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Jeannette walls memoir the glass castle essay
Jeannette walls memoir the glass castle essay
Jeannette walls memoir the glass castle essay
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The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls is a true story memoir, which introducing family which consists of four children, a neglectful mother and an alcoholic father. This family is constantly confined by poverty and foolish decision making on the part of the parents (reword this it sounds awkward). Despite these obstacles, Jeannette Walls is able to progress forward and to be successful, thus proving that she indeed is the “fittest of all”. She proves that she is the fittest of all because of her ability to survive life and death situations, her ability to adapt without her parent’s, and her ability to remain determined in trying to achieve her goals. The ability to survive life and death situations is a quality that only certain people are able to endure. Jeannette Walls is one of those people, who show strength, bravery and perseverance. She not only faces tough situations, but also survives them, and is able to come out stronger from each experience. “If you don’t want to sink, you better figure out to swim.” (Walls 66) Rex Walls, who is the father of Jeannette said this quote and not only refers to Jeannette learning how to swim, but is also a life lesson. This is a way of her father letting Jeannette know that if she does not learn to take care of herself, …show more content…
With all the hard situations that she has faced, she was still able to come out successful. She has demonstrated why she represents as a fit individual in society through her ability to survive life and death situations, her ability to adapt without her parents, and her ability to remain determined to achieve her goals. Without any doubt, Jeannette Walls is one of the fittest person in her
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.
The Glass Castle, written by Jeannette Walls, is an autobiography that has been enjoyed by many. It encompasess many themes that deal with the darker sides of life. Issues such as alcoholism, abandonment, and poverty are just a few that plague the family in this book. This personal story offers an insight to the childhood of Jeannette Walls. As an outsider looking in, it is crazy to think that such a young girl went through so many traumatic events, but to her, those events were nothing out of the ordinary. Her parents were different than most. They were guilty of constantly uprooting the kids, not holding steady work, and not always providing for the needs of their children. Strangely enough, through their eyes they were doing everything right and
“Daddy! I want to buy this!” “Well, my dear, you have already had a lot of toys like this.” “I don’t care! I want you to buy this for me!” “Mommy! I don’t want to do the stupid housework!” “My dear, you need to learn how to do the housework.” “Why I have to do this? The appliances will do this!” Nowadays, it is so common that we hear this kind of dialogues between children and their parents. The dialogues are not funny; however, they provoke the worry of the public. With the development of our society, many children are having a relaxing and carefree lives. And because of that, the children are spoiled or they highly depend on their parents, which makes them lack of basic living skills. The worst result is that once they
For my independent novel project I read The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. This book is the story of the author’s life, living in extreme poverty all around the country. The book started off when she was 3 years old, telling her earliest memory of being on fire. From that moment on, the book never slows, talking about their constant moves all over California and Nevada, never having a big place or staying for too long. Their parents always kept life interesting; Their father, Rex, when sober, had big plans and even bigger dreams, all they needed was a little bit of money. Their mother, Rose Mary, was an artist at heart and never wanted kids and this was shown in the way she treated them, never having enough food and always blaming them for
In Jeannette Walls memoir, she really covers her parents in a way thats shows what many people believe to be poor parenting and the film really focuses on this aspect not showing how well Rex and Rosemary Walls did with raising their children. Rex and Rosemary Walls may not have been the best parents however they were able to turn their children into well-educated adults. “… but you can’t cling to the side your whole life, that one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is ‘If you don’t want to sink, you better figure out how to swim…” (66). Although
In the opening scene Jeannette is riding in a taxi headed to a party when she sees her mother digging through a trashcan. Walls has not seen her mother for months and she is struck by the reality that the woman who raised her presently appears no different to passersby than any other homeless person on the city streets. Jeannette quickly leaves out of fear that someone will notice her. Only a few blocks away from the party, she fears that her fixation on the woman by the dumpster would arouse suspicion. To avoid being seen she lowers herself in her seat and tells the taxi driver to take her to her home on Park Avenue. She cannot risk being seen by any others of the party because they might discover her secret.The driver turns around and Walls
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.
In The Glass Castle readers are given immense insight into the childhood, adolescence, and adulthood of Jeannette Walls who, through expert storytelling, recounts what is was like to grow up in poverty and the influence it had on her future aspirations along with her family members’ beliefs. Rex and Rose Mary Walls, Jeannette’s parents, fought to suppress the typical American lifestyle and held the values necessary to implement the path to their dreams above all else. This mindset created a version of the American dream much different from the stereotypical one found in motion pictures and literature. “It became clear they'd stumbled on an entire community of people like themselves, people who lived unruly lives battling authority and who liked it that way. After all those years of roaming, they'd found home. (4.8.6) In the ending chapters of the memoir, Jeannette recounts the realization of her parents aspirations as they finally come across a social dynamic that fits what they were dreaming of for all those years. The theme of the American dream can also be found in the walls children who from a young age appreciated their parents flamboyant and whimsical nature but knew this was not what they wanted for their lives. Stagnantly waiting to escape while her parents
“I wanted to let the world know that no one had a perfect life, that even the people who seemed to have it all had their secrets.” The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a memoir about a young girl and her dysfunctional life. Jeannette and her family live a very tough life, constantly leaving to go somewhere new. However, along the way, Jeannette decides she wants to escape her family and move to New York. Throughout her life, she and her sister work on moving to New York to better their lives. The Glass Castle will become a classic because it includes hard times of life, contains lessons from parents, and allows the reader to be inspired by Jeannette's escape plan.
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.
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 aspect of character development plays a prominent role in various works of literature, and no exceptions arose within this novel. Jeannette Walls, author of The Glass Castle, uses detailed portions of the story to prominently display her character development and vibrantly show growth. The memoir follows the life of Jeannette and the struggles she faces along her journey. Living in a blue collar family, she faces many challenges that the average person may not deal with. Though the adventurous and wild-hearted Jeannette slowly begins to face reality and must adapt to her situations. Throughout the novel she matures and develops, altering her personality and thoughts. Several occurrences in the novel affect certain aspects of her personality and change certain beliefs that she once had. Her thoughts on her parents, the reality of the family's issues, and the beliefs of her future all begin to clear up and shift as she develops as a character.
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.
Author Jeannette Walls, just like so many other Americans in the United States was deeply impacted by poverty. Poverty in the United States is not an uncommon occurrence and thousands of people in the United States are currently being raised well below the poverty line. Jeannette Walls in her memoir The Glass Castle was one child who was greatly impacted in a positive way due to the lessons and hope her parents were able to give her. This gave her perseverance, persistence and power to become the successful person she has become today.
Jeanne had been alienated from her peers, just because she thought a little different than they did, she didn’t believe in the same things they did, she didn’t like the same things they did, and she didn’t act the way they did. Jeanne was an intelligent girl, but that detail had been overlooked because she had thoughts that weren’t “right”, even though everyone thinks them, Jeanne just had the courage to tell them. Jeanne never once thought of herself as not normal, in fact, she thought of everyone else as weird, because they had the same thoughts as hers, but they ignored them. The difference between Jeanne and other people was the fact that Jeanne was willing to speak her thoughts. Jeanne didn’t misbehave, but if she were to be shoved, she’d shove right back, and