PRESENTATION OUTLINE
CHARACTERS
- Jeannette Walls
- Rex Walls
- Rose Mary Walls
- Lori Walls
- Brian Walls
CHARACTERS (CONTINUED)
- Brian Walls
- Maureen Walls
- Erma Walls
- Ted Walls
- Stanley Walls
CHARECTERS (CONTINUED) [2]
- Ginnie Sue Pastor
- Grandma Smith
- Jeanette Bivens
- John Taylor
- Dinitia Hewitt + gang
CHARACTERS (CONTIUED) [3]
SETTINGS(S)
- Nevada (Blythe, Battle Mountain, and Las Vegas)
- California (San Francisco)
- Arizona (Phoenix)
- West Virginia (Welch)
- New York (New York City)
REX WALLS
- Alcoholic
- Chain Smoker
- Spends family money on booze
- Lands odd jobs once in a while
ROSE MARY WALLS
- Artist
- Writer
- Interested in dancing/music
- Mother of Lori, Jeannette, Brian, and Maureen
JEANNETTE WALLS
- Author
- Interested in journalism/writing
- Contributor to MSNBC
- Third (second) of five (four) children
- Married John Taylor
The Walls family would leave town to avoid paying bills and to avoid run ins with the law.
Until then, when I thought of writers, what first came to mind was Mom, hunched over her typewriter, clattering away on her novels and plays and philosophies of life and occasionally receiving a personalized rejection letter. But 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. Page 204
I wondered if the fire had been out to get me. I wondered if all fire was related, like dad said all humans were related, if the fire that had burned me that day while I cooked hot dogs was somehow connected to the fire I had flushed down the toilet and the fire burning at the hotel. I didn't have the answers to those questions, but what I did know was that I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire. It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes. Page 34
Later that night, Dad stopped the car out in the middle of the desert, and we slept under the stars. We had no pillows, but Dad said that was part of his plan. He was teaching us to have good posture. The Indians didn't use pillows, either, he explained, and look how straight they stood. We did have our scratchy army-surplus blankets, so we spread them out and lay there, looking up at the field of stars. I told Lori how lucky we were to be sleeping out under the sky like Indians.
'We could live like this forever,' I said.
'I think we're going to,' she said. Page 18
'Oh Yeah?' I said. 'How about Hitler?What was his redeeming quality?'
'Hitler loved dogs,' Mom said without hesitation.
Page 144
