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Glass Castle By Jeanette Walls Sparknotes

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Memoirs and Childhood Amnesia In Jeanette Walls memoir Glass Castle about her childhood experiences, along with any other memoir is based almost entirely off of one persons memory, and as we learn more about human memory, particularly childhood memory, the question we have to ask ourselves is how accurate are the memoirs. A large portion of Jeannette’s memoir takes place during her childhood, which is a difficult area for memory recollection. This is due to childhood amnesia, influence of parents, and false memories. The earliest memory in the book takes places when Jeannette was three (Walls 9), which is a time period most people strain to remember in their life. To illustrate this point Waldfogel a renowned psychologist (1948) asked people …show more content…

I smelled the burning and heard a horrible crackling as the fire singed my hair and eyelashes. Juju was barking. I screamed again” (Walls 9). One can see how this is far different than what an adult would have recorded, particularly what they would have been thinking while the event was happening, that is something that would be difficult or maybe even impossible for Jeannette to recall as an adult. Notice in her account never once did she say “I thought, man this pain is terrible”, or “where is my mom?”. I can relate to this as when I was 4 I busted my head open on an exercise machine while I was playing with my cousin. I remember the events that happened after the event but I remember almost none of the emotions or thoughts I had at that point. This too illustrates that childhood memories are …show more content…

This is not a problem with the Walls story because most of it takes place after the age of 3 and the fog of childhood amnesia is beginning to fade away by then. Also the Walls’ parents never really tried to distort their kids reality, so much as maybe sugar coat things, like for example when Rex says the move because the FBI is after them, it is really because he doesn’t want to pay bills. Jeannette was keen enough to see through this thin layer of sugar coating, so false memories were not a

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There are some points in life where you lose faith in people, especially Jeannette Walls’ parents. Her parents left the family to starve, stole the money they were saving, and the dad was an alcoholic. After all of that happens, you start to lose faith in the people who you love and start to not trust them. The parents always did always save the day when they needed to, like when the father got $950 for Jeannette to stay in college because she couldn’t afford it. Rex said to Jeannette,” ...

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Taylor Grayson English Honors Period 1 Peller Task # 1: The Glass Castle Throughout their lives , every member of the Walls family experienced hardships. Though Jeannette and her three other siblings endured abuse both physically and mentally throughout their childhood, the peculiar ways in which both her mentally unstable parents showed their love and guidance ultimately helped to form these children and shape them into the individuals they are today. While Rex Walls, Jeannette’s alcoholic yet genius father, promised that he would one day create a house for the family made out of glass, his skills in mathematics and science unfortunately were not enough to battle his issues with alcohol and his inability to provide for his family.

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The Devil’s Arithmetic, a novel by Jane Yolen, is very inspiring to me. It explains the feelings of not only just Hannah, but many others. It lets me know that in any situation, you can always persevere. Although this book can be sad, the sadness is powerful. It takes you to a whole new perspective of the Holocaust, not just through facts, but actually living it.

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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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Jeannette Walls’ personal memoir The Glass Castle is a personal retelling of her life story beginning at the age of just three years old. Although most of her personal retelling sounds honest and believable, there are several situations that undermine the credibility of her memories. One situation of note is when Walls lists the feral creatures her

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In the novel the Glass Castle Jeanette Walls learns from the mistakes of her parents that being successful in life depends of your characters and the choices you make in your life . Jeanette learns from her parents that if she doesn 't start thinking about her future at a young age , she’ll eventually be following the footsteps of her parents, and having an unpurposeful and an unrewarding lifestyle in her future. The Glass Castle suggests that in order to be successful in life you have to leave some things behinds and move on and that exactly what Jeannette Walls has done. Jeanette 's parents mistake was that they never thought about the future and always tried to enjoy the present. She chose to move away from her parents and live with her older sister and that decision she made was the main reason why she succeeded in life.

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Above all, one of the things that really stood out in Jeannette’s life going hand in hand with forgiveness was her father being an alcoholic. She lived her life dealing with rages as well as experiencing sweet and memorable moments with her father, Rex. Jeannette was a daddy’s girl and always tried to look for the good in everyone after her mother told her this quote, “You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that” (Walls 144). Rex always wanted the best for his family even though sometimes he would not go the right way in handling things.

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Jeannette Walls had to experience adult things while only a child. More specifically, Walls and her family have been victims of sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is a large underlying theme in The Glass Castle. An example of this is the patriarch himself, Rex Walls. Rex was abused by his own mother when he was young.

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Jeannette Walls had to experience adult things while only a child. More specifically, Walls and her family have been victims of sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is a large underlying theme in The Glass Castle. An example of this is the patriarch himself, Rex Walls. Rex was abused by his own mother when he was young.

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Did Jeannette portray her parents in a negative or positive way? “In my mind, Dad was perfect, although he did have what Mom called a little bit of a drinking situation. There was what Mom called Dad’s ‘beer phase.’ We could all handle that. Dad drove fast and sang really loud, and locks of his hair fell into his face and life was a little bit scary but still a lot of fun.”

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