On the other hand, in Glass Castle as the kids get older, they begin to be dissatisfied and unhappy with the life they live. They are sad for themselves not sad for the way they are judged. When they were young their life was all happy and good. They loved being on the go and always on adventures. When they were young they had faith in their parents and were hopeful of the future; ¨"All of Dad's engineering skills and mathematical genius were coming together in one special project: a great big house he was going to build for us in the desert...He carried around the blueprints for the Glass Castle wherever we went, and sometimes he'd pull them out and let us work on the design for our rooms" (Walls 25). The children looked up at their father …show more content…
with enthusiasm and eagerness and they had faith in the wonderful future they would live in. As they got older, this hope and excitement is crushed. Jeanette and the other kids gain realization that they are too poor for amazing things like the glass castle to happen;“‘Dad,’ I said, ‘you’ll never build the Glass Castle”(Walls 238). They don’t have the spark of excitement and hope they had when they were younger. The place where the Walls’ are most exposed to the world and its social ideas is in Welch. Once they started to want to be like others and fit in, they weren’t as happy. “We fought a lot in Welch. Not just to fend off our enemies but to fit in”(Walls 164). They try to fit in more here and they lose their happy, carefree and adventurous lifestyle. When they were younger and the world hadn’t told them what is socially right and wrong they are so much happier. When sleeping under no roof they would come to the happiest conclusions; “I told Lori how lucky we were to be sleeping out under the sky like Indians” (Walls 18). But when they are older and sleeping with a hole in their ceiling, they don’t see the good in these situations anymore. They want a better and more normal life for themselves. When Pip is so focused on his social class and how he is perceived by others, he loses sight of the once very meaningful relationship he and Joe once had.
Growing up, he and Joe were best of friends. He gets so caught up in his wealth that he loses sight of Joe and doesn’t see him for years. For the most part, Pip forgets about him because he is embarrassed of how common Joe is that he doesn’t want to be seen with him. He doesn’t realize until later when he has a feeling of emptiness from not being with Estella that he had done wrong; “I would not have gone back to Joe now...I could never, never, never, undo what I had done” (Dickens 39). Pip knows that he couldn’t go back and change the way that he had purposely forgotten about Joe. At the time that Pip loses connection with Joe, he doesn’t realize how much better life would be with Joe and how much he had done for him; “Oh dear good Joe, whom I was so ready to leave and so unthankful to… Oh, dear good faithful tender Joe, I feel the loving tremble of your hand upon my arm, so solemnly this day as if it had been the rustle of an angel’s wing” (Dickens 149). Although Pip was very inconsiderate and purposely forgetful of Joe, Joe is always there for Pip no matter what. Pip isn’t wise enough to know that getting Joe out of his life is an unhealthy decision. Throughout the whole story, Pip doesn’t see how Joe is always loving and caring for him no matter what because he is too busy striving to get that love from …show more content…
Estella. Similarly in Glass Castle, The children lose sight of meaningful relationships with their parents because they believe that getting to a better life is necessary, even if it isn’t agreed upon by their parents.
Unlike in Great Expectations, it isn’t necessarily the children’s fault that these family bonds weaken. Their parents are holding them back from living a healthy life and they need to break free. With their parents not doing what is best for their kids and not keeping their promises of a better life, the kids lose their trust and faith in their parents. As the kids go hungry and their parents don’t do much to help them, it makes the parents seem careless. When Rex brings Jeanette and Brian food at school, he asks them; "'Have I ever let you down?'... In a voice so low that Dad didn't hear him, Brian said, 'Yes'" (Walls 78). Brian sees all of the times that he has been hungry or in need of something and his parents did nothing to help him as carelessness and this weakens their bond more. The kids at school constantly make fun of the Walls kids for having an alcoholic father. When Rex’s mother dies, he says that he is ashamed at the kids for the way they act at the funeral. " 'You're ashamed of us?' Lori called after him. Dad just kept walking" (Walls 181). She is ashamed of her father for his drinking problems because the teasing they get about it humiliates and embarasses her and the other kids. The children see their parents as selfish and uncaring when they see their
father use all their money on alcohol and see their mother eat a chocolate bar when they are all hungry and it forces the children to believe that they shouldn’t be treated like this and that they deserve a better life. Although Great Expectations and Glass Castle are two totally different novels and written about 150 years apart, they both focus on a theme of social class and tell a story where the main characters both see how they have it compared to others and they begin to want change in their life from that point on. However, the change that is desired by the children in Glass Castle is a necessary change whereas the change that Pip wants in Great Expectations is unnecessary. In both books, the characters achieve that jump into a higher social class. Pip does nothing to get up his social class whereas the Walls have to work very hard and it eventually pays off. Pip realizes that he was happy before he was given the position of a gentleman. Jeanette and her siblings realize that it is a bit difficult to get into a higher social class, but once they are there, it isn’t that hard to maintain stable in that class; ¨You know, it’s really not that hard to put food on the table if that’s what you decide to do¨ (Walls 288). Brian, now living his better life says this being passive aggressive towards his mother knows that it isn’t too hard to live healthily.
