The Idea of Determination in Barbara Walters' Memoir Audition - Book Report/Review Example

Research paper on "Audition" by Barbara Walters (13.12.12) Introduction Barbara Walters is recognized as the calm and composed interviewer whoposes difficult questions to her interviewees. She is the one who paved the way for women to make it big in the broadcasting sector. Barbara has the ability to get the required revelation from anybody, which she has aptly demonstrated in several of her assignments such as the Today Show on NBC and The View on ABC 20/20. Questions relative to her own revelations and story are best answered in her memoir Audition that surprises readers at the paths she had taken. In Audition, she tells her own story from the beginning in terms of how her parents got together, her life as a child and the feelings she had as a young woman that had minimum guidance and support to rely on. Walters provides a glimpse of her initial days in the broadcasting industry about the manner in which she coped with a media environment that was not characterized with interviews and TV specials. During this initial phase, she was struggling with the pressures of family and home as her career blossomed with NBC (Walters, 2008). It is interesting to note that what was as yet unknown about Walters is revealed in the book by way of her professional tussles with colleagues, which almost made her to quit the profession before she could get a foothold in the industry. This paper examines the determination that Barbara Walters displayed in her work and personal life and how she was able to make it big as a woman in the broadcasting sector that was primarily male dominated. Main Body Barbara Walters initially struggled as a student of literature and grappled as a content writer in a PR agency where she was prepared for her time ahead through the tough training she underwent under William Safire, who was President Nixon’s speech writer and political and language commentator for the New York Times. She went on to become a TV producer, co host and the undeniable queen of TV talk shows. Barbara Walters has done everything in having broken the known gender biases and glass ceiling in the broadcasting industry through her perseverance, finely cultivated social abilities and sharp skills of breaching the on air reporting environment. For her, every day was an audition. In her entire memoir, Walters has been very honest and candid in revealing her personal life and her personal struggles to attain happiness. Despite the fact that her father was a very successful show man during the period, her family had to go through a great deal of financial impediments. It is delightful knowing how Barbara Walters gradually made her way into the NBC network, made money and supported her family in all possible ways. There were instances when Walters was required to save her family from legal, emotional and financial destruction. After she found that her father had not paid a massive tax demand she used her connections to save her father from being sent to jail. Walters shares her feelings in stating that she was not specifically proud of this achievement but was glad to save her father. Her memoir provides a glimpse into her childhood that had a very strong influence on her decision making ability as an adult. In view of her father’s turbulent past she was not inclined to get involved romantically with any man in show business. Walters also had the inclination to make rushed decisions about her personal life but they did not prove successful in the long term. It was this very pattern in her behavior that made her to adopt revolutionary styles of interviewing, which made her to become the lead female broadcaster of the century. The reader also realizes that despite Walter’s immense success as a broadcaster she had inherent personal problems and insecurity just as normal human beings have. It is impressive to note that she admitted her shortcomings very candidly and provided readers to have a glimpse of the legendry woman that she continues to be. It would have been very simple for an individual writing his or her own memoir to justify the prevailing struggles and difficulties but Walters has presented her story with immense grace in having invited readers into her personal world. Barbara Walter’s book comprises of four elements that give in depth accounts of her interviews, behind the scene contract discussions with her colleagues and workers, memories of her family engagements and her private disclosures about her romantic life. Walters begins her memoir with her childhood life and goes on to depict how her father, a show businessman was always implementing new concepts in his night clubs, many of which were utter failures. The ups and downs in her father’s life made Barbara and her mother to have a constant sense of insecurity about the future. It becomes known that Barbara was strongly impacted from the beginning by her sister Jackie who was elder to her and psychologically weak. Barbara has expressed her feeling of embarrassment in childhood relative to her sister’s situation, which was very painful for her and prevented her from inviting her friends to her home in fear of being asked to clarify why her sister appeared diverse. She has related with Jackie on a regular basis across her entire book until her tragic death. For instance, in relating to her, she writes, “Her condition altered my life…I knew from a very early age that at some point Jackie would become my responsibility…was one of the main reasons I was driven to work so hard” (Walters, 2008, p.3) The title for Barbara’s memoir was given as Audition because of a specific reason that becomes evident only after reading the entire book. In her life, the idea of auditioning began in early childhood when she practiced auditioning in attempts to have a sound fit with her peers in the different schools that she attended. The role of auditioning was very strong in her life as she auditioned to get the crucial co-anchor’s assignment in NBC’s Today program during the 1960s. She expresses that she auditioned in her romantic life to know and impact the men that came in her life. Barbara acknowledges that some of these auditions were successful, such as being able to spend thirteen successful years with NBC’s Today program after which she moved on to ABC. She also acknowledges that some were not successful, such as her three failed marriages, which made her realize that she was not an individual who could have a happy married life (Kelly, 2008). Another major aspect expressed by Barbara