51 pages • 1 hour read
Paris HiltonParis: The Memoir
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2, Chapters 6-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2, Chapter 6 Summary
Hilton opens the chapter discussing Mel Wasserman, a cult leader and a “disciple of Charles E. Dederich, founder of Synanon, a violent cult that had been driven underground but never fully eradicated” (89). Dederich used torture and violence to try to help cure people’s addictions and sexual orientation. Wasserman takes his approach to the San Bernardino Mountains and opens an emotional growth boarding school called CEDU, originally short for Charles E. Dederich University. They then opened sister schools throughout the United States, particularly in states where laws are lax. These schools are generally sought out by parents of teenagers deemed out of control. It is suggested that tough love will bring the teens back in line with the expectations of their parents and society. Hilton claims that most of the students locked away are ravers and individuals who have ADHD.
To this day, Hilton’s parents are still convinced that they sent her there to save her life. She believes this may be a coping mechanism on their part; one that, out of love, she does not want to take from them. She apologizes for putting her parents in a position where they felt so helpless and afraid. Hilton explains that for many years, she built walls around her heart to protect her from the horrors she experienced at the schools. She warns her readers that the following material is difficult to read, but she does not want to hide the truth anymore. She has changed the names of people in the chapters describing the schools she attended. She understands that other people may have different memories of that time, but she is telling what she remembers as she remembers it.
Part 2, Chapter 7 Summary
Hilton is taken by two men from her room at the Waldorf and put into a black SUV with no means of escape. Thinking she has been kidnapped, she tells her captors that her parents will pay whatever amount of money they want, but they tell her that it was her parents’ choice for the two men to take her. When the three get to the airport, the two men tell Hilton that she is going to a “tough love school” in California to fix what is wrong with her. When she is threatened with handcuffs, she stops resisting because she does not want to be photographed in that manner.
They arrive at CEDU’s Walter Huston Lodge. She is greeted by two adults. She refers to one as Weaselmug, and the other one looks like a hippie. There are a handful of students there, both male and female. She is ordered to take off all of her clothes in front of these people so the staff can check for contraband. She is forced into a cavity search where she says, “I hated the whimpering rabbit sound that came out of me” (101). She is then given stained sweats to wear. The staff chooses a magenta color because they believe she might try to escape. She is not humiliated by the color because she has learned to work clothes rather than let clothes work her. Pink is her color. While some of the kids there are from the foster system, many are from wealthy families.
Part 2, Chapter 8 Summary
For anonymity in the book, Hilton names her first roommate Blanda. Blanda tells Paris that she has read Paris’s file which said that she had slept with many different guys and was kicked out of many schools. Blanda tells Hilton that she is there for her own good, and when Hilton starts to counter, Blanda tells her to wait for that night’s Rap. Blanda tells her that she might be able to call her mom in a couple of weeks if she earns the privilege. Blanda then says that if she does not behave, she may be sent to Ascent or Provo and that Provo is not a place she wants to go. She also tells Hilton that she will be there for two years, until she turns 18 years old. They have a strict morning cleanliness routine, and a failure to meet standards will result in bans where students cannot talk to anyone, and no one can talk to them. Hilton is told that many people graduate and then stay on to work at the facility.
There are many rules at the school, and all students are expected to call others out during Rap who are not participating properly in the program. Blanda tells Hilton that she will cause harm to others if she does not report them for infractions, because following the rules of the program is in the students’ best interests. The students are required to shower naked in front of both male and female adults who make lewd comments. Hilton writes, “The most disturbing thing was the blank stares of the naked girls as they washed themselves in the lukewarm spray. They were used to it. This was their life. They just accepted it” (109).
That night, Hilton is forced to participate in her first Rap. Chairs are arranged in a circle, and a song is played on repeat. The students begin to verbally assault each other. Blanda tells a boy that there is no way Hilton will have sex with him, and that she knows he is gay because she read in his chart that his uncle is a child molester and does not want him there anymore. Other people join in calling him an “asshole” and “stupid.” They continue this verbal assault as he folds over, wailing.
A girl then turns to Hilton and asks why she has not said anything. When Hilton starts to defend herself, everyone turns on her, calling her a “bitch” and a spoiled whore among other things. They tell her that she is hated by her family. She covers her head and hears screaming, but she does not realize at first that it is her who is screaming. Rap continues for hours, and Hilton says that confessing to something is the only way to stop the attacks. After Rap, students are forced to participate in Smoosh where they must cuddle with their heads on each other’s and the staff’s bellies. Hilton cries that night in bed, and Blanda tells her that if she does not participate well in Smoosh, people will be harder on her during Rap. She tries to figure out a way to escape.
