Jeannette and her family have to face many different issues. These issues include dealing with the consequences of not paying bills, stealing, and running from your problems. Throughout the book, Jeannette has trouble coping with her difficult life and all the obstacles that she must face. While reading the book, I noticed myself comparing life as it was then and as it was now. Jeannette Walls, as an author, does a phenomenal job of contrasting life then and how it is now. Although during both life today and then have many obstacles, difficulties, and issues, different issues are faced. A lot of these issues I noticed were actually relevant to my life. These issues include communal, racial, political, economical, and…
Most memoirs are written with the intention of telling the author’s significant experiences, each conveying their individual purpose. In both Jeannette Walls’, The Glass Castle, and Mary Karr’s, The Liars Club, the authors utilize their dysfunctional childhoods to achieve their independent purposes. Walls uses numerous strategies to achieve her purpose of the memoir being a way to accept the past and to not let the past define oneself. Unlike Walls, Karr also uses her strategies to show the endurance of love and family through thick and thin. Together both novels are able to tell their own individual stories and get through to the readers utilizing contrasting strategies.…
Walls has grown up in poverty her whole entire life until she made the move to New York to start her life on her own life she experienced most of her child undernourished and hungry Walls mentions one of these instances where she is going through the trash at school and getting the leftover from others lunches, “I began smelling the bologna. It seemed to fill the whole room. I became terrified the other kids would smell it, too, and that they’d turn and see my over stuffed purse,”(Pg. 173). This is a difficult time for Walls because she was raised to not rely on others when she could probably tell one of her friends and they could give her some food with no problem. This eventually helped Walls later on in life, like when she moved to New York, she needed to be able to live on her own and she was pretty good at it because that’s how she lived her whole life.…
The title of the book and a major theme within it, the Glass Castle represents Rex's hope for a magical, fantastic life in which he can provide for his family and please his children. Rex lays out plans for the Glass Castle, including detailed dimensions for each of the children's rooms, but he never actually builds the castle. For a long time Jeannette believes that he will but she gives up on the hope after the hole they dig for the foundation of the Glass Castle is filled with garbage. Though the physical structure is not erected, the symbol the Glass Castle represents remains with Jeannette in her childhood and helps her to believe that her father will do what he promises. When she discovers that this is not always true and realizes that…
The lesson I learned from The Glass Castle is that although there are many bad moments in life, the good should overshadow the bad always. As they were driving to Welch, the car was beaten down and barely worked. They had to sleep in the car and people would judge and shake their heads. However, Rose would laugh at them and wouldn't care what they thought. She told Jeannette that she should be enjoying the moments that aren't sad more often. A quote to prove this, “I pulled a blanket over my head and refused to come out until we were beyond the Muskogee city limits. "Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy," Mom told me. "You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more"’(Walls 129). This quote taught me the lesson to always enjoy…
The Glass Castle, a memoir written by Jeannette Walls is an eye-opening look at the world of poverty that touches so many lives within in the United States. There are many reasons for poverty wheather they be out of consequence or one is simply born into it there are many reason for its occurance. The story of Jeannette Walls is not only inspiring but motivating as her climb from the depths poverty allow her to become the successful journalist and novelist she is today. Throughout her life there have been many struggles including her own father, Rex Walls, the finicial instability their family faces together, and the bullies Jeannette must face alone. She clearly outlines her own growth with her father throughout the novel and proves that with…
In the memoir The Glass Castle, author Jeannette Walls describes her troubled childhood and the daily struggles she encountered. Jeannette grew up with two sisters, one brother, and two absurd parents. Living with her carefree and reckless mother and abusive, alcoholic father could be unbearable to Jeannette at times. The dysfunctional family never stayed in one place for too long, and the constant moving between states proved challenging to the education and development of the Walls kids. With her parents out, it became Jeannette’s job to take care of her younger siblings. As rough as her childhood got, Jeannette never lost hope in her dreams, because she had big plans for the future and nothing was going to get in her way. The adventurous Jeannette survived through the abuse of her parents, tormenting of schoolmates, and financial lows, which made her character even more realistic and unique. Jeannette’s qualities of hard work, independence, and resilience sculpted her into the multidimensional character she is today.…
