The book The Glass Castle mainly focuses and revolves around Jeannette and her family. They are a homeless family that struggled to make ends meet and struggled to pay for basic necessities. Along Jeannette's path to a better life she met some great people along with some not so great people. All the amazing people she met made her hard life more enjoyable. One of the people that made Jeannette's life one worth living was Miss Jeanette Bivens.
Etched in Sand: A True Story of Five Siblings Who Survived an Unspeakable Childhood on Long Island (2013) by high-powered attorney Regina Calcaterra is a memoir of her extremely abusive childhood and the path she and her sisters took toward success. The book became a bestseller around the globe. Its themes include resilience, abuse, and the drive to help others. The memoir is conveyed in the present tense.
Even when things get rough, the Youngers still remain a close family throughout the story, supporting each other through most
But once they move to Welch, we see a more neglectful and destructive parenting style. Both Rex and Rosemary start to ignore the kids, asking them to fend for themselves and each other. This leads to both Lori and Jeannette having to help and almost manage the other two children. But in the long run, this may not have been a bad idea because it strengthened both of their independence. More and more we see this, as the Walls parents put the children in bad situations, they struggle, but eventually fix the situation and learn valuable lessons.
As cliché as it is, “get back on the horse that bucked you” is a crucial piece of advice to remember when struggling to surmount obstacles. These obstacles are personal barricades that we set up unconsciously based upon our fears. It may be easy to identify what we are afraid of and how to overcome it, but challenging our fears proves to be more difficult. Sometimes, we don’t even address these problems because we are subconsciously trying to avoid them such as in the beginning of The Georges and the Jewels by Jane Smiley. The main character unknowingly tricks herself into thinking that just because she continues to get thrown from her horse, it will always hurt.
It is the hope of many, in these situations. that the children can learn and create their own destiny. Much of their success relies on the belief that they can, a concept that often counts on supporting ideas and rhetoric. Although, Mary Louise Kelly handles the subject without much ado, and is especially considerate of the dynamics within Caroline’s adopted family, it is a point that deserves some clarification.
But throughout the book, I noticed how loving these parents still were regardless. We can all say that the childrens parents weren’t ideal when it came to raising their children, but they always made sure they were safe and taken care of throughout their crazy journeys. “Mom frowned at me. ‘You’d be destroying what makes it special’ she said, ‘It’s the Joshua’s tree’s struggle that gives it its beauty”. (Walls 34)
There were several elements of the script that impacted me, but their father’s affair with Sheila is what stood out to me the most. We are able to know his thoughts and feelings throughout the play, and he spends the majority of his time thinking about Sheila rather than his wife and children. The parents do not see the impact they have on their children, who will grow up to reflect their parents in different ways. The father’s affair is not secret, but nobody in the family says it out loud either. The children know, as does their
Simone Jerome of Leopold Street, Georgetown relates his trials as a homosexual, "street harassment is just as bad when we pass and can be even worse and definitely different when we fail to pass the perpetrator/ perpetrators". Jerome in his earlier years of growing up had no knowledge of gender-based harassment. However, with maturity, Jerome finally became aware of the prejudice that is attached to being a Homosexual. According to Jerome, “as a child and a teenager, it was heavily based on hatred and disapproval of femininity, so all of the abuse and harassment I encountered was certainly gender base, but it wasn’t sexual”. “This was due to the fact that I only rarely wore women clothing and hairstyles to portray me as a young woman.”
I never thought to see a child again. I didn’t know that would happen.” (Pg 172) This quote shows that the boy’s innocence was very precious and rare. The innocence and compassion of helping people in this world has been lost and seems like it will be lost forever.
She knew that her father would not agree with what she was trying to do, and the furniture was too heavy for her to lift alone, so she asked the one person that her father and she had been trying to keep away from the room, her mother. She agreed to help, and Gregory was happy at the thought that his mother was going to walk into the same room he was in, even though he knew that he would have to stay completely hidden under the couch so that he did not scare her and so she would not faint. He was also excited about having more space to move around, and at
Child abuse is the maltreatment of a minor, and it can come in many different forms. The most common forms of abuse are physical, neglect, or sexual molestation. In The Glass Castle, all of these forms of abuse become more pronounced as the story line progresses. As Jeannette Walls grows from girl to woman, most of her abuse stems from her alcoholic father and her selfish mother. The abuse Jeannette faces as an adolescent, shapes a woman later affected by her events, that are created by her parents' selfishness.
A commonly known truth is that one should empathize with those they love. It is almost as if Rex and Rosemary do not love their children, or at least don’t know how to properly show their love and affection, as indicated in Jeannette’s stories. Having a sense of self-worth is essential to a child’s development, meaning that they should feel they matter to those they love, including their parents. Rex and Rosemary are both detrimental figures in all four of their children’s life due to the fact that they make them feel worthless. Both Brian and Jeannette are sexually abused by two family members, Erma and Stanley, and when Rosemary and Rex are made aware of the problem, they approach it as the kids’ fault.
Even though Johnny was going through his last hours alive he did not want to see his mother, he wanted to see his family: the gang. “I said I don’t want to see her.” His voice was rising. “She’s probably come to tell me about all the trouble I’m causing her, and how glad her and the old man’ll be when I’m dead. Well tell her to leave me alone.
She insisted on explaining the reason why she killed her daughter to the grown-up woman Beloved because Sethe felt
