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Gwendolyn Brooks Literary Devices

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Jeremy Zucker Mrs. Riordan AP Lit 6 February 2022 Liberty, Freedom, (and a whisper): English Mechanics in “Boy Breaking Glass” In Gwendolyn Brooks’ “Boy Breaking Glass”, language holds a significant power to the overall work. Brooks uses several literary devices to bring something forth of great creative measure in all of her poems These choices were all intentional and led to her getting lots of attention for her works. This specific work incorporates all of these aspects to create something that is enticing to read and forces creative thinking. Throughout “Boy Breaking Glass”, punctuation, syntax, and allusions are all important details that create an entertaining and engaging work. The first detail is how she uses punctuation throughout her work. In “Boy Breaking Glass'' there is the use of parentheses. An interesting choice of punctuation to have in a poem, but it fits rather well with the topic. Brooks wants readers to feel as if they are being let in on a secret, and the main use to give this perspective is that the glass that is being broken is taboo. Windows breaking isn’t a good thing, and …show more content…

Throughout “Boy Breaking Glass”, many different references are made. Jesus and the salt of the earth is seen in line ten and in line twenty two, the American government is mentioned. Her choice to include these allusions are especially prominent in lines twenty two and twenty three. She uses prominent figures in culture, especially American culture; “Who has not Congress, lobster, love, luau, the Regency Room, the Statue of Liberty…”. The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of freedom, of a new life. This boy who has shattered the glass has done something freeing, yet he will have to start a new life. The life of responsibility for actions that we take are coming down upon him. Her syntax is purposeful with deeper meanings than what meets the eye, especially for the bow who broke the

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The poem “The Nevada Glassworks” tells about a mother growing in the 50s and a glassworking company making glass in Nevada. The 50s were post-World War II and were better known as the start of the nuclear age. It is during this time that the narrator’s mother is in her teen years and is growing up. Along with her we find that this glasswork company is also growing and is making great progress on the research they are conducting. Ka-Boom!

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The memoir, The Glass Castle was jam-packed with symbolism, themes, motifs, etc. and some were not explained. To begin, when the family was at the depot, her mother and father engaged in an intense argument. The agreement resulted in her mother trying to jump out of the window. As she clung onto the window sill, the author describes her in a yellow dress.

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The memoir, “The Glass Castle”, written by Jeannette Walls, is a novel filled with hardships and obstacles faced by the author and her dysfunctional family. Living with her depressed mother who weeps and sobs about her struggles in her teaching job, her alcoholic gambling father who, on a daily basis, would not arrive home, and her two sisters, Lori and Maureen and brother, Brian. Though their constant moving and chasing from the debt collectors, one person who has affected Walls life would have to be her father, Rex Walls. Although his constant gambling and consistent job loss, he has become a significant figure in Walls life. He has shown her the problems of alcoholism, the struggles, and corruptions of the world, and especially allowed

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The memoir, The Glass Castle, is about a family that undergoes many hardships and yet remains unique and dysfunctional through it all. It is told through the eyes of young Jeannette Walls who recalls her childhood, and growing up in the special scenario that she did. Certain aspects are capitalized throughout the memoir such as the theme, the cultural experiences, and the understanding of historical accounts. As Jeannette Walls once said, “Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more.”

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The poverty rates are growing by the year as many families struggle to afford sufficient housing, this ultimately impacts the quality of life for their kids. In the novel The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls, it shows the life of Jeannette as a child growing up in a house with a constant cycle of poverty, and homelessness. To push past her families issues, Jeannette thrived in her schoolwork and became a writer for her school newspaper. As she grew older and worked harder, Jeannette moved to New York with her siblings to pursue her career in newswriting. Soon after, both of her parents followed and were homeless for many years.

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In this passage “THE GLASS CASTLE” by Jeannette Walls, it's a remarkable memoir of Jeannette and her family lives. The novel begins when Jeannette was three years old and she was making hot dogs and caught herself on fire. She ends up having 2nd degree burns and had to get a skin graft. Jeannette uses characterization so the readers can know about her and her family and how odd they were. Even though her parents always did something bad they always made something out of nothing.

