The Glass Castle Home./hōm/ noun- the place where one lives permanently. In The Glass Castle, a true memoir, by Jeannette Walls, talks about how the family moved around a lot. They were always moving because Rex Walls, their dad, constantly was losing his job or getting in trouble with the law. The kids identities were changed a lot throughout the story. Maureen, the youngest child in the family, changed the most. Her identity was shaped and made her into who she is today. Maureen identity goes from a small child, to sheltered sibling, to a christian, and finally to a codependent adult. The first identity she had, is a small child. When she was born, her siblings were five or six years older. She was to young to do a lot of stuff that the big kids did. Jeannette Walls, one of the older siblings remembers, “She was too young to run around with me and Brian, [Maureens older brother] so she spent most of her time riding up and down on the red tricycle Dad had bought for her, and playing her imaginary friends.”(110-111). This external conflict shaped her because she was essentially not big enough to do the things the big kids …show more content…
Because she was considered a small child, her siblings took extra care to make sure she was okay and that she did not grow up the way she did. Jeannette Walls often took it personally when she thought that she failed her as a big sister. Many times throughout her life “felt like I [she] was failing Maureen, like I [she] wasn’t keeping my promise that I’d [she had] made to her [Maureen] when I [she] held her on the way way home from the hospital after she was born.” (Walls 206). The confilct Maureen was facing, was external. She could not change the fact that her siblings looked after her like she was there own child. They would buy her presents, and try to protect her from the cruel, harsh world their parents put them in. Maureen older siblings made she was
At one point in the memoir, Jeannette’s mother, Rose Mary Walls, told Jeannette to expect a check in the mail, but her father, Rex Walls, got to it before she did and denied the fact that he had the check. This money was for the food that they were desperately trying to buy. Instead of Jeannette saying a word to her dad, she knew that saying something would not get the money back, so she took initiative while her mother was gone and did her best to find a job and make up the “lost”
From enthusiastic and on board with the life she lives, to not enjoying it and wanting to stop, Jeanette Walls life changes over the time of the book. Jeanette grew up with siblings, Brian, Lori and Maureen. She had a hard childhood constantly moving and not being able to make friends and did not have a lot of food. Her father was an alcoholic and could not hold a job, and her mother was a teacher who wanted to be an artist. She always dreamt big and had a lot of hope for the future but that changes in the book.
“Have I ever let you down?” (Walls). Rex Walls asks his children this question numerous times throughout the book. It shows how he is denying all the times he acts out and damages his family. In the children’s opinion, Rex is destroying the family piece by piece by being selfish with his intimidating threats. Leaving the children scared gives him more power and control over the family. Although well intentioned, Rex, from The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls, is self-absorbed, and thus impacts his children in a negative way.
People often fall into some sticky situations, but how they deal with them is the thing that matters most. In The Glass Castle, a memoir by Jeannette Walls, she takes the readers through her life, starting at her earliest memory as a three-year-old, constantly living in a state of homelessness. Throughout the story, Walls experiences countless situations from her father being an alcoholic, to everyday school bullies. She uses a series of coping mechanisms to deal with, and sometimes terminate these issues. In fact, everyone of her siblings and parents uses various coping methods for these same situations. These methods may not always be the most effective, but people, including the Walls family, nevertheless use them to get by on their
Jeanette Walls and her out of the ordinary family live their lives surrounded in pure craziness and poverty. Jeanette has been raised to be as independent as her age allows her. At age three she could make herself a hot dog and by the age of eighteen she had started a new life in New York away from the craziness that followed her parents throughout the kids nomadic childhood. Jeanette and her siblings Lori, Brian and Maureen live their childhoods with almost nothing. They were always wondering where their next meal would come from and where there parents had mysteriously disappeared to. Rex Walls, the father and husband was a severe alcoholic who spent most of his money on gambling or a beer from a local bar. Rose Mary Walls, the mother and wife was not better, never being to hold onto a job for long enough to get paid and support her family caused many problems for Rose Mary, Rex and most importantly… the kids. The kids all had the dream of escaping the prison their parents called home and heading to New York or California where they could feel endless happiness. The kids grow up with almost no parents, which forces them to become independent from the day they were born. In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Jeanette's parents teach her to only rely on herself and never get attached to something you can lose, forcing Jeanette to become strong and independent throughout her childhood.