Every day the safety and well-being of many children are threatened by neglect. Each child deserves the comfort of having parents whom provide for their children. Throughout the memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls explains the childhood from being born into the hands of parent who neglect their children. Many may argue that children need to grow with their parents; however, the removal of children is necessary if the parents disregard the kid’s needs and cannot provide a stable life for their children.
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 memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette tells about her less than easy life. Her family was constantly moving about, never staying in one place for very long, or how Rex Walls would say they were always doing “the skedaddle”. But Rex, while trying to be a good father, struggles with a strong alcohol addiction. But all throughout the book we see that Rex has many of the traits of an admirable parent. These traits being that he never expects perfection from any of his kids or himself or his wife. He doesn’t fear occasional failures from them either. All parents should try to be admirable parents for their
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
...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.
In the novel "We have always lived in the castle" Shirley Jackson shows the evilness and the isolation of the main character Merricat. Who poisoned her family at a young age and killed almost all of them, which leads to her creepy behavior in the novel. Merricat's murder of her entire family except for Uncle Julian, Constance, and her, is told by her in a suffering or withering tone. Merricat's behavior can be seen through her constant reason to bury things, her weird and gothic behavior, and the death of her family.
The first time Pip acknowledges the thought that him and Estella are not meant to be together is when he came to know that Magwitch is his benefactor, not Miss Havisham. Pip finds out knows that it was never intended for him to marry Estella and that it was just his interpretation of the situation. The final realization is when Estella announces that she will be marrying Drummle. This adds to Pip’s fading hope of a relationship with Estella as she tells him that she does not want to be with him. After Pip confesses his feeling to Estella one last time, he feels guilty because of the way he treated others. While Pip sacrifices his feelings for Estella he realizes just how badly he treated the ones he loved. Rawlins recognized Pip’s guilt when he states, “Pip’s sense of guilt is then awareness of his own sin, and moves him to reformations” (Rawlins 667). Pip starts to feel guilty for his treatment towards others, especially Joe. After this realization, Pip tries to make amends with loved ones: “Joe stayed with me, and I fancied I was little Pip again” (Dickens 497). The fact that being with Joe after they reconcile brings back old memories that makes Pip happier. Pip further emphasizes his happiness when he describes the place him and Joe go to think about memories: “and when I looked on the loveliness around me, and thought how it had grown and changed” (Dickens 498). At this time, Pip is happy and content with
Most often, in most families, children look up to their parents for guidance as children view their parents as role models. However in The Glass Castle, this was not the case but the exact opposite.
The comedy also has a serious side, though, as we remember our mothers exerting their great frustrations upon the household tasks of cleanliness. So Mrs. Joe serves well as a mother to Pip. Besides the age difference and the motherly duties of housekeeping for Pip and Joe, the attitude of a scornful mother is also apparent. This, of course, draws Joe even closer to Pip, by relation. Mrs. Joe serves as a link to make it possible for Joe to appear the father of Pip. In addition, Joe, although terrified of Mrs. Joe, is a very honorable man and would never consider divorcing her. Joe chooses to preserve the sacred marriage rather than seek his comfort.
