While many writers just write about objects that are incorporated their own life, In the Glass Castle through close critical analysis Jeannette Walls uses symbolism that are hidden beneath her words to represent ideas in order to write her memoir. The words she uses colors the mind of the listener and the language colors the mind of the reader.
Right before a reader opens the book the title already symbolizes something. The title evokes certain responses in the reader. When a reader first starts reading the book they want to figure out what the title could mean. The Glass Castle could symbolize someone living in fear and it could also symbolize someone who is pampered and protected. A person living in fear is scared for his or her own life
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It would be the beginning of my escape fund.” (Walls 221). passion. When someone saves up money to get somewhere it represents the passion to get what he or she wants. Passion is an excitement for something. Jeannette excitement was a chance to move on and get away from her childhood life style. Escape funds could be analyzed as a way to get away. You need money to leave and you no one is helping you. Most kids make an escape fund when they have to get away from a situation that they’re not happy with and strive for something better. Sometimes it works out and other times it doesn’t. For Jeannette this escape fund got her to New York and when she got to New York she got more money and went to college. Jeannette could not take the fact the parents would make her move all the time. She just wanted a place to settle now. This escape fund would help her settle down on her own. Pettit, Becky. “Moving and Children's Social Connections: Neighborhood Context and the Consequences of Moving for Low-Income Families.” Sociological Forum. 19.2 June 2004: 285-311 argues that moving at a young age disrupts social connections to a variety of degrees the children’s age, the conditions where the family people move, and what the family is like. This did not happen to Jeannette. Jeannette was able to have a social connection even though her family moved a lot to poor neighborhoods and her parents were not good influences. Jeannette proved this article
In Jeannette Walls’s memoir The Glass Castle, fire symbolizes the instability that the Walls family constantly deals with. Jeannette questions if fire is out to get her and how she “lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire”. Jeannette has this viewpoint due to Rex’s own contribution of unreliability in the household. The fire in this instance also represents the chaos of Rex’s abhorrent alcohol abuse.
Finally, the symbol of the glass castle needs to be discussed. It is an important symbol as it appears in the title and plays a significant role throughout the book. Jeanette 's father dreams of building the glass castle in the desert for his family, and his children are also overtaken with the idea. The glass castle symbolizes fragile illusion Jeanette carry through her childhood believing her father will fulfill his promises, and they will live happy together in the perfect house of their dream. She sees the castle as a matter of family unity, as she wants to work on it together.
The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls is story that revolves around a family that faces the hardships of a low class life, constant frustration, and hopelessness. I believe this story is centralized by the title of the book. “The glass castle” throughout the book is a dream, it is dream to Jeanette and her whole family, it represents a better life in a better place. Jeannette Walls centralizes her writing based on diction, the writer specifically chose unique words to show her experiences and emotions, this helps readers interpret the story from the writer's point of view.
Throughout the memoir the Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, the struggles and trials the family endures are akin to the struggle of the Joshua tree that RoseMary admires in the Desert. They swim in places like the Desert and New York, where there is a balance of adventure and anchoring, and sink in places like Welch, where the balance between adventure and anchoring is weak to nonexistent. If there is a means of support and a solid rule system, the tree grows straight, and the family swims, with a normal life. But when they are left to the elements, or, in the family’s case, their own devices, the family sinks, and the tree grows gnarled and twisted, especially in Welch.
Ever since she was a little girl her whole family struggled with having a steady place to live. This was all from her parents though because Rex and Rose liked being on the run. Rex was a very smart person but had very bad habits and Rose was very bright and artistic but also had bad habits. Jeannette had plans on going to New York with her older sister Lori but their dad ruined it by smashing open the piggy bank with all of the money they had saved. After that they only saved up enough money for either Lori or Jeannette.
Nicholas Sparks once said, “I don’t know that love changes. People change. Circumstances change.” In the memoir, The Glass Castle author Jeannette Walls shows how her father Rex Walls changes with everything thrown at him as a father or four. In the beginning of being a parent Rex shares his intelligence with his children.
It is evident that her childhood may have impacted her in a more severe psychological way. The book The Glass Castle is a very interesting narrative. The author Jeanette Walls is able to bring new light to circumstances that many people choose to ignore or overlook by writing about her own childhood. This gives the book a new perspective and allows the reader to gain insight.
Even still, when their parents and their living situation becomes too much to bear, she and her sister Lori decide that they must get out, and find New York City to be the ideal location. In the end, Jeannette accepts
Throughout the novel, readers can constantly find symbols with a deeper meaning behind it. Every one of the symbols in the novel is Jeannette’s treasured memories. As the title of the book, the glass castle is one of the main symbols mentioned throughout the novel. The glass castle is a house that the family planned to build together. “It would have a glass ceiling and thick glass walls and even a glass staircase.
She struggled with how the society and her family shaped who she was. She was exposed to her family first which made her behave the way she did under her family’s house. Jeanette struggled with her family by taking care of the house, beings told bending the rules is okay and the acceptance of her Mom’s and Dad’s homelessness. When Jeannette left her family and went to live in New York, she becomes an individual. She fends for herself and gets her life together.
We all have things from our childhood we remember. Maybe it’s a teddy bear from mom, or when dad brought home a computer, or a treehouse built with a sibling. We recollect these objects because they have a significant role in our lives, something about them changed us. Jeannette comes across many things during her childhood travels, they cause an immense number of problems but in the end they change her and her family for the better. Jeannette Walls’ story The Glass Castle, is filled with symbols that gradually release her and her siblings from the grasp of their negligent parents and the harrowing abyss that is their life.
Jeannette Walls also uses the symbol of the Glass Castle, which develops throughout the memoir to show how she slowly loses trust in her father as she realises that she can not depend upon him or anyone else for happiness. The symbolism evolves throughout the memoir as Walls evolves as a person. In the beginning of the memoir, her description of the Glass Castle is naive and hopeful. Her naivety is most apparent when Walls writes, “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… All we had to do was find gold, Dad said, and we were on the verge of that.
The Glass Castle is the life story of a girl, Jeannette Walls, and her siblings who grew up in poverty unnecessarily because of their parents’ irresponsibility. One of its themes is that strength and perseverance can significantly improve your chance at success and your future. The Walls children did not allow their childhood struggles prevent them from creating better and brighter futures for themselves. They all grew up impressively sane considering their living conditions.
In Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” he writes a story about a husband's journey to his epiphany. Robert, a blind man, teaches the husband how to see without his eyes. Often a person with the ability to see takes this for granted, leaving them only to see what is on the outside rather than seeing people, and things for what they really are. In this short story, Carver conveys the narrators epiphany through the symbol of the cathedral. Carver develops a story with symbolism throughout his story, beginning with the first line, “This blind man, an old friend of my wife’s
In the novel “I’m the King of the Castle” Susan Hill strongly uses symbolism as a device to convey these two themes: confinement and escape. These settings: the shed, the Red Room and Hang Wood while representing the themes themselves, also unravel aspects of different characters toward those respective themes. From here, the next three paragraphs will analyze how, in what way does each setting symbolizes the aforementioned themes. The shed is use as Hooper’s tool to repress Kingshaw, therefore, it is clear: the shed strongly embodies confinement.