“Nothing has a stronger psychological influence on a child than the unlived life of a parent”-C G Jung. Parenting styles play an integral role in the development of an adolescent’s life. Therefore, children develop through a number of stimuli, interaction, exchange, and repetitive tendencies, which surrounds them. An adult figure molds a child’s personality and a gives them guidance to a life of success and fulfillment. Contradicting The Glass Castle a memoir by Jeannette Walls, research has revealed that parenting styles can influence a child’s social, cognitive, and psychological growth, which affects children both in the childhood years, and as an adult.…
The Glass Castle is a chilling memoir written by the writer Jeannette Walls. The memoir is about her unfortunate childhood, which involved constantly being on the move due to her father Rex’s drinking problems getting them into debt or losing him a job. The author has a way of describing things that leaves readers emotionally connected, sympathetic, grateful, wanting more and many other reactions. Overall, The Glass Castle was an excellent life affirming and inspiring memoir.…
For example, in the beginning of the story the book explains how poor Billy’s family is. How his dad cannot afford two coon dogs for Billy and how his mom has to make all of the family’s clothes. The family is dirt floor poor. I can picture a shack that the family lives in with a fireplace, holes in the wall, rotting furniture, an old iron stove it’s not a very pretty place. Another part of the story that is described very well is at the coon hunting contest when Billy, his father, Grandpa, and the judge go out hunting the night of the competition.…
A. Jeannette Walls, in her memoir The Glass Castle, demonstrates Erikson’s eight stages of development. Through the carefully recounted stories of her childhood and adolescence, we are able to trace her development from one stage to the next. While Walls struggles through some of the early developmental stages, she inevitably succeeds and has positive outcomes through adulthood. The memoir itself is not only the proof that she is successful and productive in middle adulthood, but the memoir may also have been part of her healing process. Writing is often a release and in writing her memoir and remembering her history, she may have been able to come to terms with her sad past. The memoir embodies both the proof that she has successfully graduated through Erickson’s stages of development while also being the reason that she is able to do so.…
The Glass Castle. Sounds like a story about some fantasy kingdom with a castle made of glass, but it’s not. This is a story about the early life of a young woman, Jeannette Walls. From drinking to living in the desert to going to New York, her life is a roller coaster ride. However, there is one thing you notice in the story: forgiveness. This happened many times in the Walls family. The act of forgiveness ultimately led the family to peace.…
The setting of a story can be affected by poverty. In "Blues Ain't No Mockingbird" the family often moves from place to place when Granny gets upset with people. She does not like it when people assume that she needs help or encouragement just because she is poor. " Mr. Judson bringin us boxes of old clothes or raggedy magazines. Or Mrs. Cooper comin in our kitchen and touching everything sayin how clean it was". Granny seems to be the type of person who would take that statement the wrong way because Granny thinks that other people don't assume she would clean because she is poor. (Bambara 122). Poverty in "Marigolds" forces Lizabeth's family to live in a shanty town with " dirt roads and grassless yards" (Collier 634), which just adds to the depression and anger that already exists in them. The family seems to realize that they are poor and probably will always be poor so instead of fighting it they curl up and hide. If…
I recently read the book, “The Glass Castle,” by Jeannette Walls, which is a short novel in the form of a memoir. She is famous for both “The Glass Castle,” but also wrote another best seller, “Half Broke Horses.” I would give this book a positive rating, and also deem it one of the best books I have read so far. Walls kept juggling many themes, kept the book lively at all times, and keep all aspects of her novel true.…
The memoir, The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls has been converted into a movie in which was released on August 11, 2017. The movie also called The Glass Castle was written and directed Destin Daniel Cretton. In the movie Jeannette Walls was being played by Brie Larson, Rex by Woody Harrelson, and Rose Mary by Naomi Watts. My expectations were set high for the movie due to me having the background knowledge of the book and it's fine details. Therefore it did not meet my expectations as much as I wanted it to because some of the scenery descriptions given in the book and what the actors said in the film didn't correspond to the novel.…