Comparing The Glass Castle And One Writer's Beginnings By Jeannette Walls

The circumstances in which a child is raised can affect their feelings towards literature. If parents are supportive of a child’s education, they will grow up with more happiness towards learning and reading. For example, Jeannette Walls, in her memoir, The Glass Castle, tells how though she was raised in poverty, her parents supported reading. In the same way, Eudora Welty, in her memoir, One Writer’s Beginnings, explains how she was raised in a loving home by parents who completely supported reading. Whereas Walls was raised in poverty, Welty was raised with money. Though raised in different circumstances, both girls grew up to be journalists, with a passion for literature.

The Glass Castle, a memoir, is based on Jeanette Walls’ and her

In The Glass Castle, Jeannette’s parents are selfish, and do not live by normal standards. Welty’s parents are caring and push her to get a great education. In The Glass Castle, Walls discusses being raised by her parents, Rex and Rose Mary Walls. Her parents try to avoid becoming charity cases, even when they desperately need help. Welty was raised in a house in Mississippi her entire childhood. Unlike Walls, who was raised nomadically in different shelters. Walls’s mother was raised in an extremely disciplined home, leaving her to become more relaxed with rules when she became a mother. Rex and Rose teach their children to be self-sufficient. Welty’s father had a constant job, while her mother took care of her. Welty’s parent’s were loving, and encouraged her to learn how to read. They read to her as a child, and would buy her books for her Birthday, to read on her own. Walls’s parents believed that they are capable of handling injuries that a doctor would need to fix. In the beginning of the novel, when Walls is in the hospital for fire burns, Rex busts in and takes Walls before she is fully healed. The family’s independence allows them to survive tough situations. Walls eventually learns to be self-sufficient for herself. For example, Walls writes “I had been counting on Mom and Dad to get us out, but I now knew I had to do it on my own.” (Walls

Though Walls did not have stereotypical parents, they still encouraged her and her siblings to learn. As a young child, after dinner, her father would take out a dictionary and discuss words with the children that they didn’t know. If the children did not agree with the definitions in the dictionary, they would send letters demanding change to the publishers. Similarly, Welty’s mother would sit in a rocking chair and read stories to her when she was little. Also, when Welty would churn butter, she would beg her mother to read to her, which she would eventually oblige. Walls parents read a large variety of books, which they allowed the children to read themselves. “Mom read everything: Charles Dickens, William Faulkner, Henry Miller, Pearl Buck. She even read James Michener—apologetically—saying she knew it wasn't great literature, but she couldn't help herself. Dad preferred science and math books, biographies and history. We kids read whatever Mom brought home from her weekly trips to the library.” Welty had a bookshelf in the living room, that they called “the library.” When Rex and Rose enroll the children in Elementary school, they already know everything the teacher teaches the class. Walls’s father would have her turn her arithmetic homework into binary numbers to challenge her. Welty was encouraged by her parent’s to learn, and she absolutely loved it. “I live in gratitude to my parents for