ipl-logo

Metaphor In The Glass Castle

1821 Words8 Pages

The Glass Castle is a memoir based on the life and family of Jeanette Walls. Short on food and money, the family travels quite frequently to resettle and regain their lives. Based on her point of view, Jeanette maintains a steady heart while dealing with her dysfunctional family’s issues. The parents fail to provide for their children adequately due to their own personal problems, and because of that, Jeannette learns how to fend for and take care of herself. As Jeanette grows older, she realizes the truth and realities in her life, and she eventually takes off to New York to become the independent woman she has strived to be. 2) A.) Mood: language that evokes a certain feeling out of the reader. Jeannette Walls, the author, expresses a disappointed mood by stating “I didn’t feel like celebrating. After all he’d put himself through, I couldn’t believe Dad had gone back to the booze” (Walls 123). Jeanette expresses this sort of mood due to the fact that her dad continues to drink alcohol after he promised he wouldn’t. The author is trying to convince the reader that broken …show more content…

At the beginning of the memoir, the author starts off the story by explaining a time she started a fire by cooking hotdogs when she was just three years old. She “screamed” and “smelled the burning and heard a horrible crackling as the fire singed my hair and eyelashes” (Walls 9). An exposed fire occurs multiple times in the book, which represents the author’s dad’s continuous drinking habits. Not only is the fire destructive and harmful to the family, but so is the father’s alcoholic addiction. This metaphor represents a large negative impact on the family. Because of the father’s drinking problem, he becomes destructive physically and verbally. The strategy is effective because the fire occurs multiple times, as well as the father’s drinking addiction. Both are harmful in some sort of

Show More
Related
141 Words | 1 Pages

In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls is forced to take care of herself from a very young age. Her parents are mentally unstable, and her dad regularly turns to alcohol. She is forced to move when any problems arise, which is often--from Battle Mountain to Phoenix to the small town of Welch, Virginia. Despite all of this, Jeannette has a memorable childhood, riding around on bikes, petting cheetahs, and declaring ownership of stars. Throughout her whole life, she is consistently the only one that believes in her reckless father.

Read More
303 Words | 2 Pages

I have chosen the poem titled Oxygen by Mary Oliver, found on page 373 in the Meyer text for first analysis. This poem is essential about someone who is seriously ill, however, the tone is rather appreciative and hopeful. In line 5-6, the individual–might be the author herself– kneels by the fire, and this may connect to the fuel that is keeping her partner alive. The burning logs correlates to the life within her partner, that as long as they burn, he will be kept alive. The oxygen fuels the fire burning and also keeps her man alive; however, he is ill and “in his usual position, leaning on his shoulder.”

Read More
922 Words | 4 Pages

In “Forged by Fire” by Sharon M. Draper, Gerald, the main character in the story, grows into a brave man. In the beginning, Gerald starts a fire in his mom’s apartment. Gerald gets scared from the flames, sounds, and heat that he goes behind the couch to hide from the fire. After the fire, Gerald lives with his aunt. On Geralds’s 9th birthday, Gerald’s mom came to the house with a sister for Gerald, but he doesn’t want to see neither of the two.

Read More
830 Words | 4 Pages

The Glass Castle: Controversial Topics. The Glass Castle is a 2005 book by Jeannette Walls. The memoir explains the author’s life, growing up with her family most especially with her parents who could be described as nomads and deadbeats. Notwithstanding the difficult upbringing, her siblings and she had, Jeannette perseveres and becomes a successful Journalist living in New York City.

Read More
1290 Words | 6 Pages

Kai Sebastian English 10H Mrs. Denchfield 8/27/15 10H Summer Assignment: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls 1.“‘We could live like this forever,’ I said. ‘I think we’re going to,’ she said.” (Walls 18) This is near the beginning of the books between the two siblings of the narrator (Jeannette Walls) and her older sister (Lori Walls) as they are lying underneath the stars on a clear night in the desert. The reason for these exchange of words was the fact they were on one of their dad’s

Read More
567 Words | 3 Pages

In the memoir The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, her parent’s values are different from hers and her siblings. Specifically, Walls remembers a time where her and her brother found a ring and their mother took it from them: “She was keeping it… to replace the wedding ring her mother had given her, the one Dad had pawned shortly after they got married. “But Mom,” I said, “that ring could get us a lot of food.” “That’s true,” Mom said, “but it could also improve my self-esteem. And at times like these, self-esteem is even more vital than food.””

