Summer Storm By Erma Walls: A Literary Analysis

She was a quiet, precise woman who had been at Welch High School so long that she had also been Dad's English teacher. She was the first person in his life, he once told me, who'd showed any faith in him. She thought he was a talented writer and had encouraged him to submit a twenty-four-line poem called. "Summer Storm" to a statewide poetry competition. When it won first prize, one of Dad's other teachers wondered aloud if the son of two lowlife alcoholics like Ted and Erma Walls could have written it himself. Dad was so insulted that he walked out of school.In Glass Castle, Jeanette's parents are always setting bad examples for Jeanette and her siblings, they steal from others and don’t take care of their kids which make their impressionable

One day Brian and Jeanette find a diamond near the edge of their property. They quickly ran home and showed it to their mom and asked how much it was worth, thinking it could pay off the family’s debt, and she said they weren't going to sell it. "‘But Mom’, [Jeanette] said. ‘that ring could get us a lot of food.’” Her mother antagonizing responded, “‘That's true, but it could also improve my self-esteem. And at times like these, self-esteem is even more vital than food.’"(117-118) In this example, Jeanette’s mother only cares about herself instead of thinking about the whole family’s wellness. She was being selfish instead of helping her own kids. Jeanette’s mother at one point gave Maureen away to a “woman whose drug-dealer husband was serving time in the state prison.”(46) Her mother gave away her own child to someone she didn’t even know, so she can live life easier and with less stress. Later on her mother is again selfish and not thinking of others. She wants to buy Jim’s land, her brother, and she straight goes to Jeanette and tells her, “‘You can borrow the money from Eric now that he's your husband,’ Mom said.”(171-172) Then her mother tells her that it a millions dollars and realizes that her mother is a selfish individual. She just wants happiness even if it is at the expense of others suffering. Jeanette’s dad stole Jeanette and Lori’s money that they made for New York and a few months later there dad had stolen it and he quickly denied that fact and blamed it on someone else.(145) Jeanette’s parents were both selfish during the story. Jeanette then made the assumption that everyone was like that. One day Jeanette’s teacher asks her if she needs help in school and her instant response was no because her parents were always selfish and never there for her, so she doesn’t