Racism In The Glass Castle

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Jeannette Walls was born on April 21, 1960 in Phoenix, Arizona. “After her junior year of high school, Walls moved away from home to live in New York City with her older sister, Lori. There she began her career as a journalist, working for The Phoenix. She graduated from Barnard College in 1984 with honors. Jeannette Walls is known for her work on the MSNBC gossip column "Scoop". She is also the author of four books: Dish: The Inside Story on the World of Gossip (2000), The Glass Castle (2005), her first fiction work Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel (2009), and her latest novel The Silver Star (2013)” (“Jeannette Walls Biography”). In the book The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls narrates her outrageously dysfunctional childhood as a youth. …show more content…

Racism is present throughout the novel, “racism is a belief of characteristics and abilities that can be attributed to people simply on the basis of their race and that some are superior to others” (Shah). In the novel, the Walls family practiced only a few fine principals in their daily lives; it is clearly recognizable that Rex and Rosemary took a stand against racism (Rodriguez). They taught their children that racism is wrong and that you should treat other equally. The evidence of this first can be seen when Rosemary worked as a teacher in Davy Elementary School. On many instances, she demonstrates her impartiality. For example, “She'd tell the Mexican kids never to let anyone say they weren't as good as white kids. She'd tell the Navaho and Apache kids they should be proud of their noble Indian heritage” (Walls 71). This shows Rosemary’s drive and determination to get her students to have confidence in themselves, which shows her character. Another time racism was present throughout the novel was when the Walls family moved to Welch, West Virginia to live with their grandparents. Jeannette got upset at her grandmother because she was discriminatory towards black people despite this; her mother encouraged Jeannette to find her grandmother’s positive traits. Her

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