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Analysis Of The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

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Many people live by a specific motto. It is their guide through life, and usually affects their life’s future direction. In The Glass Castle, By Jeannette Walls, the grandmother, Lily Walls’s motto of “push and pray” is the driving force that determines the direction of her future. She pushes and prays throughout the book, but can most prominently be seen when she ties to push back against her father, is working hard to publish her school newspaper, and spends all her effort to raise enough money to move to New York. Jeannette pushes and prays very hard to push back against her father’s detrimental behaviors, creating an extra drive for her to leave the house. At first, Jeannette accuses her mother of being weak and always giving in to her …show more content…

In order to reach this goal, she spends much effort “pushing” through hard moments. After Ken and Bob, the reporters from New York, visit Welch, Jeannette says, “I decided I wanted to go there, too, and that winter we came up with a plan. Lori would leave by herself [...] settle in [...] and I’d follow her as soon as I could” (222). Jeannette is set on living in New York since she believes that it is the only way for her to be successful in life. She will do anything in order to move away from Welch. With this goal in mind, the two sisters collect money to finance the trip, only to have it stolen by their father. This is when Jeannette starts to “pray” that they can still accomplish their dream. Just after the father steals their money, “Lori just kept saying [...,] “I’ll never get out of here.” “You will,” I said. [...] I believed she would. Because I knew that if Lori never got out of Welch, neither would I” (229). This is Jeannette’s greatest fear: to be stuck in Welch. Jeannette prays that Lori will make it to New York so that she could help her move there as well. In the end, that is exactly what happens. Lori moves to New York and Jeannette moves in with her a little while later. Due to the sisters’ pushing and praying, they manage to move to New York, and Jeannette can land a successful job at the

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The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls, it portrays her life story and shows her hardships. It begins in the Arizona desert with little Jeannette boiling some hot dogs, did I mention that she was only three. So it didn't come as a surprise when her dress caught on fire and caused her whole right side to be burnt to a crisp. When she was taken to the hospital she seemed to enjoy it there more than her home because she wouldn't mind being in a lot of pain. The most common theme in this book is mobility, this is because they move around almost every month due to the "FBI" chasing the Walls' father Rex and when her father came to the hospital and scooped up Jeanette before she was cleared again it did not come as a surprise.

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Life had never been easy for Jeanette Walls, growing up she consistently faced several forms of adversity at the hands of her parents, such as hunger, sexual assault, practical homelessness, and abuse. With so many tribulations, one would expect her to have become another low income statistic. However, just like a mountain goat, who does not actually belong to the goat family, Jeanette is of a different breed. While her parents exposed her to many harsh realities, they also instilled many important life lessons, whether they were aware of it or not. If it weren't for Rex and Rose Mary Walls, Jeanette would not have been as tough, driven, or creative enough to have survived in Manhattan.

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This shows that they are willing to help each other and that Brian trusts Lori and Jeannette to use the money in an efficient manner. Jeannette’s situation forces her to have a good relationship with her peers, who are her siblings in this case. This proves Harris’s theory that "peers trump parents” however, it was Jeannette’s situation that did not give her a choice as to who could influence her and whom she could trust. Therefore, her state affected her more than her actual siblings, who she trusted because of

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By getting becoming the lead majorette , jeanne finds that she can overcome the prejudice of others. Her mindset changes from the girl who was afraid of the prejudice of others , to a girl who felt she wouldn't let her race hold her

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Everyone has their fair share of difficulties in life, so Jeannette’s upbringing and story are very relatable. One aspect of her life, in particular, stuck out to me the most: her constant transition into different schools. I only had to switch schools one time, and that was enough for me. I could not fathom going to as many different schools as Jeannette had to, but I guess after awhile I would get used to it.

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They think they can bend the rules and do what they think is necessary. Jeannette is exposed to these understandings, making her the person she grew up to be. Jeanette demonstrates how she struggles with her family throughout numerous portions of the novel: “The Desert,” “Welch,” New York.” These struggles developed and defined who she came to be.

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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.

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However, Jeannette flew out of the car. This situation represents the erratic and unsafe conditions of their entire childhood. Despite these conditions, Jeannette remained strong and continued to come up with a plan to allow her parents to find her easily. She also forgives her parents immediately and continues to love them. Love and forgiveness are important themes of this

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Reading through the first 70 pages of this book, my views of the characters in the story were shifted based on my own beliefs and experiences. When Jeannette first introduces her mother as a homeless woman, I couldn't help but question Jeannette's character and her morals. It was astounding to learn that she could be embarrassed by her mother, and yet all she could think about was if she had confronted her mother right there, that somebody in the party she was heading for would notice that they had interacted, and that her secret would be exposed. It was still difficult to side with Jeannette when her ways of communicating with her mother seemed so impractical. The way that Jeannette communicates with her mother, by calling up a friend of her

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Then, they used the thrill of the skedaddle to keep Lori, Brian, and Jennette’s mind off of what they are really running from. The second reason is, Jeannette and her family having no home sweet home. One of the

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While Jeannette was a junior in high school she became aware of the fact she had to get out of Welch and away from her parents. “ All through the long walk, the pain had kept me thinking, and by the time i reached the tree trunk, i had made two decisions. The first was that id had my first and last whipping. No one was ever going to do that to me again. The second was that, like Lori, I was going to get out of welch.

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Clearly Jeannette has gotten to a point in her life where her basic needs can no longer be well provided and she desperately needs them. So far the only person who can support her is herself. Later in the future she says,“ I worked up a budget and calculated that we could indeed squeak by if i made extra money babysitting”(209). Not having enough money to even provide her family with food becomes a blessing in disguise.

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In the memoir, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Jeannette manages to overcome her obstacles by realizing her independence. She is impacted by her parents’ incapabilities because she realizes that she has to do things differently than other children. Her father was a stubborn alcoholic who believed that: “[they] were all getting too soft, too dependent on creature comforts, and that [they] were losing touch with the natural order of the world”(Walls 106). He believes that every human should be independent and fend for themselves. By using the term “creature comforts”, her father is trying to separate himself from what he calls the civilians.

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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

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When Jeannette tells her mother: “I was too ashamed, Mom. I hid.” (page 5) she means this in two different ways. One being because she is ashamed to say her parents are homeless while she is not. Another is because she realizes that she felt this way during her childhood because there was a way they could have prevented it, but they chose not to.

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