the Street? What do the various anecdotes in this introduction establish?
3. Compare and contrast Jeannette’s home with her parents and her “home” at the hospital, citing rhetorical strategies the author uses to show this view.
4. What similarities did you notice about the way Jeannette viewed her father and the way Zippy viewed her father?
5. List three examples from the book that note an underlying darkness about the author’s upbringing.
6. What is the symbolism of the Glass Castle?
7. List, define and evaluate the effectiveness of TWO rhetorical strategies. (Please include page #).


Due Friday, September 3rd: Read through page 125 and answer the following questions:
1. List, define, and evaluate the effectiveness of FIVE rhetorical strategies. (Please include page #).
2. How does the author’s mom use the death of Mary Charlene to make excuses for her husband? How does the author’s portrayal of the event convey her perspective to the audience?
3. How does the author use tone, diction and syntax at the end of page 31 convey her attitude toward her parents?
4. Read through p. 34 and then, at this point in the memoir, explain the symbolism of fire.
5. Analyze how the Joshua Tree symbolizes the author’s own life.
6. Compare the author’s parents’ attitude toward Christmas and Santa with that of Zippy’s parents.
7. Are the author’s parents selfish? Justify your response with anecdotal evidence.
8. Contrast the way the author views her father with the way her “friend,” Billy Deel views his. Which child’s view is more accurate?
9. In what ways are the author’s parents “good parents”?
10. How effectively does the author portray the dangers of alcoholism to the audience? (Think back to the Scott Russell Sanders essay “Under the Influence” and draw comparisons if you like).