The Glass Castle, written by Jeannette Walls, is an autobiographical novel that shows how hard life can be when you have little to no money and highly deteriorated parents. During the whole memoir it shows how hard it is to live in poverty while at the same time trying to raise a family. The exposition of the novel is how having parents that cannot support their children because the lack of a stable income. The rising action is when Jeannette was in a taxi cab going to a party when she sees her mother digging through the trash can and feels embarrassed and tells the taxi driver to take her home. The major conflict in the novel is a man vs. man because Jeannette, her brother, and her sister are all affected by her
Jeannette Walls had an extremely unique childhood that included tons of adventures, fun, and interesting events. However, it was not all good. It was full of confusion, suffering, hunger, pain, and hardships. Rose Mary and Rex Walls were not exactly ideal parents, but they cared for their children deeply and Jeannette, Lori, and Brian would not be the people they are today without what happened to them years ago. To some extent, Rose Mary and Rex are not awful parents.
Jeannette walls is the posterchild of outward social conformity. Born into a family ill-equipped to raise children, Walls was forced to find strength within herself in order to survive the chaos that her childhood entailed. Walls begins her memoir with her first memory at the age of three. She describes standing above the stove and watching herself catch on fire. Later when she is at the hospital her father comes in to do the "skedaddle" in order to avoid paying hospital fees. This is symbolic of the type of upbringing Walls endured. As a kid, Jeannette was daring and venturesome. Her impulsivity was fueled by her free spirited mother, Rose Walls, and her independant father, Rex Walls.
Jeannette Walls is a critically-acclaimed author (of both biographies and works of fiction), despite her unorthodox upbringing. Her parents supported giving their children excessive amounts of freedom, even though they were clearly too young to be taking care of themselves, causing Walls to light herself on fire while cooking herself a meal at only 3 years old. Also, they did not believe in proper treatment, hence why they force Jeannette to leave the hospital, although she is not finished with treatment, and still had third-degree burns all over her body. Considering her father would waste all of their money on cigarettes and alcohol, there were periods of her life where she was homeless, and would have to sleep in a cardboard box, that of which she shared with her three other siblings (and this is if they were lucky; otherwise, they would be forced to sleep in their car). However, a young Jeannette’s father would manipulate her into thinking it was “an adventure,” causing her to get
Throughout her life, starting from childhood, Jeannette Walls suffered through multiple hardships that could lead her away from a successful adult life. Since she was young, her parents put her through things that a child should never be exposed to, which could lead her to make these same mistakes as she grew older. For example, her father was an alcoholic, and from this many problems sprouted. Furthermore, her mother never wanted to be tied down, and loathed the idea of family life, as she did not want the responsibility of raising a family. Rose Mary was depicted as self-centered in the novel, and did not think of her children, as she only thought of her own needs. This can be shown when she keeps the diamond ring her children found for herself. Instead of thinking of her starving children, she states that, “‘self-esteem is even more vital than food’” (Walls 186). In this moment, Rose Mary shows that she is not thinking of her children and what they need to survive, but only cares about herself and what she has. Under these circumstances, any other parent would use the ring to buy food for their children, but instead she shows her inconsiderate nature by keeping the ring for herself. Another example of an event that could scar Jeannette far into her life would be when her father brought her to a bar and allowed a strange drunk man to take Jeannette to his apartment. When she told her father that she had almost been raped, he does not listen to
Initially Jeannette Walls relied on her parents to make decisions for her. However over the course of the book her maturity transforms into self resilience. All these experiences and decisions change her over time. She starts out a young clueless and dependant person. After many lessons she ends up a realistic down to earth independent person that gives her the best life possible.
One consequence, for example, showed Walls's parents trying so hard to separate themselves from society itself, that they didn't focus their attention on what's most important: their children, which in return showed the Walls family to be dysfunctional. They were constantly running away, always having problems with finances, which eventually resulted in scarce food and no working electricity. Although Jeannette Walls's parents earned
Jeannette’s family is not your average American family. Her father was a raging alcoholic who lost too many jobs to count and her mother was an adrenaline addicted painter, who never wanted to work
Throughout the story of loss, frustration, and redemption, Jeannette had responsibilities at a very young age. She learned how to fight for herself and how to let go- a valuable trait that if not developed, can ruin a person's life. She nursed her work ethic to a standard some could only dream of reaching, knowing that no one else would do it for her. Most of these people learn very late in life, but Walls had gone through trials that she gained knowledge from.
“The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls is a perfect example to an incite of her past event. The memoir as well as her autobiography, gave a new perspective to her life that showed how she become the person she is and the most important moments in her life that changed her. Though the book is only in her view, it does give an inside on the lives of the other character. But, it doesn’t show what is really going on with them. For example, Jeannette’s father struggled with alcoholism, though she always has a remarkable view of him. There had been certain things in the book that show that his life was struggling. Such as on page 43 when Jeannette’s mom jumped out of the moving car and ran into the darkness. Starting the fight