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Joseph Fan
Professor Matthew Snyder
English 1A
December 12, 2013
The Better Memory
They say that childhood forms us, that those early influences are the key to everything. Is
the peace of the soul so easily won? Simply the inevitable result of a happy childhood. What makes
childhood happy? Parental harmony? Good health? Security? Might not a happy childhood be the
worst possible preparation for life? Like leading a lamb to slaughter. Josephine Hart, Damage

Jeannette Walls and Jimmy Santiago Baca certainly did not have the most perfect lives.
Definitely not. However, they certainly made the best of their situations and pursued their
dreams as writers and have prospered despite having an unstable childhood some might consider
to be a bad foundation for a life. However, some might say that by modeling good behaviors
and appropriate responses, parents can be sure that their kids are learning how to act
responsibly. (Cherry) As a young adolescent, Walls has no problems with her parents odd
decisions but as she grows older she begins to rebel but not openly against them which ultimately
leads to her decision to leave home .Bacas life indefinitely proves to be a great example that you
dont need a good childhood to have a happy adulthood. In his memoir, A Place to Stand, he
reveals the hardships he had to persevere and how he was able to grow in spite of them. Unlike
Walls, Bacas life was significantly more tenacious. Baca didnt have any parents watching over
him, guiding him to do one thing after another like Walls, he grew up in crime and managed to
thrive in his incarceration. The quality of being able to be read with ease, the organized structure

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of the plot and the ability to captivate my interest in these stories ultimately results in my
preference that The Glass Castle is the better memoir.
Personally, a book can have an amazing storyline but if it takes me a while to read and
understand a passage that could have been said much shorter and simpler, I would need to mark
it off. Even though details are always necessary in a book, marinating the moment with too many
sensory details can ruin it for me. The Glass Castle was very straight forward in describing each
memory, without leaving out too much detail. Even when arriving at her dads childhood home,
her new home for the next period of her life, very few words were when describing the big
worn house. (130) There werent many sensory details and adjectives used to describe each
scenario, not as much as Bacas memoir but there was a good amount, enough for me to enjoy
the book continuously. Per contra, Bacas memoir would proceed in deep detail, describing the
environment of the scenario in its specific aspects. While sitting next to his companion, Macaron,
he thoroughly describes the expanse of parched grass spread out with a dirt track around it;
surrounding the field were three rows of security fences and razor wire; in each direction were
huts on stilts with armed guards wearing aviator glasses.(119) Baca spent a whole paragraph
describing an area that could be considered unnecessary while Halls used only 2 adjectives to
describe her new home. Rarely did Jeannette fall into deep thought of past or current situations
so the story was at a much faster pace than Bacas. Compared to the dark memories of Baca this
makes sense. Incarcerated for long periods of time several times in his life left him with a lot a
time to think about his past, and at one point he began reliving his past memories more and more
frequently. In his isolation, he would relive the fable of [his] life, rediscovering from [his]
isolation cell the boy [he] as and the life [hed] lived. (143)As shallow as it sounds, reading his
frequent recollections of his memories of his parents or his past life felt too redundant and

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mundane. Not only does the content of each memoirs plot have captivate the readers attention
but also the plots structure must considered when deciding which book betters the other.
The structure of the plot is as essential as the content is; properly organizing each period
of the persons life validates which memoir is more exceptional. The reader will be able to notice
how the narrators developed through each period of their life more clearly. Bacas life was
divided based on living situations: staying at a boys home, a penitentiary for adolescent juvenile
delinquents, or at a prison for the most part. Bacas narrative consisted of mostly his experiences
in prison and the problems he faced with other inmates. Baca did not find any solace in his life
until he was in prison, ironically. Prison gave him the time to think about the past and by reliving
and his past he was able to move on and find his secret passion of writing. Halls life was split
into locations as well but differed that it depended on her familys omplications. The several
periods in her life was split more evenly throughout the book unlike Bacas. You could also
notice the character development of Hall more gradually. As Hall grew older, she began to see
that in order for her to live her own life and pursue her dreams, she needed to leave her parents
and her past behind. Both stories begin when the narrators are considerably young, around 5
years old, and end when they are in their 20s, married with a family. Both their stories also focus
on the events of their youth stronger than the memories of when they are adults. At the end of
each memoir, they step away from their personal lives to reconnect with their families and their
statuses. To choose between the two, I enjoyed The Glass Castle better on the basis that she did a
better job of emphasizing each period of her life, individually. A Place to Stand gave me the
impression that without prison, the rest of his life would have been meaningless. Id like to
believe that every part of a persons life is essential in the outcome of what they have become.