Part 2, Chapters 6-8 Analysis
The intersection of the law and the “troubled teen industry,” as Hilton calls it, is explored throughout the memoir. In Chapter 6, as Hilton explains the beginnings and evolution of these schools, she is clear to mention that they are primarily built in states with lax laws. This implies that the very laxity of laws is part of what makes this industry thrive, and that what happens at these schools would largely be considered illegal in most states. It is likely that this viewpoint informs her later decision to do advocacy work to fight for legal reforms in the industry. It is important to note that from the beginning of her discussion of this industry, the law is of central concern. As she looks back on her adolescence, Paris takes control of her narrative and refuses to identify as a “victim,” but instead as a bringer of change. She presents a consistent duality in the story, revealing that both sides can be true and exist together: She acknowledges her own behaviors and how they affected others and drove her parents to seek out the schools, but she still maintains that the schools didn’t provide what she needed and were often abusive. She never denies acting out as a child or claims to have been undeserving of her family’s concern and retaliation, contributing to the theme of Taking Responsibility for One’s Actions.
The question of responsibility is one that permeates Hilton’s memories of and processing of the time she spends locked away. In Chapter 6, she starts to unpack the responsibility that her parents hold in what happened to her. This will continue on through to the end of the memoir. In this chapter, she takes responsibility for two key aspects. First, she apologizes to her parents for the stress her behavior caused them when she was younger. In doing so, she accepts responsibility for the way her actions influenced those around her. She will again do this later in the memoir. Second, she gives her parents the grace to allow them their coping mechanisms. It can be implied that she does not believe the schools were required to save her life, but she gives her parents the benefit of the doubt that they were doing what they thought was best for Hilton. Hilton’s view toward her parents changes slightly at different times in the memoir, but she remains adamant that she loves and respects them and that her intent is not to make their life more painful by the recollection of her memories. Still, it is important to Hilton to be able to tell her own story.
Hilton also lays credit to the idea that memory is not fact. She does this when she states that other people may remember what happened during this period in her life differently than she does. She takes ownership over her life, her stories, and her memories, however, by sharing what she remembers as she remembers it. Toward the end of the memoir, she will explain that some stories had to be kept out of her book and that she understands that her celebrity status caused collateral damage to those around her. She knows that the revelation of some of her story has the potential to harm some people. Still, she remains committed to telling her story and bringing it to light. Since she does this while acknowledging the fallibility of memory, she gives space for other players in the real-life narrative to maintain their own interpretations and memories of events, even if this is only in self-preservation.
While locked away, Hilton’s memory and instincts as well as the words of those who hold her captive provide conflicting views of her parents. Her immediate reaction upon being taken from her home in the night is to ask her captors to call her parents. She believes that they are her key to safety, and as a child, they are who she calls for. She is then told, however, that the captivity was her parents’ idea. This is all factually true. Her parents decided to use a transport service to take her to the school because they were told that it is better that way. This is the beginning of the messages Hilton will receive about her parents. While this one is true, later messages will not necessarily be accurate and will call into question their love for her. This happens for the first time during her first Rap when the other students tell her that her parents do not love her. All of this likely sets the stage for the confusion and chaos that permeates her life while she is away at the emotional support boarding schools.
Hilton experiences several sexual traumas in her life. The effects of these traumas are not yet explored, but as of Chapter 7, she has already experienced three. The first is the manipulation and the kiss by her teacher in the previous section, which damages her reputation at her school. The second is when she survives being drugged and raped. When she arrives at the CEDU lodge, she is subjected to not just a strip search but also a cavity search. She was so young and inexperienced that at the time she did not even understand what a cavity search was until it happened to her. She does not go into depth here as to the effect this has on her, but she says, “I hated the whimpering rabbit sound that came out of me” (101). The fact that she cannot control the sound she makes and that it was such a bad experience for her implies that she felt afraid or upset, and she clarifies that she didn’t have the context of what was happening to her. She says she sounds like an animal, a rabbit, showing that the response she had was instinctual, and as such, likely traumatic. While a case could be made that invasive searches may possibly have been warranted, the fact that these searches were done in front of numerous people and without warning or explanation demonstrates that their purpose was to humiliate and control—something Hilton will expand upon in later chapters.