The children couldn’t accept what they thought was so horrible. There was a lot of ignorance and carelessness portrayed throughout this short story. The theme of ungratefulness was revealed in this story; The author depicted how disrespecting someone can inturn feed you with information you may wish you never knew and how someone can do one wrong thing and it immediately erases all the good things a person did throughout their
After Pip first meets Estella, he begins to dislike everything he has ever known. He is uncomfortable feeling common in front of Estella and takes out his frustration on Joe, the one who brought him up to be common. “I determined to ask Joe why he had ever taught me to call those picture-cards, Jacks, which ought to be called knaves. I wished Joe had been rather more genteelly brought up, and then I should have been so too” (65). Here, Pip begins to look down on Joe even though Joe has only done the best that he could. Still, Joe continues to be kind to Pip even when Pip makes mistakes. He is not the only one that Pip hurts though. Biddy is another person Pip disrespects. At first Pip is too blinded by his love for Estella to notice that Biddy truly cares for him, and by the time he realizes it, it is too late. Pip confides all his secrets in Biddy and even tells her how unhappy he is with his common lifestyle. “’Biddy,’ said I, after binding her to secrecy, ‘I want to be a gentleman’” (127). Biddy tries to rationalize Pip’s thoughts so that he will see what is truly important, but he just cannot see past his desire for Estella. In this way, Pip is already ignoring Biddy and her great advice. When Pip receives his fortune from his secret benefactor, his disregard for the two people that love him the most becomes much worse. Before hi...
Early in life, Pip grew up in a poor and kind of lower class family. As a young child, Pip did not understand how poor people could be so happy without a lot of money. He did not understand how his family was not content with the social class his family is positioned in. When Pip travels to London in the novel, he finds out what a higher class rank is like. Pip wants something enhanced for him in the story than just being Joe’s trainee. That is the whole rationale of why Pip goes to London in the Novel. Pip wants a lot of money and a high rank in social class. Pip has greater expectations for himself; he believes that if he can make a living by escaping the bottom level social caste system he will find prosperity, happiness, and the love of the beautiful Estella. When he leaves Biddy and Joe in the novel, he was sad because Joe and he are really great friends in the novel.
Joe and Mr Pumblechook. Pip felt guilty and confessed to Joe that he was embarrassed about being a “commoner” because of his attraction to Estella, and Joe warned him by saying “if you can’t get to be oncommon through going straight, you’ll never get to do it through crooked.” There are two possibilities why Pip lied. Firstly, it may be Pip’s way to vent his anger. He was greatly insulted and fooled in the house but Mrs. Joe still kept questioning him closely about the details, so telling lies became the way that was seemingly glorifying but actually satirizing the upper-class families. Secondly, it was an expression of Pip’s ambition and snobbery. Pip was attracted to Estella but he was humiliated because of he was a “commoner”. Pip was eager to get rid of the “commoner community”, so he used lies to satisfy his inner aspiration and vanity, and also to build a social ladder for him to reach his dream
Not only does Pip treat Joe differently, Joe also treats Pip differently because of their differences in social class. He begins to call Pip "sir" which bothered him because "sir" was the title given to people of higher class. Pip felt that they were still good friends and that they should treat each other as equals. Joe soon leaves and explains his early parting, "Pip, dear old chap, life is made of ever so many partings welded together, as I may say, and one man's a blacksmith, and one's a whitesmith, and one's a goldsmith, and one's a coppersmith. Disciples among such must come.."
Pip encounters all of the influential people in his life during his childhood. The first and most obvious are his family. Mrs. Joe and Joe Gargery, Pip’s sister and brother-in-law, are the only family that Pip has ever known. Mrs. Joe Gargery is Joe’s wife and Pip’s only living relative. She is a very domineering woman who is always punishing Pip for something. Joe is like a father to Pip, who goes to Joe with all of his problems and worries. They are always truthful with each other and protect each other from Mrs. Joe when she is on the rampage. Despite the fact that Joe is an adult, he is also Pip’s only real friend during his childhood. Joe is the most loyal person in Pip’s life.