Read More
1149 Words | 5 Pages

In the novel Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, main character Billie Jo faces several challenging obstacles throughout her lifetime. Getting through these obstacles is the only way Billie Jo can learn to forgive her father as well as herself for their mistakes. Once she learns to stop feeling resentful, and let go, Billie Jo will be able to grow up. The first major challenge Billie Jo faces is when a fire breaks out in her home. The fire ignites when Billie Jo’s mother mistakes a pail of kerosene for water, where,“instead of making coffee, Ma [makes] a rope of fire”(87).

Read More
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.

Read More
675 Words | 3 Pages

In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, it tells about how the Walls family move to different desert towns, settling in for as long as their father, Rex, can hold a job. However, his perspective of the state and society, and his alcoholism led them to move frequently. The children - Lori, Jeannette, Brian, and little Maureen- experiences unusual childhood, where they travel like nomads to find new money source. This lead to the theme, sometimes you can be mature and responsible at a very young age. The theme is developed by how Jeannette learns how to take care of herself and her younger siblings, and the way her parent taught her.

Read More
1211 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
868 Words | 4 Pages

“I’ve not seen a fire in a long time, that’s all. I live like an animal.” This fire was supposed to represent the basic decency in a world that has been corrupt. Ely hasn’t seen it for a while and when he saw the boy, he thought he was dead because such innocence and compassion seemed very unreal. This gives hope to readers that the man and boy still have good morals in them and that they could survive and simultaneously “carry the

Read More
762 Words | 4 Pages

Barn Burning is a modern story that shows a theme, plot, characters and uses narrative techniques. The title of the story, “Barn Burning,” is used to identify the main method carried out by the father in the story, Abner to get revenge on the people he grew angry with for their treatment of black people in the south. The story does not give a number of the barns Abner had burned, but Sarty said they had moved a lot of different times indicating the moves were due to Abner destroying the property of others. Abner seemed to have a sickness or craving for burning property; this seemed his way of regaining his dignity or self-respect after feeling he was wronged by the evil, hate, and racism of southern society. Abner kept burning fuel handy and had containers to refill when it was time to burn another barn and caused destruction, but when it was time to keep his family warm in the cold outdoors, he would only build small fires.

Read More
1118 Words | 5 Pages

Jeannette Walls also uses the symbol of the Glass Castle, which develops throughout the memoir to show how she slowly loses trust in her father as she realises that she can not depend upon him or anyone else for happiness. The symbolism evolves throughout the memoir as Walls evolves as a person. In the beginning of the memoir, her description of the Glass Castle is naive and hopeful. Her naivety is most apparent when Walls writes, “All of Dad’s engineering skills and mathematical genius were coming together in one special project: a great big house he was going to build for us in the desert… All we had to do was find gold, Dad said, and we were on the verge of that.

Read More
611 Words | 3 Pages

In The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls faces harsh stuff through her childhood because of her parents. In the beginning of the book she finds her mother digging through trash. She feels embarrassed, so she turns around and goes home without saying hello. Jeanette then calls her mother and asks to have dinner with her. She offers her mother help because she feels guilty, but her mother rejects her help.

Read More
849 Words | 4 Pages

It is evident that her childhood may have impacted her in a more severe psychological way. The book The Glass Castle is a very interesting narrative. The author Jeanette Walls is able to bring new light to circumstances that many people choose to ignore or overlook by writing about her own childhood. This gives the book a new perspective and allows the reader to gain insight.

Read More

More about Metaphor In The Glass Castle

Related Topics

Open Document