Emmie Boese
Lantern Staff
Jeannette Walls is a New York Times bestselling author of the “The Glass Castle.” “The Glass Castle” is a memoir that retells Walls’ struggling childhood through a series of her own stories and memories. Walls came to Butler on Monday, Oct. 22 to talk to a crowd of around a hundred people about why she wrote “The Glass Castle” and to inspire the crowd to overcome their own past.
“I don’t take anything for granted,” Walls said.
Walls said she did not have the best childhood, but she wrote her memoir to tell her story. Walls explained her childhood as living in poverty and some of the decisions her parents made when it came to parenting Walls and her siblings. She explained that she hopes people take away from her story, how they can overcome their past and inspire them to tell their own story.
“I’ve always considered myself a brave person,” Walls said.
Walls moved to New York City, New York around the age of 17 to pursue a writing career. She ended up working for a New York magazine and MSNBC. She said she enjoyed her job as a journalist, but that something was missing.
“When I realized there was a kind of writing journalism that you actually got paid for, I was hooked,” Walls said. “I was getting 125 dollars a week, and I thought, ‘this was great,’ ‘this is the life.’ I believe the truth will set you free, but the truth can’t be summed up into snarky little paragraphs.”
Walls explained that she wanted to tell her own story though, and not just other people’s stories.
“If people knew the truth about me then, I’d lose everything,” Walls said. “Something was missing.”
She explained that this feeling led to her wanting to confront the demons of her past and to tell her story. Before writing “The Glass Castle,” Walls saw her mother on the streets of New York City. She thought this was a sign of her past catching up to her.
“I didn’t have to forgive my parents,” Walls said. “The person I had to forgive was myself. If you are able to let down your barriers, you are helping yourself.”
Walls came up with the name Glass Castle as a memory from her past. She retold a memory that her dad was going to build them a glass castle.
Because of the success of her book, it eventually led to a film. Walls described the film as something that told her story just as equally as her book.
Walls started getting asked by teachers and book clubs to tell her story from “The Glass Castle” and that is when she started touring the country to talk about her book.
Walls explained how people came up to her after she would talk to her audience and get reactions about how much they related to her and what perspective they took on her story versus her own perspective.
“I thought it would be a good experience to come and learn,” freshman athletic training major Kelsey Williams said.
Many faculty attended this event, and they were pleased with what they heard. One Butler professor saw her speak once and wanted to hear her again.
“She loves to tell stories; that’s what she tells best…She took something that could have been very negative and turned it into a positive,” Robert Carlson, a professor of chemistry, said.
“As storytellers we have tremendous liberty to choose which stories we are going to tell and how we are going to tell it,” Walls said. “It’s not only how you choose to write but how you read it as well.”
Walls stressed that it is important to listen to other people’s stories and to tell their own stories in order to connect with others on a deeper level.
“Don’t ever underestimate somebody else’s story,” Walls said.