Outside Reading, Week 5, Post A

Vocab
rotgut (277) - cheap and inferior liquor.

squatter (267) - a person who settles on land or occupies property without title, right, or payment of rent.

Appeals
"'You mean you own land worth a million dollars?' I was thunder-struck. All those years in Welch with no food, no coal, no plumbing, and Mom had been sitting on land worth a million dollars? Had all those years, as well as Mom and Dad's time on the street -not to mention their current life in an abandoned tenement-been a caprice inflicted on us by Mom? Could she have solved our financial problems by selling this land she never saw?" (273)

This passage most assuredly demonstrates an emotional appeal. After Jeannette's Uncle Jim dies, it is revealed to her that her mother owns land in Texas worth a million dollars. Jeannette is dumbstruck and uses the repetition of questions to shows this. This demonstrates her anger and confusion at this time. Why would her mother hold this money from them? Why did they have to live such poor lives when they had all of this money? It made no sense to Jeannette and she is absolutely confounded, which is shown through her emotional appeals in this passage. This is intended to connect the reader and outrage or confuse the reader as well, which I was.

"Maureen did not want any of us to see her off. I rose just after first light the morning she was scheduled to leave. It was an early departure, and I wanted to be awake and thinking about her at the moment her bus pulled out, so I could say farewell in my mind...I'd always had mixed feelings about bringing her to New York, but I'd agreed to let her come. Once she arrived, I'd been too busy taking care of myself to look after her. 'I'm sorry, Maureen,' I said when the time came, 'sorry for everything.'" (276)

This passage also demonstrates an emotional appeal. Maureen has decided to run away to California after being released from a mental hospital. She has led a life of crime and drugs up until this point and has not been successful like any of her siblings. As a result, Jeannette feels like she has failed Maureen because she promised to protect her and care for her. However, as stated in the passage, Jeannette had been too busy taking care of herself and trying to further her own success to look out for her little sister. Jeannette feels like she has let down her sister and that she is partially at fault for her poor life choices. This clearly demonstrates Jeannette's sorrow for Maureen. This is intended to transfer to the reader and make them feel compassion for Jeannette and Maureen.

"Lori had been writing to us regularly from New York. She loved it there. She was living in a hotel for women in Greenwich Village, working as a waitress in a German restaurant, and taking art classes and even fencing lessons. She'd met the most fascinating groups of people, every one of them a weird genius. People in New York loved art and music so much, she said, that artists sold paintings right on the sidewalk next to string quartets playing Mozart. Even Central Park wasn't as dangerous as people in West Virginia thought. On the weekends, it was filled with roller skaters and Frisbee players and jugglers and mimes with their faces painted white." (235)

I felt that this passage demonstrated a logical appeal. Jeannette is stuck in a cold, filthy, and overall crummy shack in the middle of a coal town in West Virginia. Needless to say, it's not exactly the nicest place to live. However, when she receives these letters from Lori, the details are so magnificent that Jeannette is almost transported from her dismal life and into the wonderful and enriching experience that Lori is having. This demonstrates a clear logical appeal as the reader is able to see the contrast between Jeannette's terrible life and Lori's life in New York.

Quote
"She held up her glass. 'Life with your father was never boring.' We raised our glasses. I could almost hear Dad chuckling at Mom's comment in the way he always did when he was truly enjoying something. It had grown dark outside. A wind picked up, rattling the windows, and the candle flames suddenly shifted, dancing along the border between turbulence and order." (288)

This quote is at the very end of the memoir and I felt that it very effectively sums up the theme of Jeannette's story. It shows that although they had some rough times and led a very difficult life, they always stuck together and had an overall good time. Also, I felt that the very last line "dancing along the border between turbulence and order" perfectly sums up Jeannette's childhood experiences. The Walls family was never quite ruined, but they were never perfectly stable either, which is present throughout the book.

Theme
After finishing the book, I feel that the theme of the book is "Your family is your family and have to support them through thick and thin." This is clearly demonstrated many times throughout the book when the Walls children stay with the family even through the most dire of circumstances. Also, this is exemplified near the end of the book through Jeannette's treatment of her homeless mother and father. Although she embarassed by them, she still supports them and helps care for them.