The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls. It not only describes the story about her strange and crazy childhood but also recounts memories of her father and mother in instances where they understood and loved each other. Throughout the novel, Jeannette Walls explains the hardships of her poverty filled childhood and the endless risk of not being able to find food. Raised by an alcoholic father and crazy mother, Walls describes her unique homeless life all through her childhood. When Jeannette's Dad wasn't drinking, he taught them many different subjects and how to live life without a fear in the world. But when he was drinking, he was untruthful and abusive. "When we tried to help him he cursed and lurched at us, swinging his fist," (Walls 289). Jeannette's Mom was a non-conformist who was against the idea of staying at home and didn't want the commitment that came with raising children. "Mom didn't like …show more content…
cooking much," (134), Jeannette explained; Rose Mary believed that her time could be spent doing something more productive like painting so she cooked rarely; when she did the Walls family ate that meal for several days and sometimes up to a week. For these reasons, the Walls children learned to take care of themselves, in fact Jeannette started to cook hot dogs all by herself at the age of three. They fed, dressed, and kept each other safe, and in the end they all made their way to New York. When this occurred, their parents followed them there to be closer to their children, but chose to live on the streets even as their children succeeded. As a child, Jeannette never felt the need to conform to society, because she had always followed her parent’s beliefs and ideals. Her parents weren't exactly conformists. They refused to be run by society's beliefs of responsibility, and left their children to take care of themselves. In the novel, Jeannette's dad is very smart and spends his extra time creating things that he hopes will make the family rich. Later in the book, the reader learns that he most likely had gone through sexual abuse as a child and his unsettling past in combination with his addiction to alcohol made it so that he let his family down at times. Even though he thought that he never had let his family down and constantly asked Jeannette throughout the novel "have I ever let you down?" Jeannette's Mom is unwilling to behave as an adult should and advocates people who are able to take care of themselves. She is an artist and spends all of her extra time painting. She doesn't particularly like her children because she thinks that they are in the way of her artistic career, but if she were to pick a favorite child it would be most likely be Lori, the oldest of the Walls children, who shares Rose Mary's interest in art. As Jeannette transitions into her teenage years, she starts to notice all the embarrassing things that her mother does in public and wishes that her family was more normal. Despite this, she still does not conform to society or question if anything about their lifestyle is unusual. It is not until her older sister, Lori, tells the family that she wants to move to New York when she graduates high school, and Lori and her talk when Jeannette realizes how dysfunctional her family is. When Lori was saving up money for her trip to New York, about a week before she was supposed to leave, she noticed that all her money had been stolen. She quickly realized that her father had stolen and used it in an attempt to keep her from leaving. From this circumstance, Jeannette realizes how manipulative he really is. After this horrible event, Lori spent her summer doing a babysitter job, and when she finally had enough money she left for New York. At the same time that Lori left, Rose Mary went away for eight weeks to renew her teaching credentials; she left two hundred dollars with Jeannette. Jeannette calculated and figured that it would be plenty of money if it was budgeted correctly; however her dad started to ask her for ten dollars every day and promised that he would pay her back but never did. That was when she began to notice what it must be like for her mother, and how her father steals money from her to go out and drink. When Jeannette graduates from college, and gets a job she starts to become a conformist.
The reason for this is because she has a high paying job and has worked so hard to get to where she is that she feels if she doesn't act normal other people might want her fired from her job. Jeannette is pretty well off but her parents are on the street. She conforms to her wealthy lifestyle while in reality questions why she is confirming, because her parents are trying to make a living while she is prospering. "I'd tried to make a home for myself here, tried to turn the apartment into the sort of place where the person I wanted to be would live. But I could never enjoy the room without worrying about Mom and Dad huddled on a sidewalk grate somewhere," (16), she explains in the beginning of the book while looking around her nice apartment. Jeannette worried about them, but was embarrassed by them at the same time, and ashamed of herself for living in a nice area while her parents were busy with keeping warm in the winter and trying to find something to
eat. All in all, Jeannette is never really a conformist until she completely changes her lifestyle. Which in my opinion makes perfect sense because she just wants to fit in, but doesn't want her coworkers to know what she endured throughout her childhood. She never inwardly questions her position in society either since for the majority of her life, she simply follows what her parent’s ideals and beliefs. In the end, Jeannette chooses a more informational and less visionary explanation of responsibility than her parents do, but at the same time she keeps trying to make sense of why her father and mother seem incapable of owning up to their own wrongdoings and wonders how they feel responsible while having a lifestyle like that.
