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Dysfunctional Citizenship In The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

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In the memoir The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, a dysfunctional family with a delusional mother and a paranoid father try to prosper in the world with their nomad style of living. In the novel Walls stresses on the importance of home ownership, and the value of promises. In many occasions, Rex Walls, the father attempted to bring stability to the family, but each attempt was met with failure, for he was an irresponsible man. Although he tried to stop drinking, in the end, he miserably failed. Also, Rex attempted to maintain a stable job, but due to his alcoholism and his severely clouded perception of the world, he pathetically failed. Throughout the story, Rex continuously questioned his children “have I ever let you down,” anticipating
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Rex Walls was easily able to turn his life around for the better. He suffered with severe alcoholism that affected everyone around him. Rosemary felt very strongly about this. “Your father needs to see the mess he’s making of our lives.” (112) Nothing was on his way to stop him from becoming successful and a well-rounded father figure.

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“If you don 't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim” (41). Although Rex Walls was not always an admirable father and role model, he did make an essential point while teaching his daughter, Jeannette, how to swim. In life, not everything comes without resistance. As Jeannette Walls describes throughout her life story, sometimes people are forced to face hardships that make them question their whole life. However, as seen in her book, it is important to learn to take those hardships and use them to shape one’s future for the better.

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In the memoir, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the Walls family is considered homeless and they are constantly moving from place to place. They constantly find themselves either with a somewhat decent amount of money or at times, no money at all. Jeannette, being one of four children always follows along with and listens to her parents and eventually notices that their family does things very differently than most other families. As Jeannette explains her childhood and how she is being raised by her parents, it is clear to see how different Rex and Rosemary’s parenting style is compared to the parenting style of other parents. Since their parenting style is so different, it seems that it affects their children in a negative way throughout their childhood, but in the end it makes Jeannette become a better and more successful person.

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Rex Walls is a very intellectual man who has a strong passion towards math and science. He is a skilled engineer and electrician and hopes that one day he will make his family rich and build them a glass castle. Unfortunately due to his abusive past, economic situation, and his inability to hold a stable job to provide for his family he resulted to alcohol for comfort which made him a very unstable role model. He would spend whatever remains from his family’s tight budget on alcohol and gambling. He even stole money from his wife’s pay check and from his children’s saving fund.

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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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In ‘The Glass Castle’ by Jeannette Walls, there is a strong connection between consequences and decision-making in every aspect of the children's lives. In the memoir, Walls takes the readers through her whole life, starting at age 3 to when she is an adult. From the start to the end of the memoir, her father, Rex Walls is a raging alcoholic, and her mother, Rose Walls, is a free-spirited hippie, who seemed to suffer from bipolar disorder. Therefore, they did not make the best decisions for their family. Neither of them had a steady job so the family usually had little to no money.

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The Glass Castle Argumentative Essay The memoir, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, is an inspirational, eye opening, and a giggling type of story. Although there are some problems in this story that she encounters in her early years, she uses these problems to better herself for what may lay ahead of her. I am writing about what I think of her parents, Rex and Rose Mary Walls, and if they are acceptable parents, or inadequate parents to Jeannette and her siblings Lori, Brian, and Maureen. I, however, do not agree that Rex and Rose Mary Walls are acceptable parents.

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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.

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Pride can cost someone everything and leave them with nothing. The Destructors by Graham Greene shows how an old man lost everything through his pride. In ‘The Destructors’ by Graham Greene Trevor is justified in destroying Old Misery’s house. Old Misery let his pride get that better of him, and that cost him his only home. Though his stuff is gone, Trevor didn’t destroy the house because of his emotions.

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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.

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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.

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Once he finished the prospector and we struck it rich, he’d start work on our glass castle” (25). Walls’ innocence and optimism for the creation of the Glass Castle is indicated through her belief that Rex really is on the verge of finding gold and building the Glass Castle. In reality, he was out drinking all day, spending money that could have been used to feed Walls and her siblings. She still thinks that her father will follow through on his promises, and in doing so bring her happiness. She is unaware of his deception, which is becoming increasingly damaging to his family, as they have trouble affording food.

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