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Character List The protagonist, narrator, and author of the memoir, The Glass Castle is Jeannette Walls. From a young age, she was very optimistic and outgoing. Her personality is shown through her fearless actions and her mindset of that everything will become better. Jeannette was independent and strong from the age of three, as shown when she got a terrible burn from cooking and when she was bullied.
The Glass Castle: Controversial Topics. The Glass Castle is a 2005 book by Jeannette Walls. The memoir explains the author’s life, growing up with her family most especially with her parents who could be described as nomads and deadbeats. Notwithstanding the difficult upbringing, her siblings and she had, Jeannette perseveres and becomes a successful Journalist living in New York City.
Kai Sebastian English 10H Mrs. Denchfield 8/27/15 10H Summer Assignment: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls 1.“‘We could live like this forever,’ I said. ‘I think we’re going to,’ she said.” (Walls 18) This is near the beginning of the books between the two siblings of the narrator (Jeannette Walls) and her older sister (Lori Walls) as they are lying underneath the stars on a clear night in the desert. The reason for these exchange of words was the fact they were on one of their dad’s
In her memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls reflects on her unstable, chaotic, poverty-stricken upbringing at the hands of her profoundly dysfunctional parents. Constantly getting into trouble, being short on food and money, the Walls family frequently tried to escape their issues by moving from one city to the next, as her father Rex refers to it -- “skedaddling”. Despite sounding a little silly, the word “skedaddle” has a rich history, developing overtime into today's meaning -- “ to run away or flee in a hurry”. This cultural idiom finds its origins in late 19th century Britain and Ireland.
In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, it tells about how the Walls family move to different desert towns, settling in for as long as their father, Rex, can hold a job. However, his perspective of the state and society, and his alcoholism led them to move frequently. The children - Lori, Jeannette, Brian, and little Maureen- experiences unusual childhood, where they travel like nomads to find new money source. This lead to the theme, sometimes you can be mature and responsible at a very young age. The theme is developed by how Jeannette learns how to take care of herself and her younger siblings, and the way her parent taught her.
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.
As a child, Jeannette Walls moves around constantly with her family. The Walls family would move to different desert towns and settle as long as Mr. Walls can hold a job. When sober, Mr. Walls represents a charismatic father who loves his children and teaches them important life skills. He encourages imagination inside of the Walls kids and often captures their dream and creativity. Together, the family had planned to build a glass castle that contains all of the family’s hope and inspiration.
The Glass Castle is a perfect and stable home, a better future for the family to live in. It is a recurring dream and goal for Jeannette's father, Rex, who wants to build a grand and beautiful home for his family. However, In Jeannette Walls' memoir "The Glass Castle," the Glass Castle changes from a symbol of hope for the family and turns into a reminder of the gap between dreams and reality, eventually becoming nothing more than a faint memory, a reminder from the past of what it took to survive the hardships and dysfunction of the Walls family. In the beginning of the book, Jeanette describes her life as a never ending adventure “with nothing but the best outlooks for her life.
The scene from The Glass Castle that presented a universal topic was when Jeanette's dad would come to the home drunk and Jeannette would try to clean up after him. In the scene, the father would come home drunk and have a rampage destroying the home. Once he was asleep she would try to clean the mess he had left but her mom would insist because he wouldn't see the mess he caused. A quote to prove this, “He came home in such a drunken fury that Mom usually hid while we kids tried to calm him down. He broke windows and smashed dishes and furniture until he'd spent all his anger; then he'd look around at the mess and at us kids standing there.
Necessitous, impoverished, indigent: all words that describe the poverty of 12 million innocent children that can do nothing to stop it because of their indecisive parents. Jeanette Walls and her siblings had to face this issue and wrote about it in her memoir, The Glass Castle. The Wells children were born into a family where their parents were content being poor, so much that the children would not know when their next meal would be. Their mother would use all the family’s money on painting supplies, instead of using it to support her children. Their father was constantly running from debt collectors and heavily addicted to alcohol which set a bad example for his children.
Adversity can take us by surprise, but everyone at some point in life experiences it. The way our personal identity can be shaped is through our phases of adversity. The experiences of dealing with difficulties can shape the way we view life and the actions that will show our persona. When we persevere adversity and obstacles it shows our reputation and our true type of identity. In the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare, illustrates the way Hamlet, as well as other characters, deal with adversity through the types of motives they are seeking.
The Glass Castle Essay Wesley Murray A3 8/28/16 In Jeannette Walls’s book The Glass Castle, there are many examples of what is called human resilience. No better quote describes human resilience better than, “No matter how much falls on us, we keep plowing ahead.
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.
The glass castle in The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls can be taken as so many things at first thought. It could be symbolic or literal but you won 't know which it is until you read it. For me, I thought it was a castle they were trying to get to, like a safe haven. It turns out that the glass castle stood for everything the Walls family had worked for, you see this through the characters, their life in Welch and where they ended up in the end. Getting to know the characters was a very important part of understanding the importance of the glass castle.
“Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more.” The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls has very important life lessons that will teach you to laugh at your tragedies sometimes. The most important lessons are that struggle makes you unique, you either sink or swim, and sometimes crisis makes you realize your potential. In the memoir, you will learn these and accept them.