Wall’s memoir The Glass Castle accurately portrays her horrifying life of growing up in extreme poverty. The memoir unravels a true story about Jeannette Walls’ brutal childhood as she grew up homeless and often lacked even basic necessities such as food, clothing, and shelter. Walls’ father Rex raised his children irresponsibly, leaving them with many mental and physical scars while compromising their safety. Similar to the way Walls was raised, human cruelty remains evident in the Mac Davis song “In The Ghetto,” where the lyrics describe an endless cycle of poverty and crime. However, the movie Les Miserables depicts the
It shows that people’s opinions of her matter to her more than her opinion of herself. Also, it is shown that her mother is the one who gave Jeannette the confidence to tell the story of her past, which later provoked her to write this memoir.
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.
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.
The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls about her family. In this story she tells about her adventurous and dangerous childhood that shaped her to be the person she is today. Which is a strong, optimistic, responsible woman who knows how to roll with the burns and the punches literally. Brian, who is younger than Jeannette was her partner in crime in all her childhood memories. Maureen was the youngest she was not too close with the family and if I had one way to describe her it would be lost. Lori was oldest sibling and the total opposite. She was more reserved and very into her art. Which she took after their mother, RoseMary. RoseMary was a selfish woman, she would constantly put herself first. She was also, very weak and
Just one become only two, which then leads to number three that will be the last… so they say and apparently so will the one after that, after that, and after that until they can physically drink no more. For some, this might happen on their twenty first birthday or only once, but for many people in the world this happens every month, every week, or even every day. “Alcohol is the most commonly used addictive substance in the U.S. 17.6 million people, or one in every 12 adults, suffer from alcohol abuse or dependence” (“Alcohol”). The need and overdose of alcohol is called alcoholism. This addiction causes pain, anger, and loss of control all over the world. One might say, “I can handle myself. I am just fine,” but we all know they are not fine because most of the time they are causing hurt around them. In Jeannette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle, her father, Rex Walls, is an example of one of these 17.6 million alcoholics and this disease affects the family in multiple ways.
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
There are several different social issues presented in Jeannette Wall’s memoir “The Glass Castle.” These issues include neglect – medical and education. unsanitary living conditions, homelessness, unemployment, alcohol abuse, domestic violence. violence, discrimination, mental health issues, physical and sexual abuse, hunger and poverty. Poverty was one of the major key issues addressed in this memoir.
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.
Growing up, Jeannette and her siblings never seemed to be jealous of the wealthy. They weren’t
Towards the middle of the memoir, the theme is shown through the irony of Jeannette’s mother’s situation as well as Jeannette’s feelings towards
Everyone has to deal with struggles during their everyday life. Some people’s problems are more serious than others, and the way that people deal with their problems varies. Everybody has a coping mechanism, something they can use to make the struggle that they’re going through easier, but they’re usually different. Some people drink, some people smoke, some people pretend there is no problem. There are healthy and unhealthy coping mechanisms, and people will vary the one they use depending on the problem they’re facing. In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the author and her family deal with their struggles in multiple different ways as time goes on. However, the severity of her situation means that the methods she uses to deal with it are very important. That’s why it’s bad that Jeanette’s and her family have such unhealthy coping mechanisms, such
Jeanette's parents taught her the importance of knowledge from a very young age which also shaped her to become the person she became after her childhood. THroughout the story Jeannette is always learning, always reading, and educating herself to become more knowledgeable. She even at one point in the book begins a rock collection on different types of rocks which she sells to make money. Jeanette's parents instilled a large amount of positive traits and characteristics through their life of poverty to craft the amazing women Jeannette grew up to
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.