An Analysis Of Jeannette Walls The Glass Castle

Mary was an unorthodox mother who was often swaying back and forth between the temptation to pursue her selfish endeavor of becoming an artist and her duty as a mother to assume responsibility and support her family. This constant feud resulted in the entire family losing faith in her and becoming distraught. Jeannette’s mother was one of the key factors that contributed in the plan for her and her older sister, Lori to move to New York and start a fresh life there. It was with the realization that the only method in which they can prosper and live a good life was to leave their parents and start a life anew. Jeannette and Lori realized that they must think logically and think about progressing in life although this plan may not comply with the ideal plan of living together as an amalgamated

The younger children are forced into one foster home, and Camille and Regina move into a house managed by an Addie and Peter. The older couple is nice to them and has strict, but very clear, rules.

relationships. In the novel, Rose, who is pregnant, moves across the country to live in a home for pregnant girls, where she later marries the handyman. Her husband, Son, tells her, “You came here because you wanted to give her up and then you didn’t, you married me, you stayed here, and now it all doesn’t seem to matter very much, and sometimes I wonder why you did it, is all” (175). Son notices Rose’s indifference towards everything in their lives. She does not care about Son because she feels no sense of loyalty towards him. She is far from the image of the devoted wife and the audience realizes that she feels no attachment to her family. Rose’s allegiance to

To begin, Rex Walls’ internal conflict comes from his inability to provide for his family. Being a father, Rex Walls has an obligation to look after his family and to make sure everyone is looked after. However, he spirals into alcoholism; recklessly spending money on liquor rather than on provisions that would help sustain his family. His compulsive spending on alcohol is, unfortunately, a major factor keeping the Walls family in a continuous cycle of impoverishment. As a result, Jeannette Walls is forced into a life of responsibility; having to be the one who looks after her siblings, as well as being the one to regulate what little money the Walls family had; this eventually drives her to head to New

How this turned out to be good was that after their argument, the next day Rose got a job as a teacher at their elementary. The argument forced her and made her realize she needed to get a job. Although the argument could of turned out to be violent and lead to someone getting hurt, if the fight had never occured Rose wouldn’t have applied for the teaching job. Her being a teacher brought home more money than they usually have, meaning they were able to have food in the fridge benefitting for the whole family. In one of the chapters Jeannette said with her mom having a job they could put mayonnaise in her hair for picture day to make her hair look good (pg. 76). This shows the improvements from before and after the argument as to before they could not even afford food. The fight between Rex and Rose could of gone one way or another but turned out to be better for the rest of the family. Choosing the high road during a complicated condition can lead to positive outcomes, like Rosemary did in the argument. Having a negative situation might not be that bad considering that it can give something more, such as the kids getting stars and planets for christmas instead of gifts. The Walls family have had it pretty tough but yet they have managed to turn a bad situation into something

Jeannette Walls also uses the symbol of the Glass Castle, which develops throughout the memoir to show how she slowly loses trust in her father as she realises that she can not depend upon him or anyone else for happiness. The symbolism evolves throughout the memoir as Walls evolves as a person. In the beginning of the memoir, her description of the Glass Castle is naive and hopeful. Her naivety is most apparent when Walls writes, “All of Dad’s engineering skills and mathematical genius were coming together in one special project: a great big house he was going to build for us in the desert… All we had to do was find gold, Dad said, and we were on the verge of that. Once he finished the prospector and we struck it rich, he’d start work on our glass castle” (25). Walls’ innocence and optimism for the creation of the Glass Castle is indicated through her belief that Rex really is on the verge of finding gold and building the Glass Castle. In reality, he was out drinking all day, spending money that could have been used to feed Walls and her siblings. She still thinks that her father will follow through on his promises, and in doing so bring her happiness. She is unaware of his deception, which is becoming increasingly damaging to his family, as they have trouble affording food. 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

She struggled with how the society and her family shaped who she was. She was exposed to her family first which made her behave the way she did under her family’s house. Jeanette struggled with her family by taking care of the house, beings told bending the rules is okay and the acceptance of her Mom’s and Dad’s homelessness. When Jeannette left her family and went to live in New York, she becomes an individual. She fends for herself and gets her life together. She proved that one must depend on others and their outside surroundings in order to successfully find their individuality and unaccompanied personality from the inside. Jeannette became an independent woman through her unintentional battles becoming an

The children made massive efforts to leave Welch and the family. They were determined to not end up like their parents. Jeanette wanted to start being accepted by people, she wanted to be like everyone else. In this following quote is shows the new values Jeanette has adopted of wanting a better life, “ I was convinced that people might be more accepting of us if we made an effort to improve the way 93 Little Hobart street looked. “ , “ I had been counting on mom and dad to get us out, but I knew I had to do it on my own.” ( page 364 and 512 ). This showed that Jeanette wanted to actually do something about their living status, she wanted to live a better life. The children saw no future in Welch, their father's drinking was worse and mother was going crazy. They even lost all complete faith in the Glass Castle. The children worked tirelessly raising up money for themselves to leave. Jeanette worked at a jewelry store, Lori sold posters, and Brian did labor work. The children sought the inspiration of going to New York and leaving the harsh life in Welch , they saw New York as their new Glass Castle. The children used their adventurous values to make New York happen, the children were almost colonizing New York. it took great courage and

