Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Social life of jeannette walls the glass castle
The glass castle jeannette walls topic
An eassy about the glass castle
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Social life of jeannette walls the glass castle
People have things that mean something important. Others may not understand the importance of those things. But, it can be a crucial symbol for someone’s life. That is the impact of symbolism in one’s life. In the book The Glass Castle, written by Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle has a significant importance in her life. The Glass castle represents the status of the Walls family, the hope and faith for the future, and even life in general. In the story, The Glass Castle is used as the end goal of the Walls Family’s adventure of life. Furthermore, the Glass Castle supports Walls’ purpose of the hardships in life. Initially, The Glass Castle can represent the close bond between the Walls family. rex designed blueprints and layouts for the …show more content…
In Jeannette’s child days,she was taught by Rex and Rose Mary that their life is one big adventure. The Glass castle can be seen as an end goal for that adventure because Rex always found a reason to move to different places and those reasons were tied in to the Glass Castle. For example, In Blythe, Rex announced that they will move to Battle Mountain, so he could use the prospector to mine gold and build the Glass castle. But the real reason they were moving was stated previously as, “a squad car tried to pull us over because the brake lights on the Green Caboose weren’t working. … then headed down an alley and found an empty garage to hide in” (Walls, 48). One can assume that because a police squad car had tried to pull over the Walls family, Rex had been afraid that if they’d been caught, he would be put in the slammer. Rex explained the move from Blythe to Battle Mountain in a more exciting way to keep the Walls kids hopes up for a good life. Despite the good, Rex also tries to be financial proficient by using the Glass Castle. In one event, Rex tells Rose Mary, “... to ask her mother for the money to fund for the cyanide leaching process he was developing” (Walls, 70). Later, Rose Mary claims that Rex needs the money because he can’t support his family. This can be proven true because of their lack of food and malnutrition conditions in Battle …show more content…
The Glass Castle symbolizes hope for the future and faith in destiny. The Glass Castle for Jeannette Walls really pushed her to move on through life. Contrarily, an example of the complete opposite occurred in the story. With Jeannette in her late teen years, she had little belief in the Glass Castle, and that caused Rex to freeze his life into Welch. This happens when Jeannette states, “Dad,I said, you’ll never build the Glass Castle. … Dad, I said, as soon as I finish classes, I’m getting on the next bus out of here. … Go ahead and build the Glass Castle, but don’t do i for me. Dad rolled up the blueprints and walked out of the room. A Minute later, I heard him scrambling down the mountainside” (Walls, 238). Clearly, this declaration truly hurt Rex, and was one main reason for the Walls parents to remain in Welch. Plus, during Rex’s last minutes, Jeannette finally realized the true intentions of the Glass Castle. The dialogue of Rex and Jeannette where they converse, “Never did build that Glass Castle. No. But we had fun planning it. Those were some damn fine plans.” (Walls, 279) is when it happened. Later, they talked about the old days, where the Glass Castle was the fuel of hope for their car of
As much as Walls loved her father, she realized he would “never build that Glass Castle. But we had fun planning it.” (279) Rex told them that special kids could have “those shining stars, he liked to point out, were one of the special treats for people like us who lived out in the wilderness.” (39) Walls really felt special when her mother said, “life’s too short to worry about what other people think. Anyway, they should accept us for who we are.” (157) This vicious cycle proves to the reader that Walls never had a way to escape from her parent’s cruel ways; she grew up thinking like her parents did. This cruel way of thinking made Rex feel good about himself while making Walls’ feel special. The idea of the Glass Castle gave Walls a sense of hope that her dad would stay true to his word, but the impracticable idea of a house of glass symbolizes just how unstable the Walls’ foundation was. Walls said, “As awful as he could be, I always knew he loved me in a way no one else ever had.” (279) Rex never had the stability to protect her and she knew he would endanger her. Walls’ father Rex had extraordinary power in convincing Walls that he only wanted the best for her, even while causing her to
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a memoir told in the perspective of a young girl (the author) who goes through an extremely hard childhood. Jeannette writes about the foodless days and homeless nights, however Jeannette uses determination, positivity, sets goals, and saves money, because of this she overcame her struggles.
In the book, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls is trying to tell us that her parents are taking her happiness away. In this section, young Jeannette is witnessing how her parents get into argument about money and disrespect people who are trying to help their condition. Walls says, “I thought Grandma Smith was great. But after a few weeks, she and Dad would always get into some nasty hollering match. It might start with Mom mentioning how short we were on cash” (Walls 20).
Throughout the Glass Castle there is a constant shift in Jeanettes tone through her use of diction. Her memoir is centered around her memories with her family, but mainly her father Rex Walls. Although it is obvious through the eyes of the reader that Rex is an unfit parent and takes no responsibility for his children, in her childhood years Jeanette continually portrays Rex as an intelligent and loving father, describing her younger memories with admiration in her tone. The capitalization of “Dad” reflects Jeannette’s overall admiration for her father and his exemplary valor. “Dad always fought harder, flew faster, and gambled smarter than everyone else in his stories”(Walls 24). Jeanette also uses simple diction to describe her father, by starting sentences with, “Dad said,” over and over. By choosing to use basic language instead of stronger verbs, she captures her experience in a pure and honest tone.
She went off to seek the person she was meant to be. She had a purpose now, and this gave her a quest. She never gave up because she wrote the memoir from New York City and even saw her homeless mother as she passed by in a taxi on her way to her city apartment (Walls 9). Jeannette was determined on her quest and persevered through it all to become the person she is today. By utilizing symbolic, character, and situational archetypes such as fire, a hero, and a quest, Walls effectively conveys her theme of perseverance in her memoir, The Glass Castle.
