In both Kaye Gibbon’s Ellen Foster and Jeannette Walls's The Glass Castle the protagonists have to endure life growing up with minimal support from their parents or guardians. Both explore the difficulties they have to face growing up alone and how they overcome it. Child neglect forces children to learn and do things themselves. This level of independence at such a young age causes them to become more responsible than their peers and gives them determination to be different from their parents and learn from their own and their parents mistakes. When parents are absent from a majority of the childs life means that the child needs to provide their basic needs for him or herself. They are forced to figure out how to perform these tasks on their …show more content…
Implementing this duty at such a young age makes these tasks seem regular to the child. This is clearly shown in Jeannette Walls's The Glass Castle. At age 13, when Jeannette is left home alone for two months to take care of her younger siblings; her mother gives her $200 to pay for expenses. When first given the money she focuses on paying for utility bills and food. Jeannette comes up with a well organized budget plan to finance themselves. “I did the math. It came out to twenty-five dollars a week, or a little over three-fifty a day. I worked out a budget and and calculated that we could indeed squeak by if I made extra money babysitting.”(Walls 209) This is the total opposite of her father, who would selfishly blow all the money on cigarettes and alcohol for himself. Typically, a 13 year old girl would not be given such a huge responsibility of taking care young children for a long period of time. Jeannette is also going to work to provide extra money for her family. By doing this she already understands the value of money and …show more content…
Ellen knows that she is not going to live with her abusive father forever, she believes that she will find a loving family that will take her in and a place to call home. When Ellen goes to Church she notices a foster mother with many children. “I went to church and figured that the woman with all the girls lined up by her had to be the new mama for me and then I looked up and thanked the lord for sending me that dress. I said I look like I am worth something today and she will notice the dress first and then me inside it and say to herself I sure would like to have a girl like her”. (Gibbons 98) Ellen has now set a goal for herself, she wants the foster mother to take her in, she will do anything to impress her, by showing how well behaved and clean she is. She is going to try her best. Comparatively children her age would not be worrying about dressing the best, and acting the most well behaved, because they have their parents to take care of them, but this is a huge deal for Ellen because it will make a big difference of how she will live. This puts Ellen ahead of the rest of her peers. Even though there is a possibility this may not happen she still holds onto hope. She holds on to hope, telling herself that things will get better in the future,
The Glass Castle and the Rite of Passage both view children like adults. In the Glass Castle both jeannette’s mom and dad trust her more than they should. Some examples are, “I cooked myself some hot dogs. I was hungry, and mom was at work on painting and no one else was around” (Walls pg 15 line 1-3).
She is not only abused physically, but sexually, emotionally and is also neglected several times, by not only her father but other characters in the novel. One of the first signs of abuse in the novel is when Ellens dad threatens Ellen, she says “He would kill Me and my mama both with a knife” (Gibbons 9) when Ellen tries leave the house to find a phone to help her mother who has just overdosed on her prescription heart pills. Ellens father is the one to sexually abuse her. One night Ellen's father threw a New Year's party with “a whole pack of coloured men” (Gibbons 36) they talked about ellen when her father brings her up.
Gibbons combines these elements with sensory imagery described by Ellen to further capture the reader’s attention and to make them relate and empathize with every situation Ellen describes. Gibbons subtly added her opinion on sensitive topics through the main character of Ellen Foster. She mentioned several different types of abuse in her book. The main character, Ellen, experienced this abuse and witnessed the way it affected a loved one. Ellen grew up knowing abuse was not normal, but thought the way her abuser lived was.
The parent’s instability in The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls causes the entire family to suffer. For example, their house is unsafe, “moisture ate away at the wooden stairs leading up to the house” I think this shows that the parents never fix anything and just let things go. Because of this, the children always have to live in a home that is falling apart and they all just leave when something goes wrong. This instability causes the parents to fight and is probably the reason neither parent can keep a good job. Another quote that specifically shows the dad’s instability is, “Four days later, when Dad still hadn’t come home, Mom sent me to go get him.”
Jeannette take up the responsibility of taking care the household. She had grown up to think carefully of the way to spend the money, since most children of her age would spend money on their own needs and amusement, not on the thing they really needs and what others needs. As you can see, sometimes you can be mature and responsible at a very young age. In conclusion, the theme for The Glass Castle is sometimes you can be mature and responsible at a very young age.
