Raising Children In The Glass Castle

Then I’d turn on the stove, and when the water was boiling, I’d drop in the hot dogs.” (Walls 10,11). Particularly, they questioned how it is that she could use the stove at such a young age and she explained that her mother believed she was “mature for [her] age and let [her] cook for [herself] a lot” (Walls 11). At such a young age, most parents would not risk their child to cook a meal for themselves involving fire and electricity for the most part, or at least without their assistance. But Jeannette Walls did, it was a part of not being treated like the “fragile flower”, but growing up and learning in experience.

Esperanza recognizes a somewhat better role model in Alicia. However, although Alicia has managed to provide education for herself, her role as the women of the house forces her to come home each night; “Close your eyes and they’ll go away, her father says, or You’re just imagining. And anyway, a woman’s place is sleeping so she can wake up early with the tortilla star, the one that appears early just in time to rise and catch the hind legs hide behind the sink, beneath the four-clawed tub, under the swollen floorboards nobody fixes, in the corner of your eyes” (Cisneros 22). The effect that gender roles have on Alicia’s life is expressed when she explains the imperfections she sees in Mango Street to her father who attempts to convince her otherwise. Her father’s standard, and further, the community's standard of women is too strong for Alicia to counter.

The first thing the walls children did as adults was provide themselves with food. When Jeannette was just three years old she already knew how to use the stove to cook herself food. She made herself a hot dog on the stove at age three and she ended up burning herself. (9) When she burnt herself her parents had to bring her to the hospital and Jeannette

“That was the thing about the hospital. You never had to worry about running out of stuff like food or ice or even chewing gum. I would have been happy staying in that hospital forever” (Walls 12). • Jeannette Walls had been taken to the hospital at the age of three years old with horrible burns after trying to boil hot dogs.

Women could not go to work and make money, in the south they stayed at home and did work inside the house and cooked. “Mayella looked as if she tried to keep clean…” (Doc A; Chapter 18) All women had expectations to live by. Men in the 1930’s went to work everyday trying to make money so their family could survive.

So far so good, in the pages I’ve read, there are so many messages conveyed in the memoir, but the main idea that interests me the most is the message of Self sufficiency. Self sufficiency is the ability to be able to supply one’s own or its needs without external assistance. In the first few chapters of the book, there is a prime example of Jeannette’s self sufficiency when she burns her self when cooking hot dogs at the age of three. How possibly could a three-year-old girl cook hot dogs for herself.

One example of the skedaddle is, when Jeannette was 3 years of age. She was making hot dogs with boiling water on their stove top with an open flame. Her dress caught on fire and she was rushed to the hospital with very serious burns. She was there for about 6 weeks until Rex came to bust her out.

In the novel Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, main character Billie Jo faces several challenging obstacles throughout her lifetime. Getting through these obstacles is the only way Billie Jo can learn to forgive her father as well as herself for their mistakes. Once she learns to stop feeling resentful, and let go, Billie Jo will be able to grow up. The first major challenge Billie Jo faces is when a fire breaks out in her home. The fire ignites when Billie Jo’s mother mistakes a pail of kerosene for water, where,“instead of making coffee, Ma [makes] a rope of fire”(87).

The July 12th, 1997 there was a girl born in Mangora, named Malala. Her family had not money enough to pay for a midwife, so a neighbor helped at birth. Malala was one of two children who was not stillborn. She got her name form a woman called Malalai, who was the greatest heroine of Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, it is defeat to give birth to a girl.

This sets her as someone that only cares about herself and that doesn’t really care what others say. Connie is a different and jealous girl at home.. Connie’s mom would tell her that why would she be like her sister June, “..Connie had to hear her praised all the time by her mother and her mother’s sisters. June did this, June did that, she saved money and helped cleaned the house and cooked and Connie couldn’t do a thing …” (Oates 233)

Based on how life use to be in Mexico. A young girl named Tita lives in the city of Mexico she was the youngest daughter in her family. While Tita mother in the kitchen table chopping onion she was pregnant with her .Also , Tita cried in her mother womb when onion were chopped and that when she want to labor in the kitchen table .She was born in torrential storm of tears . Tita father died of a heart attack right after she was born by hearing that he has been cuckolded.

Or maybe it was just that new parents were always boastful with their first child. For all of Lorena’s childhood, she was surrounded by the love and support of her parents. She quickly grew to be a beautiful and happy child, which her parents were proud of. Despite not being the most rich people in their neighborhood, Lorena’s parents did everything to make sure their daughter was proud of who she was and what she achieved. The push in school came from her parents because

The Walls family lived a very out of the ordinary life compared to most families. They lived all over the West side of America from Phoenix to San Francisco. Yet, one of the most important areas they lived in was Battle Mountain. Jeannette spent a huge chunck of her childhood here. Battle Mountain was where she started to grow up, experiencing learning to swim to kissing a boy.

In the memoir, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Jeannette manages to overcome her obstacles by realizing her independence. She is impacted by her parents’ incapabilities because she realizes that she has to do things differently than other children. Her father was a stubborn alcoholic who believed that: “[they] were all getting too soft, too dependent on creature comforts, and that [they] were losing touch with the natural order of the world”(Walls 106). He believes that every human should be independent and fend for themselves. By using the term “creature comforts”, her father is trying to separate himself from what he calls the civilians.

The Glass Castle: Jeannette Walls- Responsibility Haileigh Williams Upon reading The Glass Castle, written by Jeannette Walls, the reader will quickly notice all of the responsibilities Jeannette; the author and narrator of the novel, takes on throughout her life. The book itself is a memoir of Jeannette’s life that takes place from 1963 to 2005 and takes the reader through the ups and downs of Jeannette’s life in poverty and somewhat neglect. While reading the novel, the reader will be shown situations where they will be shocked and heartbroken. Jeannette’s family isn’t the average family from the south.