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How can people overcome adversity in the face of overwhelming obstacles
How can people overcome adversity in the face of overwhelming obstacles
How can people overcome adversity in the face of overwhelming obstacles
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What gets you through a tough day? What if you had no money and you were constantly getting neglected? How would you get through it all? Well, In the story The Glass Castle the author shows us how jeanette and her siblings constantly get neglected but always get by with optimism, false hope, and each other. Throughout the whole story the children would constantly be starved and forced to live in very uncomfortable living conditions. The parents were always the root of the problems that the children had to live through. Yet, the children would always get by, because the dad would spread a sense of false hope at an attempt to make the children feel better. For Example, the dad would always promise them that he was working on a device that …show more content…
would make them rich. “Once he finished the prospector and we stuck it rich, he’d start work on our glass castle” Pg (25). The kids would be looking down on life when their dad would tell them how soon it would be alright. Jeanette and the children would always find themselves different then all of the other children, without the same toys, clothes, or food. The dad would spread lies about how they were lucky to not have what the other children had. For Example, on Christmas the parents would not be able to afford christmas gifts so the dad would “give” them stars. “Years from now, when all the junk they got is broken and long forgotten… you’ll still have your stars “ Pg (41). The children would be neglected by not being given the privilege of getting toys on christmas. So in return, the dad would spread a false hope, telling the kids they should be happy that they were getting stars instead of toys for christmas. The children were constantly being faced with constant disappointment and neglect.
You would think kids in their position would be majorly depressed but they get through it all by staying positive. They may not be fed food that often, but the mom would feed them optimism all the time. For example, the parents wasted all of their money on a piano and installing it was a pain. They completely botched it and left it half broken sitting in the yard. Instead of feeling down for wasting all of their precious money, the mom spread positive vibes. “Most pianotist never get the chance to play in the great-out-of-doors” Pg (53). Even though they should be angry that they wasted all of their money on a piano that they can't even use inside the mother helps everyone find the light in the situation. Without this sense of positivity then the kids would be lost. Not being positive is almost like giving up, and you can't afford to give up if you live in these conditions. Studies show that optimism tends to be linked with a better physical being. In the article “Optimism and its impact on mental and physical well being” it states “They found that optimism is correlated with better physical well being compared to pessimism.” This shows how far being positive really gets you. The mom would even teach some valuable lessons through her optimism. For example, the mother see what jeanette thinks is a disgusting crooked tree but the mom would rave on on how unique and beautiful it is. “ Mom, however, thought it was the most beautiful tree she had ever seen” Pg (35). Because the tree had a tough life, it makes it unique and beautiful. Jeanette and the kids learn from the optimism that getting through a hard life has its
rewards. When times got especially tough they would always have each others back. Having each other definitely helped each other get through the day. For example, Jeanette was getting beat up after school and brian would be there to help. “Just back off now, and everyone can walk away with all their limbs still attached,” Pg (45). After this the girls never tried to beat her up after school so all because brian had her back. Another time when they had each others back is when a pedophille came into jeanette's room at night to “play a game” but brian was there with a hatchet. “Pervert! I yelled and kicked at the man's hand. Brian came running into the room with a hatchet he kept by his bed, and the man bolted out the door” Pg (103). While jeanette's parents weren't there to save her from the man, Brian was there to scare him off. So in jeanette and the kids life they experienced a lot of neglect but they were able to manage or get by with optimism, false hope, and each other to get through their days. Today in this age, not much has changed either. Many people rely on others to get by, the same with optimism and false hope.
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a memoir told from 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. One of the ways Jeannette survived her tough childhood was her ability to stay positive. Throughout The Glass Castle, Jeannette was put in deplorable houses, and at each one she tries to improve it. “A layer of yellow paint, I realized would completely transform, our dingy gray house,” (Walls 180).
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).
It was times throughout the book the reader would be unsure if the children would even make it. For example, “Lori was lurching around the living room, her eyebrows and bangs all singed off…she had blisters the length of her thighs”(178).Both Lori and Jeannette caught fire trying to do what a parent is supposed to do for their child. Jeannette caught fire at the age of three trying to make hotdogs because her mother did not cook for her leaving Jeannette to spend weeks hospitalized. She was burnt so bad she had to get a skin graft, the doctors even said she was lucky to be alive. The children never had a stable home. They were very nomadic and a child should be brought up to have one stable home. No child should remember their childhood constantly moving. This even led to Maureen not knowing where she come from because all she can remember is her moving. The children had to explain to her why she looked so different is because where she was born. They told Maureen “she was blond because she’d been born in a state where so much gold have been mined, and she had blue eyes the color of the
The Struggle Of Building Adversity means difficulties or misfortune. When someone's dealing with things or a situation turns out to go against them, they face adversity. Adversity is something someone comes across in life, it's like being part of a person. Decisions and actions are influenced by a lot of things. Conflicts influence all kinds of actions and decisions, depending on the person.
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.
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
Jeannette and her siblings learn to provide for themselves and try to avoid the continuous problems caused by their parents and others around them. The effects of poverty, as witnessed through The Glass Castle, are still felt throughout America today.
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 children also argue with their mother often. The children think that their mother, with no doubt, will be perfect. They idealize their mothers as angel who will save them from all their problems, which the mothers actually never do. The children get angry at their false hopes and realize that their mothers aren’t going to...
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.
...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.
As we go through the stories in the Glass Castle we see the relationships and independence Jeanette builds starting very early in the book when she depicts herself as a little child making hotdogs. When Jeannette was three, her parents allowed her to cook for herself over hot stoves and all. This showed how much her parents put in to developing their independence. “I was wearing the dress to cook hotdogs. then all of a sudden my dress caught fire.
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.