Character Analysis Of Jeannette From Battle Mountain

“ Grandma Smith had strong opinions about the way things ought to be done-how to dress, how to talk, how to organize your time, how to cook and keep house, how to manage your finances-and she and Mom fought each other from the beginning” (pg 91)

At this point of the story Jeannette’s family was moving away from Battle Mountain. In this quote Jeannette is remembering grandma Smith and she is explaining how strong in character both physically and emotionally her grandmother was. Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Walls were foil characters, with distinct and controversial qualities. By the description of Jeannette’s grandparent’s properties and their lifestyle, the reader knows that Mom’s family was rich. Even though Mrs. Walls lived a luxurious childhood,

Marrying a person like Rex Walls and her decision to not divorce him is a sign of rebellion against her mom since Rex Walls wasted all his money in alcohol and talked informally. Jeannette told her mom would wear “torn or painted-splattered clothes” and believed that “children should be responsible for their own grooming”. Her actions and believes reflect defiance towards her mom’s values and lifestyle and it helps the reader understand why the mother acted the way she was. Even still, Jeannette “liked all of [grandma Smith’s] rules” telling the reader indirectly that she wanted and enjoyed her lifestyle. At that time Jeannette didn’t understand why her mother acted unstable or messy but in her innocence or inexperience, she couldn’t see the bigger picture. The bigger picture was her mom’s childhood and the difficult circumstances she had to live through. It can be seen that while Jeannette was writing this memoir she realized that her

At this point, Jeannette was living in Welch and started experiencing physical bullying at school. Her mother’s belief in peace and Jeannette’s fear of his dad “ show[ing] up at school snockered and mak[ing] things worse”, convinced her to do nothing about the situation and accepted the kicks and punches from the other girls. Before seeing the dog and the kid, Jeannette at times hoped to befriend Dinitia, the school bully leader. She believed that behind all of Dinitia’s actions there was a child that had “some good”. Jeannette never acted belligerent towards the bullies, instead she would answer with Martin Luther King’s reference. Due to Jeannette’s mom technique to raise her children plus Jeannette’s innocence, lead her to be compassionate towards others no matter what others do to you. The quote is a personification of Dinitia and it reflects Jeannette’s beliefs. The mutt is Dinitia and the child being attacked is Jeannette. Deep down she knew that if Dinitia wanted her dead she would be already. Dinitia attacked Jeannette because she felt some pleasure from the taunting, just like the mutt growling and pulling on the child’s pant leg. Before she said this part of the quote she warned the kid to not run because the mutt would attack him. This is just like Jeannette eating slower during lunch so she could be inside the building, where she felt safer. Eating slow or in the case of the