Dreams are something to strive for, but at times they can negatively impact one’s family and friends. In the memoir titled The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls that takes place in a multitude of places in the U.S., but most importantly in Welch, West Virginia, does this idea show off? Jeannette Walls lives within a poor household with parents that don’t treat her and her siblings the best. They learn to survive within the harsh world as well as grow beyond the scope of their parents. Jeannette Walls is trying to convey a theme of big aspirations having negative impacts on family and friends. The theme is seen primarily in how she writes about Rose Mary, Lori, and Rex Walls. Rose Mary’s dreams of being an artist come at the cost of her family. …show more content…
How Rose Mary phrases herself makes her dreams sound accomplished rather than how they are in actuality. Her dreams take priority over everything else in her life, and this mentality doesn’t change throughout the book. Rose Mary has also been shown to care more for the arts than basic necessities such as beds and food, “Shortly after we moved into the depot, Mom decided that what we really needed was a piano,” (Walls 52). This is indicative that Rose Mary cares for the arts to an almost unhealthy degree. Her need for artistic expression overrides survival for her, as seen on multiple occasions. Rose Mary conveys the theme of how large aspirations can negatively affect family and friends. Lori’s dream of leaving her family and Welch affects the mental state of them. Lori began saving up to leave Welch for New York, but Rex wanted her to stay and stole her money in an attempt to thwart her plans, “Dad had jacked up the charm with me, and even though I was planning to leave, he could make me laugh when he tried, and he still considered me an
In “The Glass Castle”, the author Jeanette Walls describes her childhood and what motivated her to chase her education and move out to New York City with her siblings and leave their parents behind in West Virginia. The main struggle Jeanette and her siblings had was the conflicting point of view that they had with their mother on parenting. Despite their father Rex Walls being an alcoholic, constantly facing unemployment, and being a source of hope for his children, Rose Mary Walls had her list of attributes that shaped her children’s life. Rose Mary had a very interesting view on parenting in Jeanette Wall’s memoir and this perspective of parenting influenced her children both positively and negatively.
Jeannette Walls has lived a life that many of us probably never will, the life of a migrant. The majority of her developmental years were spent moving to new places, sometimes just picking up and skipping town overnight. Frugality was simply a way of life for the Walls. Their homes were not always in perfect condition but they continued with their lives. With a brazen alcoholic and chain-smoker of a father and a mother who is narcissistic and wishes her children were not born so that she could have been a successful artist, Jeannette did a better job of raising herself semi-autonomously than her parents did if they had tried. One thing that did not change through all that time was the love she had for her mother, father, brother and sisters. The message that I received from reading this memoir is that family has a strong bond that will stay strong in the face of adversity.
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a memoir about Jeannette’s childhood experiencing many difficult situations. It is an excellent example of contemporary literature that reflects society. This story connects with social issues relevant to our time period, such as unstable home life, alcoholism, and poverty. Many of these issues, as well as others, are also themes of the story. One major theme of the story is overcoming obstacles, which is demonstrated by Jeannette, the Walls’ kids, and Rex and Mary Walls.
The novel The Glass Castle, written by Jeannette Walls, brings to the surface many of the the struggles and darker aspects of American life through the perspective of a growing girl who is raised in a family with difficulties financially and otherwise. This book is written as a memoir. Jeannette begins as what she remembers as her first memory and fills in important details of her life up to around the present time. She tells stories about her family life that at times can seem to be exaggerated but seemed normal enough to her at the time. Her parents are portrayed to have raised Jeannette and her three siblings in an unconventional manner. She touches on aspects of poverty, family dynamics, alcoholism, mental illness, and sexual abuse from
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.
My family isn 't like the Walls family because my parents would never treat my sister and I like their parents treated them, my family and I have a decent living situation, and we would never hurt any animal. From the beginning, Rex and Rose Mary treated their kids wrong and didn 't take responsibility as parents. Every child deserves a loving home and should never have to worry if they are going to eat that night. West Virginia also seemed a lot different then because the laws are more strict now. The way the Walls are, they would get in trouble for the way they treated their kids, animals, and even their living space. "Mom always said people worry too much about their children. Suffering when you 're young is good for you, she said. It immunized
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.
Education plays a big role in our daily lives. Education is commonly defined as a process of learning and obtaining knowledge. The story takes place beginning in the late 1950s to the early 2000s. Jeannette Walls is the main character of the story and the narrator. She tells the events of her life living with careless and yet loving parents. This family of six lived in many cities and towns and went through tough states to stay alive. Her mother and father never kept a good steady job, but they had great intelligence. Jeannette and her siblings barely went to school to get the proper education they needed. 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.
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.
Alcoholism in Families There are times when it feels like the whole world is falling apart and nothing seems to be going right. One begins to wonder why they suffer so much and begins relying on other things to take their minds off of their lives. This can be seen in the memoir, The Glass Castle, when the author and main character, Jeannette Walls, writes about her dad’s alcohol addiction. Jeannette shows that due to alcohol, her father lost his job, and failed to be a prominent figure in his children’s lives. This caused the family to lead a nomadic lifestyle and frequently walk around hungry and homeless.
Isabella Garcia Ms. Branda American Literature 12 April 2024 Child Negligence and Abuse in The Glass Castle Child Negligence, defined as a basic form of child abuse, is an act of caregivers resulting in depriving a child of their basic needs, affecting 78 percent of children in the US. Such dilemmas are depicted in Jeannette Walls’ non-fiction memoir, The Glass Castle, highlighting the author’s personal experiences growing up in a difficult household revolving around a nomadic lifestyle, where she first-handily experiences blatant acts of child abuse due to her irresponsible parents. Walls portrays the impactful acts of child abuse by highlighting several internal dilemmas such as alcoholism’s indirect contribution to a parent’s undivided attention, generational
The Complexities of Child Negligence In a world so focused on preserving the innocence of future generations, the jarring reality cannot be ignored any longer. Child neglect is a rising catastrophe within society and further negligence of the issue will only make matters worse. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a memoir that takes place in several locations throughout the late 1900s. Child negligence is introduced as a mental obstacle in The Glass Castle as children in the Walls family experience a stunt in their ability to mentally grow as they navigate into adulthood. Rex and Maureen symbolize the residual effects of child negligence with their combined struggle to combat the trauma inflicted by their abusers.
Ashley Marroquin, Ms. Branda American Literature 12 April 2024 Alcoholism Affects Family Is an addiction a problem that has to do with the person, or is it a disease? Alcoholism has an impact on how a person acts and it greatly impacts relationships in a negative way. In the Memoir, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Explains the difficulty that the Walls children had to experience while growing up with their parents and the problems that they had to deal with. While the Walls children were growing up, one of the biggest struggles they had to go through was with their father and his addiction to alcohol. Since their father was an alcoholic, that meant the children had to deal with many dangerous situations since their father wouldn’t think straight during these times.
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.