ipl-logo

Theme Of Maturity In The Glass Castle

443 Words2 Pages

The character of Jeannette in The Glass Castle shows the theme of adulthood, growing up, and coming of age in many ways. Jeanette deals with very adult issues at a very young age, and the chaos of her childhood forces her to mature fast, which shows the theme of growing up, and her success supports the thematic topic of “putting your past behind you”.

What first shows the theme of maturity is the contrast between Jeanette's eventual success, and her parents way of life. When Jeanette meets her mother, Rose Mary Walls, in the streets of New York, we see how far Jeanette has come compared to her mother. She moved to New York at 17, became a successful journalist, and this moment at the start of the book represents a lot of emotion. Seeing her mother again, and what she’s done with her life after years of separation shocks her, shown with “When she looked up, I was overcome with panic that she’d see me and call out my name... And mom would introduce herself, and my secret would be out.” [Walls, 3]. She grew up, escaped, and put her poor childhood behind her. …show more content…

Jeanette was raised by devil-may-care parents who believed she could manage on her own enough to be cooking for herself each night at the age of three, which eventually leads to her getting seriously burned. Events such as these, careless and reckless parenting as it may have been, made Jeanette “grow up” ten times faster than the normal girl her age, albeit for all the wrong reasons. For example, “It was easy… It wasn’t like there was some complicated recipe that you had to be old enough to follow. … Mom says I’m mature for my age, and she lets me cook a lot.” [Walls, 10-11],

Show More
Related
393 Words | 2 Pages

The book The Glass Castle mainly focuses and revolves around Jeannette and her family. They are a homeless family that struggled to make ends meet and struggled to pay for basic necessities. Along Jeannette's path to a better life she met some great people along with some not so great people. All the amazing people she met made her hard life more enjoyable. One of the people that made Jeannette's life one worth living was Miss Jeanette Bivens.

Read More
463 Words | 2 Pages

Farewell to Manzanar Jeanne changed from the beginning of the story to the end. In the beginning of Farewell to Manzanar Jeanne was scared, didn’t have any friends, nor was she confident. The way they knocked down herself esteem in the “camps” made her feel like it wasn’t okay to be Japanese. Throughout the book she emphasizes that she was young at the time and did not really understand the war or the real reasons behind the camp.

Read More
814 Words | 4 Pages

Based on her unconventional upbringing and the dissimilarity of her immediate family, Walls narrates the novel largely in chronological order, creating a layout of the exact moments that she became of age. At age three, Walls claims “‘Mom says I’m mature for my age…’” (Walls, ). Walls’s mother considers her “adult” enough to be responsible for her own meals, implanting a sense of maturity and deporting an aspect of immaturity from Jeanette's understanding. Parental interference with Jeannette’s “inner age” is also compounded upon by her father, Rex.

Read More
288 Words | 2 Pages

The memoir, The Glass Castle, written by Jeannette Walls, has many conflicts between parents and children. Rex and Rose Mary Walls both have their good but also have a lot of bad and are incredibly irresponsible sometimes. They also neglect their children throughout the story, make poor decisions, and believe a lot in self-sufficiency. At the beginning of the book, Jeannette Walls is three years old cooking hot dogs all by herself. She is using the stove unsupervised at an extremely young age, with her mother in the other room focusing on her painting.

Read More
344 Words | 2 Pages

Jeannette Walls tells the story about her life growing up. Her family wasn 't exactly homeless, but they didn 't have a secure place to stay. They traveled all over the country looking for new adventures. She 's the age of 3 when she tells her first adventures. As the middle daughter of very strange and unique parents, she became a very mature and responsible child..

Read More
448 Words | 2 Pages

Jeanette’s tone at the beginning of The Glass Castle is positive, even though the situations she is going through are abusive and neglectful. Her first memory is when she gets severely burned by boiling hot dogs at three years old. While at the hospital, the nurse asks if Jeannette is okay, to which she

Read More
758 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
732 Words | 3 Pages

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…”

Read More
1053 Words | 5 Pages

The Success of a Child The Glass Castle is a thrilling novel chock full of adventure, crisis, and experiences. A family moves around the country, with their highly intelligent father, who turns into a dangerous brute when he is drunk, a dysfunctional mother and three kids who must rely on one and other to survive. Watch as the children, particularly Jeannette, leave their chaotic life behind and build successful lives in New York. Unable to detach themselves from their children, the parents eventually follow them to New York. The success that Jeannette achieved was mostly due to her childhood, because her childhood taught her how to be determined, gave her strength, and made her fearless.

Read More
675 Words | 3 Pages

Jeannette take up the responsibility of taking care the household. She had grown up to think carefully of the way to spend the money, since most children of her age would spend money on their own needs and amusement, not on the thing they really needs and what others needs. As you can see, sometimes you can be mature and responsible at a very young age.     In conclusion, the theme for The Glass Castle is sometimes you can be mature and responsible at  a very young age.

Read More
1956 Words | 8 Pages

He conveys that Jeanette can become triumphant over anything she puts her mind to; as long as she is confident, she can overcome any obstacle in life. In a similar way, when the Walls go to the Hot Pot to swim, although her siblings know how, Jeanette does not know how to swim. In an attempt to teach her, Rex heaves her into the middle by herself, only saving her when she starts to sink. He continues to throw her out into the water repeatedly, saying, “you can’t cling to the side your whole life; one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is ‘if you don’t want to sink, you better figure out how to swim’” (66). Using another metaphor for a life lesson, Rex ensures that Jeanette understands that no one will do everything for her in life, and if she does not learn how to take care of herself, she will never survive in the world by herself.

Read More
515 Words | 3 Pages

In “ The glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls, Jeannette was the main support in the Walls home. Growing up in a household where her father was an alcoholic and a childish mother, she finds a way to leave the nest with her siblings and become a successful adult. Initially, Jeannette was soft spoken and mature for her age, however over the course the course of the novel she spoke her mind and became successful and independent. In the beginning of the book, Jeannette was well behaved and acted mature for a three year old.

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
984 Words | 4 Pages

“Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more.” The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls has very important life lessons that will teach you to laugh at your tragedies sometimes. The most important lessons are that struggle makes you unique, you either sink or swim, and sometimes crisis makes you realize your potential. In the memoir, you will learn these and accept them.

Read More
611 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More

More about Theme Of Maturity In The Glass Castle

Related Topics

Open Document