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Just like in an audience in a movie, we readers crave the unpredictability and uniqueness in a
book.
Sporadic comes to mind when describing the unpredictability in Bacas book. Baca
surprised me with brutal, violent scenes and dramatic scenes I didnt see coming. However, for
the majority of the story while I was waiting to be mind-blown, I was painfully bored by amount
of sensory details he soaked every memoir with. Even though I really like being startled by the
dramatic moments in Bacas anecdotes, I didnt like how I had to thrive on those unusual, small
moments to be intrigued to read further into the book. I prefer that the story is consistently
grabbing my attention while still being capable of surprising me. I fell asleep multiple times
reading Baca's memoir because the story, for the most part didnt grab my attention. On the other
hand, Jeannette Walls memoir didnt have the wild unpredictable moments like Baca did.
However, Jeannettes narrative mystery doesnt rely on sporadic moments like with Baca. I never
lost interest in the book because her father and mother were always coming up with most bizarre
excuses and ridiculous decisions that kept me reading to understand their wild logic. Along with
the thrills of unpredictable parenting, however, come unpredictable meals, unpredictable shelter,
and a general feeling of instability. The Walls children often find themselves taking care of each
other and even their parents. (Hoyt). Walls book felt like an adventure that I wanted to learn
more about, her life didnt become her own until she was able to leave her parents behind and
start her own life. Hall had to rely more and more on herself and her siblings the more selfish her
mother became i.e she left her job to become an artist providing no income for the family. I
constantly longed to learn how she would continue persevering, living on her own under her
parents roof. Although Hall did not have as astonishing moments as Baca did, she did a better
job of catching my interest and maintaining it throughout the book.

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Life lessons are often taught by your parents, your morals and ethics are often spoon-fed
to you at a young age. It doesnt mean anything to you when youre young of course; you nod it
off because it isnt relevant to you in elementary school or middle school. Now that Im in
college though, I find my dads advice to be very compelling. One day when I was watching a
movie on FX with my dad, he randomly asked me what the main focus should be when choosing
a dream job. I thought that it would be the most obvious answers, to be financially well off, to be
able to provide for your family, or even to simply be able to fund your hobbies. He told me that
choosing your dream job should have the thought of you are able to help others in mind. I never
considered this when I thought about what I wanted to do with my life. I always had the question
of how much money can I make out of this job as the main consideration when choosing a career
to pursue. With the question of what I could do to help others with career in mind and what I
could contribute to other people with the talents I have, I narrowed down my career choices to
engineering. Helping to make other peoples lives better and easier by designing and creating
solutions for technical problems would be my way of contributing to society. Just like how Baca
applied his talent by helping his fellow inmates write to their loved ones when they couldnt.
Currently, Jimmy has devoted his post-prison life to spreading the power of language to inmates
and other at-risk individuals, including children, across the country by conducting poetry
workshops in school and prisons, giving powerful lectures and readings, and promoting literacy
through the distribution of books and other educational materials. (Moniz)

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Works cited
Hoyt, Jillian. "Book Review: 'The Glass Castle' by Jeannette Walls." Examiner.com.
Portland Book Examiner, 19 May 2011. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.
<http://www.examiner.com/review/book-review-the-glass-castle-by-jeannette-walls>

Moniz, Carrie. "Update: A Place to Stand: Jimmy Santiago Bacas Docu-Memoir Is

Scheduled for Release Next Spring." The California Journal of Poetics. WordPress, 19
Jan. 2012. Web. 11 Dec. 2013. <http://www.californiapoetics.org/reviews/2364/aplace-to-stand-jimmy-santiago-bacas-docu-memoir-is-scheduled-for-release-thisspring>.

Cherry, Kendra. "What Is Behavioral Therapy?" About.com Psychology. About.com,

n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2013.
<http://psychology.about.com/od/typesofpsychotherapy/a/behavioral-therapy.htm>