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The Glass Castle is a best selling memoir about author Jeannette Walls childhood and what it was like growing up in a poverty struck family of six. It is not the happiest book out there, with all the sad moments you read about Jeannette having to experience, but it is an inspirational one. Jeanette's childhood is not the happiest one. When you read about what she had to go through, you can not help but think about how you could help other children going through what she did. It also makes you think about how lucky the majority of us are to have not only loving parents that would do anything for us, but parents that are going to do anything to provide for us.

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In literature and in life, misunderstandings create a divide in society. In “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls, the Walls live a reckless lifestyle and frequently move around the country, as a result of their denial towards society. “Poetry” by Marianne Moore describes Moore’s complicated relationship poetry because it is often not true, raw emotion. “The Glass Castle” and “Poetry” are representative of the constant battle between self and society.

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The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, is a powerful memoir about Jeannette and her siblings overcoming poverty, the struggles of living with an alcoholic father, and a mother who clearly had some form of mental illness. Jeannette is the main character in the book and tells of her upbringing and how dysfunctional her parents were. She explains the many struggles her siblings went through, how it impacted all of their lives, and how she grew up to be a successful person. Though the story was truly meant to inspire others and promote the theme of there’s always light at the end of the tunnel so never let anyone keep you from your dream, many parents were furious when they found out their child was reading it. Sections of the book about violence,

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Jeannette Walls opens her memoir, The Glass Castle, with a story of her childhood in which she is cooking hot dogs on a stove and her dress catches on fire. This story sets the stage for the rest of the book in several ways. Firstly, the story immediately introduces the reader to the chaotic and dangerous environment in which Jeannette grew up. Her parents were neglectful and often put their children in harm's way, as evidenced by the fact that Jeannette was left alone to cook hot dogs at a young age.

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The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls is a memoir that describes her abnormal if not completely insane upbringing. The story is one that the reader would assume be a fiction, that no parents are that lacking in their authority or so cavalier as to not care if their elementary aged children roam the streets of Phoenix in the dead of night, but the emotion and depth that is felt by each written word can not be written by a person who had not lived through the events that take place. Throughout the novel Jeannette comes to realize that what she loved about her parents as a child would both terrify and annoy her only years later, and while she tries hard to bring her family together somethings can never be fully rectified, but she can prosper nonetheless.

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824 Words | 4 Pages

The silent screams of childhood abuse echo through the corridors of adulthood, shaping the future of their lives. The Glass Castle, a memoir by Jeannette Walls, takes place in multiple areas of America and emphasizes various traumatic episodes that children endure. The memoir facilitates hazards such as unsupervised cooking, tolerating abuse, and neglect. In The Glass Castle, the theme of child negligence and trauma individually changing development is seen through Billy Deel’s assault against Jeannette. This idea of development through irresponsibility and negligence is also viewed through Brian and Jeannette’s experiences with Rosemary and Rex Walls.

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732 Words | 3 Pages

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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When glass is broken, shards occur from the cracks of the glass and if your skin comes in contact with a shard, it can cause lacerations, therefore, this quote supports the idea that the singer is feeling excruciating emotional pain despite his use of a physical comparison. In addition to the pain, the brokenness of the glass symbolizes the singer’s brokenness from the loss of his girlfriend. When glass is shattered, no matter how intricately you place the pieces, the item will never again look the same, and the cracks of the broken glass (representing scars from painful memories), always shine through. In addition, even if you use glue, let the glass dry, possibly sand it down, and finally, repaint it, there will always be cracks on the inside. This is similar to if the singer pretends to mask his feelings, the brokenness he feels inside will remain, and he cannot be intact again since his ex’s memory is tattooed in his mind and has changed him

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In the short story “The Flowers”, Alice Walker sufficiently prepares the reader for the texts surprise ending while also displaying the gradual loss of Myop’s innocence. The author uses literary devices like imagery, setting, and diction to convey her overall theme of coming of age because of the awareness of society's behavior.     At the beguining of the story the author makes use of proper and necessary diction to create a euphoric and blissful aura. The character Myop “skipped lightly” while walker describes the harvests and how is causes “excited little tremors to run up her jaws.”. This is an introduction of the childlike innocence present in the main character.

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