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The American Dream In The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

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The Glass Castle and the American Dream
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a story about a family that is practically homeless. They didn’t have enough money for even the basic necessities. The parents never planted roots anywhere and were always going from place to place. In the beginning, everyone was happy and excited; however, as the children got older they realized that they didn’t want to end up like their parents. This story is about the American dream. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the American dream as, “the ideal that every citizen of the United States should have equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.” Jeannette Walls has achieved the American dream. She was …show more content…

It would have been really easy to give up and embrace the ideals of your parents. Jeannette raised herself; they didn’t even have the necessary items like: water, clean clothes, food, and shelter. Her own mother Rose Mary said, “and at times like these self esteem is even more vital than food.” (186) The quote shows how Rose Mary is, and how good of a parent she was, would rather work on art or eat silently so her starving children couldn’t hear her. Jeannette found ways like working for the school paper so she can stay warm and have access to the cafeteria. Her determination to escape Welch was inspiring because it wasn’t easy; she had to save and save all on her own. With her alcoholic father, Rex, it was hard because he took all of the children’s savings one time. Jeannette is a smart girl because even though she loved her parents, she just knew it wasn’t healthy to …show more content…

Jeannette’s parents are comfortable with the way they live. They don’t really care that there is no: clean water, fresh food, and complete shelter. Both Rex and Rose Mary have flaws, nevertheless, I believe they would define their life as living the American dream also. They are content with how they live their lives. “It’s the Joshua tree’s struggle that gives it its beauty.” (38) ,Rose Mary said to her children. They are not suited to be parents, but they do teach their children very well. It is hard because Rex tries to be the best dad and build the glass castle; however, he has a huge drinking problem. Jeannette, Lori, and Brian were all passionate about leaving Welch, lucky they did. Even when Rex and Rose Mary traveled up to New York they knew they had to stay strong before they fell back into the old ways of

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Her mom is a free spirited and loves to draw, but loves her husband more. She really doesn’t care for her children. In result of her mother not caring; Jeannette was very independent. By the time she was in the twelfth grade she aided her siblings as well as herself to move to New York on their own. Her dad is a dreamer who plants false ideas in his children’s head about him inventing a device that will find them gold.

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Her father had been diagnosed with tuberculosis and eventually passed away from a heart attack. Jeannette grew apart from her mother after her father’s death. Although Jeannette grew up in a very bad environment, she lived a very successful life because of her hard-working personality and her dreams.

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In The Glass Castle, there are many problems that need to be solved. The major problems come from the parents. Rex Walls and Rose Mary Walls each have unique personalities. Rosemary is very selfish and only cares about herself. She believes that the world revolves around her.

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The Glass Castle In The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls, it presents welfare to utilize the idea of overcoming adversity and achieving success despite difficult circumstances. In the beginning of the book, Walls connects her personal experience as a kid to the symbol of welfare in order to emphasize how it was proclaimed through her childhood and adulthood. Take, for example, that In the passage, Jeanette explains, “But for the time being, things might get a little tight around the house.

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He knew I had a soft spot for him the way no one else in the family did, and he was taking advantage of it” (209). Although getting played by her father, Jeannette learns a valuable lesson about managing money and how to be strong. We see in the end of the book that almost

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In the memoir, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the Walls family is considered homeless and they are constantly moving from place to place. They constantly find themselves either with a somewhat decent amount of money or at times, no money at all. Jeannette, being one of four children always follows along with and listens to her parents and eventually notices that their family does things very differently than most other families. As Jeannette explains her childhood and how she is being raised by her parents, it is clear to see how different Rex and Rosemary’s parenting style is compared to the parenting style of other parents. Since their parenting style is so different, it seems that it affects their children in a negative way throughout their childhood, but in the end it makes Jeannette become a better and more successful person.

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The Consequences of the Walls Children's Insufficient Upbringing In Jeannette Walls' memoir, "The Glass Castle," the author reflects on her childhood and the impact of her parents' unorthodox parenting style. Throughout the book, Walls recounts instances where her parents, Rose Mary and Rex Walls, neglected, starved, and failed to provide a stable home for their children. As a result of their irresponsible behavior, the children in "The Glass Castle" suffered from a lack of basic necessities, emotional trauma, and long-lasting scars. Although Jeannette’s parents’ parenting style can be clearly identified as horrific as it left Jeanette and her siblings afflicted and broken, their unconventional methods can be argued that it actually had a few

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Jeannette’s poor situation growing up causes her to have greater ambition and become successful, despite her circumstances. Jeannette not being able to

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Paul Ryan once said, “Every successful individual knows that his or her achievement depends on a community of persons working together.” Individuals must strive upon excellence based on the society they are placed in. Watching how others react can help one become the best they can be. Throughout The Glass Castle, Jeannette is exposed to society by her parents. Her parents, Rex and Rose Mary, see society in different means than how others perceive it.

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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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In hopes of breaking this addiction, Jeanette and her family moved to West Virginia in order to be closer to Jeanette’s father’s family. Jeanette was apprehensive about the move to WV, but nonetheless, she went into the move with a positive attitude. Jeanette’s life was not easy once she got to West Virginia. She had to live with her abusive grandparents. Brian was sexually assaulted by his grandmother while Jeanette’s parents were going back to Phoenix to retrieve some of their belongings.

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Impossible Dreams The meaning of the American Dream can be seen as ”A uniquely American vision of the country consisting of three central ideas. The American dream consists of a belief in America as the new Eden- a land of beauty, bounty, and unlimited promise; a feeling of optimism, created by ever expanding opportunity; and a confidence in the triumph of the individual.” Using this definition of the so called “American dream”, it seems to be a great representation of it at first, until you realize it includes everyone as the individual. From the beginning of the Civil war to the end of the War to End All Wars, the American Dream wasn’t possible due to the treatment of the Native Americans, the inequality between women and men, and the false promises given to the immigrants coming to our country in their time of need.

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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.

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949 Words | 4 Pages

“...there 's a bluebird in my heart that, wants to get out, but I pour whiskey on him and inhale, cigarette smoke, and the whores and the bartenders, and the grocery clerks, never know that, he 's. in there....” As indicated by the above excerpt from his poem Bluebird, poet Charles Bukowski built a name for himself through his ability to deprive himself of the basic human need of confiding, revealing and simply being emotionally transparent. For many, erecting a facade of ruggedness and apathy can protect what may be delicate inside—it’s a common defense mechanism, which especially rang true for Bukowski, who suffered from abuse at the hand of his father during his childhood. As a result, Bukowski fixated himself on concocting a larger than life caricature of himself as someone who was extremely tough and devoid of any “soft” emotions over his career.

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Overall, this story shows that even if you have money and success you may not necessarily have everything you need to have your American dream because everyone needs human interaction and love to be happy. In comparison, in The Boys’ Ambition, success seems like the only important thing in obtaining the American dream and that happiness doesn’t really play a role (Twain

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