about her life is of feeling guilty. In childhood she was overcome with the feeling of guilt relative to not being able to fully understand her sister Jackie’s mental situation. Another aspect of her guilt emerged from her father’s inability to have financial stability. However, she was always appreciative about her father, “the good thing about my father was that he was by nature a gambler” (Walters, 2008, p.27). Barbara has exhaustively discussed how she was always apprehensive about her family not having sufficient funds to survive during the tumultuous times when her father was in deep financial troubles. Barbara was also guilty during the period when she was bringing up her daughter who was named Jackie after her sister. Her daughter had fallen into bad company and got involved with street gangs and drugs abuse because of which she was always in a state of depression. Barbara felt that because of her high status as a TV broadcaster and the absence of a strong fatherly figure for her daughter, she was responsible for the disturbance in her daughter’s life. Barbara states in her memoir that despite the fact that her daughter Jackie eventually controlled herself and turned her life around, she continues to feel hurt and the feeling of guilt continues to haunt her in this regard. This is precisely why she titled her chapter relative to this narrative as The Hardest Chapter to Write. The risk taking styles of Barbara’s father and his creativity behind the establishment of the celebrated Latin Quarter Night Club gave her the first experiences of glamour. Her father was also responsible for making her realize the hard intricacies of life and the misfortune that results when big risks are undertaken. Barbara was quick to realize the immense harm such patterns can bring to relationships in matrimony and between parents and children. Barbara had a virtual roller coaster ride in her childhood and she learnt from her sister Jackie about empathy and endurance. However, Barbara has been very honest about the bitterness she experienced in having a sister who was aloof from others (Wiegand, 2008). The reader learns from Barbara’s experiences of life in terms of her sense of financial responsibility for her family, the love and apprehensions that played a major role in the process through which she made her life choices. It is difficult to doubt her sincerity in the attempts she made to develop friendships, to strengthen her family bond and to make her marriages work. With a little luck and with her strong sense of determination she was able to make a breakthrough in television and eventually carved a remarkable tenure in the broadcasting sector despite the great odds that came her way. She was able to make it to the top in a sector that was entirely male dominated and became the first woman to co-host the popular Today program on television. She was the first co-anchor for network news and created and co-hosted The View program. She was the star of the 20/20 program and hosted and produced a large number of top rate Specials. Barbara Walters has not only interviewed many of the world’s most charming, intriguing and popular personalities, she also became a part of their life in having left a strong impact on them. Amongst the personalities that played a major role in Barbara Walter’s life are Princess Diana, the Dalai Lama, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Jimmy Carter, George Bush, Warren Beatty, Yasser Arafat, Anwar Sadat, Christopher Reeve, Rosie ODonnell, Richard Nixon, Monica Lewinsky, Henry Kissinger, Angelina Jolie, King Hussein, Katharine Hepburn, John Wayne and several others. The most interesting parts of Barbara’s book relate to her description of the ways in which she interacted with several heads of state. She interviewed over thirty heads of state, several celebrities as well as even the most notorious criminals, irrespective of whether they were convicted or not. Barbara is witness to the lives of the most notorious, famous, rich and powerful people in the world. In a unique style of bluntness Barbara has written about the hard times she had with her father, her disabled sister and difficult daughter. She went through three unsuccessful marriages and a number of affairs with some of the most famous people in America, such as Senator Edward Brooke and Alan Greenspan. Barbara Walters is not the kind of person who will wring her hands in dejection and has always remained a ferocious competitor. She is known to wake up at 5 am and is ready at short notice to reach anywhere in the world. She was the one who outraced Walter Cronkite in interviewing Anwar Sadat and Menachim Begin. Obviously, she is not a woman who will be defeated easily. Conclusion Upon reading the entire book readers realize that had Barbara Walters moved back and permitted others to force her from getting ahead in her career, she may have never been as famous and talented as she is now recognized to be. This paper has explained how Barbara displayed a strong sense of determination in her work and personal life and how she was able to make it big as a woman in the broadcasting sector that was primarily male dominated. Barbara Walters has crafted her book with a great amount of precision and details and has used simple language that is stimulating. She has elaborately portrayed her life in a very well organized style which is evident from the fact that once she declares that she will not discuss her personal life any more her book is diverted to other aspects relative to narratives regarding politicians, celebrities and news makers she interviewed during her long career in broadcasting. Barbara’s memoir becomes more fascinating as well as intriguing because people have been exposed to very little about journalists by way of their personal lives. It is known that such need for personal details is understood as being an implied law relative to preserving some levels of professionalism while covering news. Although millions of people have watched Barbara’s pioneering programs on ABC, very less was known about her as a person. Barbara has not left any details in her book and her sketches and her view points of the several people that she interviewed prove to be nothing short of charm and fascination. Works Cited Kelly, David. Major Barbara. The New York Times, June 15, 2008. Walters, Barbara. Audition: A Memoir, Knopf, 2008. Wiegand, David. Barbara Walters Gets Personal. San Francisco Chronicle, May 5, 2008, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/05/DDTU10H1P9.DTL, Accessed on 12 December, 2011 Read More