The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is classified as a memoir and not a fictional narrative because it is based on Walls’ own life experiences. The narrative recounts memoirist Walls’ chaotic childhood with her nomadic and often-absent father and stoic mother, who moved her family around the US. Throughout Wallace’s story, incidents are framed as anecdotal and experiential, rather than constructed and detailed in the way authors of fiction might narrate stories.
Memoirs tend to address how an individual makes meaning of their life rather than how an individual might come to a moral conclusion. In the Glass Castle, Walls recounts the circumstances of her life and describes how she makes sense of them. For example, Walls not only tells us about her father’s alcoholism, but she also talks about how it affected her relationship with him.
Unlike novels, which are works of fiction that feature characters who are invented by the author and may or may not resemble real people, memoirs are true stories written by people who have actually lived through the experience being described. Memoirs generally focus on an individual’s personal experiences, and often feature dialogue, vivid settings, and vivid descriptions of the people featured. In The Glass Castle, Walls tells the story of her life, including details of the dysfunction that occurs in her family and how she copes with it.
The Glass Castle includes Walls’s memory and the emotions that she associated with her upbringing, which is unique to memoir authors. The Glass Castle is a memoir because Walls has written a personal, true story that captures her own real-life experiences, emotions and reflections. It's characterized by her unique perspective, as opposed to a piece of fiction that follows a plot and has characters invented by the author.
