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.
This is a very significant and vital lesson the reader will learn as they read about Jeannette’s life. The author, Jeannette, never really comprehended this lesson until she grew up and matured. The lesson that Jeannette, the author, is trying to convey to the readers, is that there will always be a boundary between the two different forces, order and turbulence. But one force would not exist without the other, order and turbulence come hand in hand. Life is like a seesaw with two different forces sitting on one of the two ends, to balance out life so that it’s not too heavy on one side and too light on the other. The author conveyed this message through her memoir using her childhood experiences and her life now as a grown adult. Her childhood
A good parent has to provide for their child on an emotional basis and beyond. In some of the works of literature we read, qualities of a good parent became apparent. There is no such thing as a perfect parent. Parents need to make mistakes to learn for themselves and set a good example for their children. Balance is a major key in parenting. Without balance in life the scales can tip and a child may not develop in a healthy manner. Some parents can never be classified as “good” simply because they let their problems or outside issues obstruct care for their
In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls is forced to take care of herself from a very young age. Her parents are mentally unstable, and her dad regularly turns to alcohol. She is forced to move when any problems arise, which is often--from Battle Mountain to Phoenix to the small town of Welch, Virginia. Despite all of this, Jeannette has a memorable childhood, riding around on bikes, petting cheetahs, and declaring ownership of stars. Throughout her whole life, she is consistently the only one that believes in her reckless father. Even still, when their parents and their living situation becomes too much to bear, she and her sister Lori decide that they must get out, and find New York City to be the ideal location. In the end, Jeannette accepts
The role of parents in a child’s life is an irreplaceable one. Children are shaped by what they see their parents do and how they see them act. Children can choose to pattern themselves after what they see their parents do or they can choose to avoid being like their parents. In the story ‘Ashes’ by Susan Beth Pfeffer, Recent research shows, fathers affect the lives of their young adult daughters in intriguing and occasionally surprising ways. Ashes’ father can be mostly described as a good parent.
In the novel the Glass Castle Jeanette Walls learns from the mistakes of her parents that being successful in life depends of your characters and the choices you make in your life . Jeanette learns from her parents that if she doesn 't start thinking about her future at a young age , she’ll eventually be following the footsteps of her parents, and having an unpurposeful and an unrewarding lifestyle in her future. The Glass Castle suggests that in order to be successful in life you have to leave some things behinds and move on and that exactly what Jeannette Walls has done. Jeanette 's parents mistake was that they never thought about the future and always tried to enjoy the present. She chose to move away from her parents and live with her older sister and that decision she made was the main reason why she succeeded in life.
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. These attributes were key to Jeannette’s success,
In the Jeannette Walls memoir 'The Glass Castle', Rex Walls is a highly intellectual father with a lot of ingenious dreams, but they are never completed due to his extreme personality that cause his family to struggle financially. Among Rex's numerous intelligent dreams is the Prospector which is designed to help his family accumulate gold nuggets to be used in place of cash. Though never completed, it had high intentions being described as "..a big flat surface about 4th high and 6 ft wide ...The Prospector would scoop up dirt and rock and sift them....when ever we needed groceries we could go outback and grab ourselves a gold nugget" (Walls 23). The finished product of The Prospector would have brought their family huge success, but per usual
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
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. They think they can bend the rules and do what they think is necessary. Jeannette is exposed to these understandings, making her the person she grew up to be. Jeanette demonstrates how she struggles with her family throughout numerous portions of the novel: “The Desert,” “Welch,” New York.” These struggles developed and defined who she came to be.
In the memoir “The Glass Castle“ written by Jeannette Walls, it talks about how Jeanette and her family overcome the tough times they had in their life. One of the main ideas of the memoir Jeannette talks about is how she achieved her ambition and what were the consequences of the risk she took. “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success” by Henry Ford. This quote relates to Jeanette and her siblings because she and her sibling always worked together and helped one another when in need. Jeanette is the mostly the reason why she and her family had such a wonderful and rewarding time in New York.
Parenting is one of the most important if not the most important responsibility someone can undertake. A good parent is responsible for the physical and emotional development of a child who in the beginning is totally dependent on parents. Parenting is not an easy job. If you are incapable of this responsibility, you should not be a parent. At the beginning of her book, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls, her parents were incapable of providing a safe environment for their young, innocent children. As the story continued, the father and the mother did not show improvement, which made them unqualified parents due to the lack of providing for the basic survival needs or their children. According to Abraham Maslow 's theory of "the Hierarchy of Needs” there are five different types of needs that should be provided to all human beings, which are “the physiological needs, the needs for safety and security, the needs for love and belonging, the needs for esteem, and the need to actualize the self” (Boeree 2). Those are the needs that have to be satisfied for someone to have a healthy, successful, and a happy life. At the end of the story, the children received all their needs on their own, without the help of the parents. They only addressed those needs, when they escaped home and their parents. Their parents held them back from their true potential, which affected their lives and their future, physically and mentally.
Parents play a major role in a child’s life. Parents affect how their child behaves and who they become as they grow older. The ideal parent should be an attentive listener, have a positive attitude and love their child unconditionally.
Nicholas Sparks once said, “I don’t know that love changes. People change. Circumstances change.” In the memoir, The Glass Castle author Jeannette Walls shows how her father Rex Walls changes with everything thrown at him as a father or four. In the beginning of being a parent Rex shares his intelligence with his children. As Rex’s children get older rex get more and more worried about the kids. In the end of Rex’s parental run Rex becomes more productive with the way the kids run their own lives. Throughout The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, rex changes from an intelligent drunk to a paranoid person to a helpful father.
In “Only Daughter” by Sandra Cisneros, she describes a series of events throughout her life that all relate to her relationship with her father. Cisneros begins her story by talking about how she was seen as “only a daughter”. She then transitions to talking about her education and her father’s opinion on what it is for and worth. Cisneros then ends it with a conclusion between her and her father which involved one of her stories. Throughout the story, Cisneros talks about what she believed her father thought about her and her career choices, and they turn out to be a bit different than what she thought. In “Only Daughter” by Sandra Cisneros, she learns that just because someone doesn’t show appreciation for you or your actions doesn’t mean they don’t appreciate or enjoy them.