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. Because her parents are unable to pay …show more content…
Jeanette said,“One night when I was almost ten, I was awakened by someone running his hands over my private parts,” (Walls 103). The actions of her parents cause Jeannette’s trust in her parents to deteriorate. According to The Future of Children, poverty has many physical effects, but mental effects play a larger role in the lifestyle of a person. Jeanne Brooks-Gunn states, “Emotional outcomes are often grouped along two dimensions: externalizing behaviors including aggression, fighting, and acting out, and internalizing behaviors such as anxiety, social withdrawal, and depression” (Brooks-Gunn 62). Jeanette and her siblings suffer from the “internalized behaviors” as stated by The Future of Children as a result of the family’s continuous poverty throughout the children’s lives. The stress and worries come indirectly from
The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, tells a story about a dysfunctional family and the hardships they faced in what we call the journey of life. Throughout the book, Jeannette Walls re-encounters her favorite childhood memories spent with her father, Rex Walls, in spite of Rex's recklessness and destruction onto different parts of her life. Rex is a skilled electrician whose alcoholism often gets to the best of him and his decisions. His profusion of alcohol led his family to poverty because instead of paying off bills and buying necessities for survival, he spends most of their income on liquor. Therefore, his children lacked the simplest things such as food and clothing.
Abram Auguste Law School Personal Statement I was awoken by the screech of tires, and the grisly thud and crunch of metal colliding. I have only experienced a few fender benders, but I woke to a different feeling. The time moved slow and sound amplified as the car flipped and went airborne over the guard rail lobbing thirty feet onto opposing traffic on the highway. As I lie distorted in the rear seat, a combination of blood and gasoline drenched my clothes and leaked down my flesh wounds.
The memoir, “The Glass Castle”, written by Jeannette Walls, is a novel filled with hardships and obstacles faced by the author and her dysfunctional family. Living with her depressed mother who weeps and sobs about her struggles in her teaching job, her alcoholic gambling father who, on a daily basis, would not arrive home, and her two sisters, Lori and Maureen and brother, Brian. Though their constant moving and chasing from the debt collectors, one person who has affected Walls life would have to be her father, Rex Walls. Although his constant gambling and consistent job loss, he has become a significant figure in Walls life. He has shown her the problems of alcoholism, the struggles, and corruptions of the world, and especially allowed
Jeannette Walls’, The Glass Castle, is a nonfiction story about a lower class family that is poor and short on food, solving all their problems by constantly moving around the united states. Written through her voice, Jeannette is able to put humor and objectivity in her memoir despite the very hard life she has lived. She is not judgmental about the constant moving her family did to avoid bill collectors and to find work for father. Jeannette believes that Rex’s fantasies can come true and that the family can overcome their adversity. It is clear that Jeannette is hard working and intelligent, knowing that she wants to be a journalist even when she’s young.
Many people who read Jeannette Wall’s autobiography The Glass Castle were shook at the Rags-to-Riches story and the stories her childhood in poverty provided. Growing up with neglectful parents, however had the result of three out of four successful adults who once slept in cardboard box beds and used a yellow bucket for a toilet, causing a controversy of how independent should kids really be. The Glass Castle overflows with symbolism, emotion, and tone. However, the tone of her father is particularly peculiar and as the book progresses, the word choice describing her father changes from one of hope and heroism-like traits to slowly seeing Rex Wall’s calamitous characteristics while loving him the entire time. All of Rex’s children looks
As innocent children, we grow up with intentions of being just like our mommies and daddies. We dream that one day, we can wear the same powerful red cape, that we watch our parents wear with courage and bravery on a daily basis. Sadly, not every child is fortunate enough to have superheroes as parents; some children have villains as their mothers and fathers. When the walls of naivety begin to fade away and reality comes into play, certain children have to face the harsh reality that what should be their number one supporter(s) is actually their number one offender. In A Child Called It by David Pelzer, Pelzer learns how to survive abuse from his mother, and isolation from his entire family.
Success: An Escape from Privation Inevitably, the conflicts people face at multiple points in their life is a determining factor in shaping individuals into the person they will eventually become. Namely, these conflicts direct people 's behavior over the course of time; contributing to a person’s ability to achieve success. In particular, Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle is an honest depiction of her life and the conflicts that arise throughout her state of impoverishment, as well as the success that stems from her hardships.
I viewed Frontline a documentary series, which episode was entitled Poor Kids. The frontline personnel spent time with three children Kailey, Johnny, and Britany along with their families as they all struggle financially. We perceive a glimpse of what it is like to live below the poverty line in America through a child’s eyes. While observing the documentary, I became consciously aware that children who are considered poor or living below the poverty line were more mindful of the responsibilities of life. The children were worrisome of the lack of employment for their parents, bills, and in Britney’s case; how they would accommodate their way of living to support a new addition to the family.
Jeannette Walls in The Glass Castle and her siblings had a lot of trouble fitting in and trying to avoid being bullied. When Jeannette lived in Welch, West Virginia, as always, her family didn’t have money. Jeannette lived a poor life because of this; she never got the nicest shoes, got the nicest clothes that made her look cool, or be considered the cleanest person in the school since she didn’t take a shower because of the lack or running water in her house. Jeannette often had to eat the leftover food from a trash can that people would throw away because her family couldn’t provide her food. The first girl she met at Welch was Dinitia, and she bullied her because she was poor.
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a memoir about the author’s childhood which includes all of the adventures, struggles, and misfortunes that she went through. Her family was constantly on the move going from city to city, in hopes of finding a safe place for them to stay and progressing towards her father’s goal of finding gold. Throughout their journeys, they encounter numerous difficulties such as poverty, lack of food and supplies, trouble with the law, and being able to survive as a whole family. This story is highly motivating and should be read for summer reading because of the lessons this book teaches. More specifically, this book teaches the importance of staying together as a family and how to survive through struggles.
The Glass Castle: Jeannette Walls- Responsibility Haileigh Williams Upon reading The Glass Castle, written by Jeannette Walls, the reader will quickly notice all of the responsibilities Jeannette; the author and narrator of the novel, takes on throughout her life. The book itself is a memoir of Jeannette’s life that takes place from 1963 to 2005 and takes the reader through the ups and downs of Jeannette’s life in poverty and somewhat neglect. While reading the novel, the reader will be shown situations where they will be shocked and heartbroken. Jeannette’s family isn’t the average family from the south.
In her memoir, the Glass Castle, Jeanette Wall’s discusses and explores many different concepts that affected her family dynamic and her development. One of these matters is homelessness. Individuals are able to live in a stable environment, sleep in a warm bed, wear clean clothes, and enjoy proper meals; but not all of these basic needs are enjoyed by everyone and their families. This undesirable situation is portrayed in Jeannette Walls novel. Jeannette vividly depicts homelessness by exploring its causes, its impact on daily life, and its effect on her family.
Homeless: Choice or Chance? Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle is a story of one unparalleled family who constantly is moving from one place to another. The family seeks shelter in abandoned houses in extremely slipshod conditions.
In this world, there’s learning things the hard way and the easy way; in Jeannette Wall’s world, there’s only learning things the hard way. The Glass Castle is an adventurous story that reveals the painfully miserable story of Jeannette Walls. A selfish mother, a careless father, and terrible social encounters- these are some of the elements of a harsh reality Rex and Rose Mary Walls failed to shield their children from. Growing up poor was already difficult, but growing up with a selfish parent, specifically an unfeeling mom, made life hell for the Walls children. The family barely had one source of income from Rex Walls, and instead of helping out with the family’s finance issues, Rose Mary spent her days at home painting.
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.