In Jeannette Walls’ work, “The Glass Castle,” she starts her memoir with a vivid story about her Mom rooting through a dumpster in New York City. Her Mom is currently homeless, but Jeannette is living in a lavish apartment on Park Avenue. Walls feels ashamed that she is living such an extravagant lifestyle, while her parents are living in filth. If you were in Jeannette Walls’ shoes, would you try to force your mother to live with you or would you let her enjoy being homeless, even though you know she is struggling just to find something to eat?
Throughout Walls’ piece, she gives countless examples of the nature of her childhood. One of these includes when her Mother’s carelessness directly results in her three-year-old child’s dress catching
The Glass Castle by: Jeannette Walls Jeannette Walls has a very rough childhood. To living in a RV to a car to a house, to a shack that's crumbling apart. She has a drunk as a father and a mother with some psychological issues making them useless as parents. Jeannette also has a brother and two sisters. The brother is named Brian the sisters are named Lori and Maureen.
In “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls, she shows moments of her life to explain the truth of her life and how she and her siblings fought through the hardships and persevered. One moment in the book that shows this is when their parents are away from Welch and Lori slaps Erma back after Erma molests Brian when Jeannette explains, “Lori heard the commotion and came running… Erma reached over to slap me, but Lori caught her hand… Erma jerked her hand out of Lori’s grasp and slapped her so hard that Lori’s glasses went flying across the room. Lori, who had just turned 13, slapped her back” (Walls 146-147).
In the excerpt from Jeannette Wall's autobiographical memoir, The Glass Castle, I noticed many strategies that she used while developing her story line. First, I realize that she uses very little humor due to the circumstances that she and her family are going through at the time, however, I did notice one example. This was when Jeannette's mother put mayonnaise in her hair before a school photograph and forgot to wash it out which made her hair more stiff, messy, and tangled than usual. Next, Jeannette uses many details throughout her writing to portray the struggles and hardships that her family is having to deal with, including money issues and her father's drinking problem.
In the novel, Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the reader is able to notice many characteristics about Jeannette and her father such as Jeannette being optimistic and her father being a little off. One quote that shows these character traits is, “‘We’re not poor,’ I said. She had used that word one too many times. ‘Of course, you’re not,’ the lady quickly replied. ‘I didn’t mean it that way.
The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls which describes her family’s troublesome past. When examining one of Jeannette’s childhood bullies, and her dad whipping her with a belt, it becomes apparent that even the worst experiences can have a valuable gift wrapped inside if you’re willing to receive it. The Walls kids came across numerous bullies throughout their childhood. When living in Welch, one of them was Ernie Goad, who made fun of the kids because of their poor living conditions.
The Walls family consists of Rex (father), Rose Mary (Mother), Lori, Brian, Jeannette, and Maureen (Children). Jeanette starts of her memoir in new york where she has made a living for herself, a good home in park avenue a nice husband and yet her parents are living out on the streets of the “Big Apple”. Not that she hasn't tried to help them, she has but her father insists they don't need anything and her mother asks for something silly like “perfume atomizer or membership in a health club”. Jeanette recalls her memories of when she was three, her parents are carefree and don't believe in rules or discipline.
The Glass Castle Parenting Paradigms The Glass Castle by Jeanette walls is a fascinating story of the author’s childhood and how she portrays her experiences. These hardships are brought on by her permissive parents and their laid back demeanor towards life. What I would call their “nontraditional” (Cherry, the four styles of parenting) way causes many troubles in the children’s life due to lack of parental guidance that should be the foundation of a stable childhood. The first and possibly foremost important example is how eager to play along with the children’s shenanigans Jeanette’s parents are.
Jeannette Walls, successful social figure and journalist, is on her way to a fancy New York City party. Looking out the window of a taxi, she watches a homeless woman dig through trash cans. She realizes sadly that It's her mother. Jeannette realizes this could be her and she tells us the story of how she got to where she is, sitting in a luxury car, while her mother Rose Mary is literally in the gutter.
Even though Mrs. Walls lived a luxurious childhood,
Walls does not live the life she wants, she lives under an alcoholic father and a selfish mother. She and her family experience hardships everyday including the poverty abuse, and molestation Jeannette endorsed. Throughout the story, Walls is trying to find a way to give herself and her family a better life. Walls tries to use the good sides of her father and her mother.
From her Dad, all the way down to her younger sister, the reader was able to visualize the characters as well as their personalities. Walls described all sides of her characters from the funny, exciting, and happy side to the darker side that her characters, but especially her parents had. She wrote honestly about how her dad struggled with being an alcoholic and how her mom struggled with severe mood swings. She described her siblings personalities through how they each handled their parents decline and the hardships they had to
Her and her siblings faced extreme poverty and adverse conditions, but her parents liked to pretend that their family life was just an “incredibly fun adventure”. During her childhood the concept of adventure was more than enough to eliminate many of her worries about her uncertain lifestyle. Throughout the memoir, Walls demonstrates the importance of
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.
The walls parents consider themselves to be their kids’ friend rather than a concerned parent. “’ Good for you, Mom said when she saw me cooking. You’ve got to get right back on the saddle”’ (15)… Friends tend to encourage you to do stupid things but in this situation Jeannette’s mother is the one encouraging her to do something not so bright. Rex and Rosemary do not expect their kids to become any greater than they are.
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.