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Overcoming Obstacles In The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

380 Words2 Pages
In the inspiring 2005 poignant memoir The Glass Castle, written by Jeannette Walls, establishes a mind changing perspective through a tough loving family of four. Jeannette is the second oldest of the 4 children born to Rex Walls, an alcoholic, and Rose Mary Walls, a painter and artist. The book uses the symbol of a Mountain Goat to develop a theme of growing up by overcoming obstacles. Not only that it also displays an endearment that implies a special relationship between Jeannette and her father that the other children could not share with him.
The unique bond Jeannette shares with Rex is demonstrated throughout the entire book. Though they've definitely had their ups and downs with not locking the doors at night, the car breaking down,
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The Glass Castle, a memoir by Jeanette Walls, follows the Walls’ family through their difficult and constantly evolving journey through life. They are always on the move and have a lot going on. Rex’s difficulty finding a stable job is also a major factor in why they keep moving around. Rex Walls’ has many unique characteristics. He has some brilliant, dysfunctional, and destructive qualities that can reveal some of his underlying issues.

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The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls which describes her family’s troublesome past. When examining one of Jeannette’s childhood bullies, and her dad whipping her with a belt, it becomes apparent that even the worst experiences can have a valuable gift wrapped inside if you’re willing to receive it. The Walls kids came across numerous bullies throughout their childhood. When living in Welch, one of them was Ernie Goad, who made fun of the kids because of their poor living conditions.

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Zack Green Ingrao Honors English Two 27 February 2024 Family ties: What makes the connection with your parents so special? From birth to death, your guardians are your beacon to fall back upon. As the precedents, you look up to them for advice and nurturing, for they have already walked the path you’re about to embark on. As the foundation of the family, you look up to and expect your parents to be your support. As a child, this support is all you need.

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Causing unnecessary harm to befall them. In the Book, Walls shows the reader the ingenuity of her father. While talking to his kids Rex would tell them about the things he was going to do with his engineering skills and mathematical genius, he would even let them see the blueprints. At that moment Jeannette knew her father was a smart man (Walls pg 25).

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Having a nomadic lifestyle can be helpful in teaching crucial life skills. The Glass Castle is a memoir by Jeannette Walls. The Glass Castle should be read in the summer for upcoming 12th graders because of how interesting of a character the dad is, and that not a lot of people live like they do. First off, their dad, Rex Walls, is very interesting. For one, he is a skilled electrician and engineer.

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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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Does an individual's role in self-perception play a role in seeking to reconcile the conflict between illusion and reality? In Jeannette Walls "The Glass Castle," Rex displays hidden trauma from when he was a child, which leads him to create a false reality to shield them. In doing this, the false reality will lead them to struggle to find the difference between what is real and what is an illusion. As an adult, Rex displays minimal remorse for anyone in his life when they are harassed. This is most prominently displayed after Rex's mother touches Brian, and when Rex gets back to hear about this, instead of taking his own son's side, he instead tells his kids "Brian's a man, he can take it".

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Contrasting Materialism Effects Society revolves around numerous values, and one that makes a significant change in a person is their standpoint on materialism. the way they embrace materialism. In the nonfiction memoir, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls follows the story of the Walls family who lived a nomadic lifestyle across America from the 1960’s through the 1980’s. On the contrary, the realistic fiction novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts members of the upper class in New York in the 1920’s. There is a drastic difference between the lives of Rex and Rose Mary Walls, who are the parents in the Walls family that chose to live a nomadic lifestyle, and the lives of the rich in New York.

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“If you don 't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim.” (66) This is Jeannette’s father Rex teaching her how to swim by throwing her back into the water after sinking the first time. It is also a good representation of Rose Mary and Rex’s parenting skills insteading of coddling their children they present them with challenging them, some even life threatening, that the children are faced with. Jeannette Walls’ shows very little personal reflection in The Glass Castle though she does show a lot of detail in events, written like a piece of journalism.

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In the memoir, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Jeannette manages to overcome her obstacles by realizing her independence. She is impacted by her parents’ incapabilities because she realizes that she has to do things differently than other children. Her father was a stubborn alcoholic who believed that: “[they] were all getting too soft, too dependent on creature comforts, and that [they] were losing touch with the natural order of the world”(Walls 106). He believes that every human should be independent and fend for themselves. By using the term “creature comforts”, her father is trying to separate himself from what he calls the civilians.

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Nicholas Sparks once said, “I don’t know that love changes. People change. Circumstances change.” In the memoir, The Glass Castle author Jeannette Walls shows how her father Rex Walls changes with everything thrown at him as a father or four. In the beginning of being a parent Rex shares his intelligence with his children.

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