How do children grow up to be strong without parents in their life? In stories, the children fight for their own and find faith in the end that make them strong. They find faith by dealing what is dealt to them and trying to be the best they can be. They become strong for themselves instead of for someone else. Three Times Lucky, Everything On a Waffle, and Dear Mr. Henshaw show characters that get over their own parent situation and become the strong person that they were meant to be.
Parental Influence Parents are the biggest influence upon their children. From the time a child is born to the time they leave the household, the values that the parents hold are instilled into their children. Parents are required to make crucial decisions about how to raise their children in order to guide them through the inevitable obstacles and hardships of life. In The Glass Castle, many would argue the lack of care and responsibility the Walls had for their children. The author, Jeannette Walls, uses Rex and Mary Walls to demonstrate that their strong traits of non-conformity, self-sufficiency and perseverance are passed on to their children, allowing them to develop to their full potential.
Jeannette narrowly escapes rape, but because her father exploits her in a way that makes it seem like she would consent to underage sex, she is abused. The sexual abuse Jeannette suffers results in her having more trust in her own intuition as she
Witnessing my father chasing down my mother because of a pointless argument of my parents not caring about my siblings and I where abouts would be devastating to say the least. In The Glass Castle Jeannette and her siblings chose to appreciate the small things as they got older because they were not given materialistic items or a hot meal when they could afford it. Their mother made poor financial decisions and hardly ever put the kids first. For example, the mom chose to rent a piano over buying Brian a pair of male jeans. He had to suffer wearing girl clothes that did not even fit.
In the memoir, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the Walls family is considered homeless and they are constantly moving from place to place. They constantly find themselves either with a somewhat decent amount of money or at times, no money at all. Jeannette, being one of four children always follows along with and listens to her parents and eventually notices that their family does things very differently than most other families. As Jeannette explains her childhood and how she is being raised by her parents, it is clear to see how different Rex and Rosemary’s parenting style is compared to the parenting style of other parents. Since their parenting style is so different, it seems that it affects their children in a negative way throughout their childhood, but in the end it makes Jeannette become a better and more successful person.
In The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls faces harsh stuff through her childhood because of her parents. In the beginning of the book she finds her mother digging through trash. She feels embarrassed, so she turns around and goes home without saying hello. Jeanette then calls her mother and asks to have dinner with her. She offers her mother help because she feels guilty, but her mother rejects her help.
It seems that Jeannette grew up in cases of extreme abuse and neglect, and this causes her to rely on her siblings and gives her motivation to be successful. Jeannette’s parents, Rex and Rosemary Walls, most certainly had an interesting lifestyle causing short and long-term effects for all four of their children. Throughout the book, Rex’s substance abuse and Rosemary’s neglect
The most exemplified parenting style implemented by Rex and Rosemary Walls in The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls is permissive parenting. Rex and Rosemary have very few demands of their children “They are very indulgent, and nurturing” (Cherry, “The four styles of parenting”). “When Jeanette catches herself on fire, her mother does everything she can to get Jeanette to the hospital, she rushes to the neighbors and takes their car and speeds there. ”(9) Jeanette’s mother cares very much for her children, otherwise she would have done nothing.
Poverty and Mental Health Jeannette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle, demonstrates the struggles of mental health issues that generate from poverty through her family’s journeys, both mentally and physically. Jeannette Walls displays how poverty can affect an entire family’s life through her use of realism, in-depth descriptions, and imagery in her memoir, The Glass Castle. The Glass Castle focuses on the tie between mental health issues and poverty through the theme of the lasting effects of poverty. Poverty in Jeannette’s younger years is the cause of the majority of her anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. The Walls family’s period of time in Phoenix contributed to Jeannette’s mental health issues.
Ellen and Scout both are different than others because they have a unique sense of style. Ellen states“‘I decided this was not going to be something that I was going to live the rest of my life being ashamed of”’ (Weaver, Hilary). The social norm where Ellen lives is that the girls tend to wear dresses or jeans and blouses, but Ellen likes to wear blazers and khakis. With her choosing to dress likes these people don’t always think that it's okay.