Following in Lorie’s footsteps Jeannette begins planning her escape too. Jeannette’s decision to leave hits the hardest because it really shows how unstable and unbearable their home in Welch is. Jeannette leaving makes it known how their father wasn't able to take care of them and how the only option of making it is leaving Welch and her parents behind. As seen later in the book towards the end Jeannette father comes to her asking her to look over something then proceeds to roll out the old plans for the Glass Castle. Only this time instead of reverting back to the mind state she did as a child where she let the promise of the Glass Castle blind the truth of everything else she tells her father he’ll never build the glass castle and regardless if he does she’ll be gone for New York. He then suggests she could stay and graduate from Welch’s high school and get a job at Welch’s news station with a promise he’ll build the glass castle and the whole family can live in

Could the dysfunction of the Walls family have promoted the amazing resilience and strength of Jeannette through various daily challenges? It is easy to see that Rex and Rose Mary did not provide a safe and nurturing environment for Jeannette and her siblings. This forced her into a few unique situations, which resulted in her having to fight for herself, and become her own hero. This helps Jeannette generate an identity for herself. As she learned new social and survival skills in the hopeless town of Welch, Virginia.The children realize that they must govern themselves due to lack of parenting, so the children reach a sense of unity. Jeannette develops her awareness, drive, and cunning survival skills while living in Welch. Resulting in a developing sense of confidence in her ability to survive anything. This transition to acting like an adult while awful, sets the stage for her ability to leave her environment behind with little worry for future success. The heart of Jeannette Walls’ identity is courage. Jeannette throughout the book faces hardships that some will never experience, such as, challenging her school system, going against her own thoughts, and placing herself in others shoes.

He throws her into his car where the rest of her family are waiting for her. They all leave town trying to skip out of paying hospital fees or questioning. Jeannette and her family left and went to live in the desert in their car and several nights they had to sleep on the ground; however, Jeannette quite enjoyed sleeping in the desert since she would always get to stare at the stars until she drifted asleep. In the desert, Rex Walls tells Jeannette all of these “amazing” stories that Rex has been through and about a glass castle that he and his family are going to build one day. Jeannette soon become fascinated with fire and loves to play with matches. As her family travels to Las vegas, the children are left in a hotel room without their parents. Jeannette begins to play with matches and soon after a fire starts because of Jeannette, and the entire Walls family leaves Las Vegas. Shortly after, Jeannette and her family learns that her mother is pregnant. That Christmas, the family has no money because Rex is fired from his mining job after arguing with the foreman.

As I read the book, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, I discovered how unfortunate other people’s lives can be. The four Walls children; Lori, Jeannette, Brian, and Maureen, all learned how to take care of themselves and each other. Their parents, Rosemary and Rex Walls, weren’t always there to help them when they needed it most. Based on this, I have realized that the four children yearn for freedom rather than safety. The narrator, Jeannette, admired her parents, especially her father. But, as she grew older, she realized that they weren’t people that should be admired. Her father was never home, drunk, and wasting their money gambling, while her mother was either crying on the sofa or trying to fulfill her life long dream of becoming

One reader might ask her how she managed not to ever condemn her parents, even when their actions evidently upset her. Walls always highly regarded them and believed in them, “I figured I was strong enough to keep Dad in line…my chance to prove that Dad could be managed came that summer, once school was out” (Walls 208). Many readers probably wonder how she saw beauty and goodness in situations that others would not. The way Walls still loves a doll that she accidently defaces is an example of how she is optimistic and positive she is: “Tinkerbelle’s once perfect little nose had completely disappeared, and her saucy red lips had been replaced with an ugly, lopsided smear… Even though her face was melted, she was still my favorite toy” (Walls 16). This reader would certainly like to tell Walls that she did an incredible job of spinning an amazing story out of some pretty unfortunate

There is a line that really sticks out in the beginning of the memoir. The family just moved again because they were running from the police and Lori and Jeannette are sleeping outside because they have nowhere to stay. ""We could live like this forever," I said. "I think we're going to," she said." (Walls 18). Lori doesn’t come right out and say that she is displeased with her living situation, but it hints at the beginning of her displeasure towards her current lifestyle. But even though the story begins to show some conflict, it also demonstrates how this family embraces their struggles and abnormal lifestyle as an adventure. A wonderful example of this is when Jeannette sees a Joshua tree sapling and she told her mother she wanted to replant it near her house so she could protect it from things to make sure it would grow tall and straight. "Mom frowned at me. "You'd be destroying what makes it special," she said. "It's the Joshua tree's struggle that gives it its beauty." (Walls 38). The way Walls uses symbolism to compare the Joshua tree to Jeannette and her family is a wonderful way to enforce the

The children were in the back of the U-Haul during one of their many moving trips and they almost fell out because of the carelessness of their parents. Due to the fact that the kids fell out, there was much chaos because there was “little communication.” (Cherry). “The driver must have signaled Mom and Dad because the U-Haul slowed to a stop.” (50) Rex was full of anger and frustration towards his children even though the whole situation was his and Rosemary’s fault. Not only do the parents protect Jeanette and her brother from dangerous situations but they also don’t keep them away from dangerous people. “While these parents fulfill the child’s basic needs, they are generally detached from their child’s life.” (Cherry) When the family moves in to huge home in Phoenix, all the windows and doors are kept unlocked and opened. One night, the neighborhood pervert comes into the house and touches Jeanette. “I was awakened by someone rubbing their hand on my private parts.” (103) she screams in fear but the only people that come to her rescue are her brother and sister. Later that evening Both Jeanette and Brian go out and try to hunt the man down, not the