The story of Jeannette Walls begins one cold March evening when she comes across a homeless woman, which is then revealed to be her mother. It is there that her troubled past comes into light in, “The Glass Castle”. But through her disastrous childhood and dysfunctional family, she manages to turn it around and by education, expectation, and most of all environment, Jeannette grew from her experiences and came out successful and stronger than ever. Young jeannette never doubted her father’s stories and ambitions , staying faithful to him, though as she becomes older and more mature she begins to questions his true purposes and honesty.
Jeanne wouldn’t of wanted to remember this part of her life, being unproud of it, especially growing up in a culture where you never forsaken your family. Your family is your biggest honor, never let your family down, it will ruin the name. Going through the stage of where she wasn’t in the camp anymore, but she wasn’t an adult. It was when she was in school and she had the nightmare of this beautiful girl in the room and everyone is acknowledging her while Jeanne is outside, watching from the window.
She attends Bernard, lives in her own apartment and makes her own money, and eventually makes her own friends and relationships. But one major character change in Jeannette at this point of the book is how she speaks about her parents and how she looks back on her life before. When she attended parties she mainly tried to avoid the mention of her parents but when she couldn't avoid it anymore she often would lie about where they were living and what they were doing. (INSERT QUOTE HERE) I believe she did this because now that she had her fresh start she wanted to make it seem like that's how she always lived even though it was all a lie.
At this point, Jeannette was living in Welch and started experiencing physical bullying at school. Her mother’s belief in peace and Jeannette’s fear of his dad “ show[ing] up at school snockered and mak[ing] things worse”, convinced her to do nothing about the situation and accepted the kicks and punches from the other girls. Before seeing the dog and the kid, Jeannette at times hoped to befriend Dinitia, the school bully leader. She believed that behind all of Dinitia’s actions there was a child that had “some good”. Jeannette never acted belligerent towards the bullies, instead she would answer with Martin Luther King’s reference.
Jeannette throughout the book faces hardships that some will never experience, such as, challenging her school system, going against her own thoughts, and placing herself in others shoes. Throughout
She becomes friends with a white girl, Radine, and teaches her baton-twirling, but Jeanne remains better. However, she doesn’t get the same opportunities. She is not even let into the Girl Scouts, a simple and everyday thing. “‘Gee, Jeannie, no. I’m really sorry.’
Jeannette being the young and newer generation, they treat everyone equally no matter the color of their skin. Erma describes interacting and treating everyone equally as being a “nigger lover” (143). Because Jeannette is scared of Erma, she eventually stops talking and hanging out with her black friends. Erma pushed Jeannette to be scared of what society would think of her if she continued being friends with black people. Jeannette didn’t want society to look badly on her because they already do.
Jeannette’s poor situation growing up causes her to have greater ambition and become successful, despite her circumstances. Jeannette not being able to
They think they can bend the rules and do what they think is necessary. Jeannette is exposed to these understandings, making her the person she grew up to be. Jeanette demonstrates how she struggles with her family throughout numerous portions of the novel: “The Desert,” “Welch,” New York.” These struggles developed and defined who she came to be.
After graduating middle school her friend lost touch with her and eventually left her life for good: “By the time she got to Welch High Dinitia changed.” Jeannette was also sexually harassed by one of her friends in Phoenix while playing hide-and-seek: “Billy smushed his face against mine… ‘Guess what?’Billy shouted. ‘I raped you’” Lastly, while going to school in Phoenix Jeannette was bullied for being smart and skinny: “The other students didn’t like me much because I was so tall and pale and skinny and always raised my hand too fast… A few days after I started school, four Mexican girls followed me home and jumped me in an alleyway…”
While Jeannette was a junior in high school she became aware of the fact she had to get out of Welch and away from her parents. “ All through the long walk, the pain had kept me thinking, and by the time i reached the tree trunk, i had made two decisions. The first was that id had my first and last whipping. No one was ever going to do that to me again. The second was that, like Lori, I was going to get out of welch.
The first time that Jeannette ever experiences a true violation from someone is when Billy Deel rapes her: ‘Guess what? Billy shouted. I raped you’”(Walls 87). Jeannette is too young at this time to understand what it means to be raped, but what she does understand is how horrific people can be. Jeannette is sexually assaulted several other time through the book, but she never lets these moments take ahold of her.
She managed to hide with her mother and sisters from the “interabamwe”, a group that hunted the Tutsis. After being hidden for a few days, the interabamwe found Jeannette’s mother. They cut off her arms and legs.
Jeannette narrowly escapes rape, but because her father exploits her in a way that makes it seem like she would consent to underage sex, she is abused. The sexual abuse Jeannette suffers results in her having more trust in her own intuition as she
Jeanette’s childhood was shameful due to her parents careless way of living. Throughout The Glass Castle Jeannette hides her childhood just like she from her mother because she is ashamed of what people might think. Jeannette Walls lived a tough childhood because of her parents. They were always moving around trying to find a place to build a glass castle. They never gave any of their children a set home while they were growing up.
