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What Is The Theme Of The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

1756 Words8 Pages

Milestone #3: Contemporary Work Jeannette Walls spent decades finding ways to hide her past; she fabricated stories of her own upbringing to help her fit seamlessly into the New York jet-setter lifestyle. While it wasn’t exactly a double life, as she was certainly authentic in her present life, the betrayal of her true origins gnawed at her personal acceptance of not only her family but of herself. Penning the memoir The Glass Castle afforded Walls the opportunity to not only embrace her unconventional upbringing but to examine how it ultimately impacted her personal development. This character driven story exhibits many contemporary genre characteristics as it challenges the accepted norms of familial relationships, poverty, and education. It is important to note that Walls is a well-known person who holds a certain amount of celebrity-like appeal. This factor is essential to understanding The Glass Castle because it is the driving force behind its creation. Jeannette Walls is not who the reader may think she is. At the very least, she hasn’t always been who the reader thinks she is. She acknowledges that immediately with the dedication of the book: “To John, for convincing me that everyone who is interesting has a past.” This admission that the story about to unfold may not be congruent …show more content…

This includes tales of surviving neighborhood bullies (76), eating from the bathroom trashcan (176), surviving sexual advances from numerous family members (148) and being used by her father to hustle drunk men at the bar (218-220). Ultimately, when the crisis occurs, Jeanette escapes the oppressive poverty she lived in with her family in Welch, West Virginia (240). Perhaps the book’s most conventional narrative structure element is the resolution. The final chapter tells of the Walls family gathering for Thanksgiving at Jeanette’s country home where they toast their passed father

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Analysis Of The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

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Jeannette Walls is walking the streets of New York City when she sees her homeless mother digging in the dumpster. Filled with shame, Jeannette rushes home and begins reflecting upon her childhood and how her parents’ choices have affected her. Throughout her childhood, Jeannette is determined to create for herself a successful life. In her memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls narrates the story of her triumphant success against all odds, and her unconditional love for her family despite their apparent flaws.

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Life had never been easy for Jeanette Walls, growing up she consistently faced several forms of adversity at the hands of her parents, such as hunger, sexual assault, practical homelessness, and abuse. With so many tribulations, one would expect her to have become another low income statistic. However, just like a mountain goat, who does not actually belong to the goat family, Jeanette is of a different breed. While her parents exposed her to many harsh realities, they also instilled many important life lessons, whether they were aware of it or not. If it weren't for Rex and Rose Mary Walls, Jeanette would not have been as tough, driven, or creative enough to have survived in Manhattan.

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The articles of confederation has many strengths but also some weaknesses, one strength is that it gave congress the power to deal with foreign affairs and authority to declare war, make peace, alliances, and sign treaties. This was a huge step because now a designated person has the control to make big decisions such as these. It also encouraged coordination and cooperation between different states and they can settle disputes between the states. This ultimately led to less conflict amongst the states in the United States and gave further attention to the conflict going on out of the U.S. A weakness that was not resolved by the Articles of Confederation is they have no power to regulate commerce or trade between the states; each state could

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Rhetorical Devices In The Glass Castle

1574 Words | 7 Pages

“If you don 't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim” (41). Although Rex Walls was not always an admirable father and role model, he did make an essential point while teaching his daughter, Jeannette, how to swim. In life, not everything comes without resistance. As Jeannette Walls describes throughout her life story, sometimes people are forced to face hardships that make them question their whole life. However, as seen in her book, it is important to learn to take those hardships and use them to shape one’s future for the better.

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Jeannette Walls depicted an epoch of misfortune and adversity in her memoir, The Glass Castle. Jeannette and her 3 other siblings were all in a constant struggle to survive. Rex and Mary, the parents of Jeannette and her 3 siblings, were often in a constant dichotomy between submitting to self-interest and supporting the family. Having misfit parents, Jeannette and her 3 siblings were often independent and left to fend for themselves and for the family as a whole. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls evolved the theme of ideal versus reality throughout her memoir though her countless anecdotes of her father and his unattainable plans to find gold and to build a home, named The Glass Castle, for his family and her mother’s dream to become a professional and well redound artist.

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Having the feeling of a secure and normal life was more important to the Walls children, rather than having the freedom they were all so accustomed to. The children of the Walls were often faced with many challenges. The family struggled mostly financially, from their parents not acquiring a stable job and income. Most of the time, they could not even afford food to feed the children. Lori Walls, the eldest of the Walls’ children, had always seem to make security more of an important need for herself by the time she was older.

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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.

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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.

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In her memoir The Glass Castle, Walls reminisces about her youth and her dysfunctional family. Though a very unique experience, Jeannette Walls’ childhood may be able to relate to the lives that some students are living today. The Glass Castle should be offered as a summer reading because it brings very real issues to life. By discussing issues such as poverty, parental neglect, and sexual abuse, Jeannette Walls exposes students to important

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Success: An Escape from Privation Inevitably, the conflicts people face at multiple points in their life is a determining factor in shaping individuals into the person they will eventually become. Namely, these conflicts direct people 's behavior over the course of time; contributing to a person’s ability to achieve success. In particular, Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle is an honest depiction of her life and the conflicts that arise throughout her state of impoverishment, as well as the success that stems from her hardships.

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Furthermore, Walls’ enthusiasm about the Glass Castle, calling it “special” and “great”, communicates to the reader that this is what she perceives to be her dream in life. She believes that the

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In her memoir, the Glass Castle, Jeanette Wall’s discusses and explores many different concepts that affected her family dynamic and her development. One of these matters is homelessness. Individuals are able to live in a stable environment, sleep in a warm bed, wear clean clothes, and enjoy proper meals; but not all of these basic needs are enjoyed by everyone and their families. This undesirable situation is portrayed in Jeannette Walls novel. Jeannette vividly depicts homelessness by exploring its causes, its impact on daily life, and its effect on her family.

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Through the Eyes of the Impoverished The novel The Glass Castle is more than just thousands of words typed on simple, yet small, white sheets of paper; it is a memoir that recounts a time when a young girl went through heart wrenching struggles to find food to eat, enough water to bathe in, and parents who actually acted like parents. Jeannette Walls grew up with an unsteady family that included a few kind siblings, an alcoholic as a father, and a mother with her head in the clouds. It is obvious life was never easy for this author as she managed to keep the household together, constantly calming her dad down after an alcohol driven burst of rage, or reminding her mother that it was necessary she pulled herself out of bed to go work to help

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It is evident that her childhood may have impacted her in a more severe psychological way. The book The Glass Castle is a very interesting narrative. The author Jeanette Walls is able to bring new light to circumstances that many people choose to ignore or overlook by writing about her own childhood. This gives the book a new perspective and allows the reader to gain insight.

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