ENG 4CI Class Blog

Discuss Brian's statement at the top of page 288: "You know, it's really not that hard to put food on the table if that's what you decide to do."  What is your reaction to to this statement?  How do you think Rex and Rose Mary would react to this statement?

Discuss your opinion of Rosemary, Rex, and Jeannette after this summer. How have they changed? How do you feel about their choices? Sympathy? Anger? Frustration?

Discuss the idea of 'morals'.  Is it okay to do something as long as you don't get caught?  With reference to how the Walls 'collected' money from the bank, or using another example from this section, explain why you agree or disagree with their methods.  Do you think the children differ from their parents in terms of morals?  Use a quotation from this section to prove why or why not.

Jeanette Walls is an established news writer (later in the book she talks about that pull).  She writes "a newspaper reporter, instead of holing up in isolation, was in touch with the rest of the world. What the reporter wrote influenced what people thought about and talked about the next day; he knew what was really going on. I decided I wanted to be one of the people who knew what was really going on" (Walls 204).

With reference to one or two quotations from this section of her memoir (pages 1-90), think of reasons why you think Walls decided to become a news writer?