Rex has many good traits that show he can be a good father when he isn’t drinking. One of these traits is that he never gives up hope. He promises his family that he will build them a house called the Glass Castle, a place where they can finally settle down in one place and stop skedaddling. Jeannette describes the Glass Castle as “a house completely made of glass and had solar cells on the top that would catch the sun’s rays and convert them into electricity for heating and cooling and running all the appliances”(25). One other positive thing he does for them is that he teaches his children important skills like swimming, self-defense and how to read and write. In one part of the memoir, Jeannette and her father are at the Hot Pot, a sulfur spring in the hills and Rex uses a teaching method that would make him seem crazier than he really is. He throws Jeannette in
Rex knew that Jeannette was deserving of a better life than migrating place to place every once in a while and eating commodity foods. By pretending to make plans to build this utopian house for her, he kept her imagination and her faith in him alive and taught her to keep looking forward in life. However, as Jeanette grew up that did not cut it anymore. “What I was thinking was that you don’t have to go right away, and I’ll build the Glass Castle, I swear it. We’ll all live in it together. It’ll be a hell of a lot better than any apartment you’ll ever find in New York City, I can guaran-goddamn-tee that,”(Walls 238). After Jeannette turned her father’s offer down, he knew that she had her mind set on going to New York.With two of his children leaving him, Rex was heartbroken, but he understood that they would have a better life there than they would have by staying in
Throughout the book The Glass Castle, Jeannette and her family are essentially homeless, which leaves them with dealing with the daily struggles that come along with it. Although there are only a few instances where the Walls did not have a home, the conditions they lived through were horrendous. Jeannette and her siblings cope with their situations in many ways. At the beginning, the children never complained. Their parents Rex and Rose Mary had significantly different coping mechanisms. While Rose Mary was painting or sleeping, Rex was heading to the local bars. Their ways of dealing with their living situations and overall economic and political status did not help the siblings lead a fulfilling childhood. Coping mechanisms
The Glass Castle is a memoir of the writer Jeannette Walls life. Her family consists of her father Rex Walls, her mother Rose Mary Walls, her older sister Lori Walls, her younger brother Brian Walls and her younger sister Maureen Walls. Jeannette Walls grew up with a lot of hardships with her dad being an alcoholic and they never seemed to have any money. Throughout Jeanette’s childhood, there are three things that symbolize something to Jeannette, they are fire, New York City and the Glass Castle, which shows that symbolism gives meanings to writing.
It is commonly believed that the only way to overcome difficult situations is by taking initiative in making a positive change, although this is not always the case. The theme of the memoir the Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is that the changes made in children’s lives when living under desperate circumstances do not always yield positive results. In the book, Jeannette desperately tries to improve her life and her family’s life as a child, but she is unable to do so despite her best efforts. This theme is portrayed through three significant literary devices in the book: irony, symbolism and allusion.
The metaphor of the glass Castle would be the time in which Jeannette's father will be able to support his family and be free of all the problems that seem to follow them. To Jeannette and her father it signifies freedom of the life that they have, since the kids arrive, their family has not had enough to be able to fully provide for their children. Before leaving for New York, Jeanette realizes that her father will never build the glass Castle because of his unstable lifestyle, I think that after her father has let her down multiple times she realizes that he wasn't going to change and he wouldn't be able to provide for their
...life living with yet loving parents and siblings just to stay alive. Rosemary and Rex Walls had great intelligence, but did not use it very wisely. In the book The Glass Castle, author Jeanette Walls discovers the idea that a conservative education may possibly not always be the best education due to the fact that the Walls children were taught more from the experiences their parents gave them than any regular school or textbook could give them. In this novel readers are able to get an indication of how the parents Rex and Rosemary Walls, choose to educate and give life lessons to their children to see the better side of their daily struggles. Showing that it does not matter what life throws at us we can take it. Rosemary and Rex Walls may not have been the number one parents in the world however they were capable in turning their children into well-educated adults.
Rex Walls While growing up in life, children need their parents to teach them and lead them on the path to a successful future. In the Glass Castle Rex Walls, Jeannette’s father, neglects to take care of his duties as a father figure in Jeannette’s life. In the same way, he teaches her to be strong and independent at a very young age. As we read through the story, we see the special relationship that Jeannette shares with her father. Even though he, in many instances, failed to protect his children, refused to take responsibility for them, and even stole from them, Jeannette still loved him until his death for two reasons: one, for his ability to make her feel special, and two, because he is a never-ending source of inspiration.
Could the dysfunction of the Walls family have fostered the extraordinary resilience and strength of the three older siblings through a collaborative set of rites of passage? One could argue that the unusual and destructive behavior of the parents forced the children into a unique collection of rites of passage that resulted in surprisingly resilient and successful adults. In moving back to Welch, Virginia, the children lost what minimal sense of security they may have enjoyed while living in their grandmother’s home in Arizona. The culture and climate (both socially and environmentally) along with an increased awareness of their poverty resulted in a significant loss of identity. As they learned new social and survival skills in this desperate environment, there is a powerful sense of camaraderie between the older children. Their awareness, drive and cunning survival skills while living in Welch result in a developing sense of confidence in their ability to survive anything. This transition, while wretched, sets the stage for their ability to leave their environment behind with little concern for a lack of success. As the children leave, one by one, to New York, they continue to support one another, and emerge as capable, resourceful young adults.
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a harrowing and heartbreaking yet an inspiring memoir of a young girl named Jeannette who was deprived of her childhood by her dysfunctional and unorthodox parents, Rex and Rose Mary Walls. Forced to grow up, Walls stumbled upon coping with of her impractical “free-spirited” mother and her intellectual but alcoholic father, which became her asylum from the real world, spinning her uncontrollably. Walls uses pathos, imagery, and narrative coherence to illustrate that sometimes one needs to go through the hardships of life in order to find the determination to become a better individual.