Resilience In The Glass Castle

Timothy Findley explores an individual’s struggle to keep a sense of resilience while

The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls New York Abstract Jeannette Walls was a daughter of a father that was an alcoholic, and parents that did not want to work for what they had. They were always jumping around from home to home, and the siblings were tired of it. At a young age, Jeannette had to learn ow to fend for herself by making food, washing her clothes, etc. It was hard for Jeannette growing up, but as soon as Jeannette and Lori get a chance to move they take it. Jeannette then moves to New York City with Lori where she acquires a reporting job.

The children were taught to always look at the glass half full that half empty. Throughout their struggle, their parents unique mindset set them apart from standard, but they never let their experiences turn into

“Life’s too short to care about what other people think” (Jeannette Walls). It is good to not care what other people think, so stay true in life and live it to the fullest. The book, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, is a memoir that tells the story of Jeannette’s difficult family and her poor living conditions, that cause life to be difficult for her. She struggles to move past all the hardships in life and she learns how to overcome the majority of them, so she can develop into her own person. Even though her family can be a little peculiar, they possess a strong bond with each other and they always seek to help one another out.

The Glass Castle Essay Wesley Murray A3 8/28/16 In Jeannette Walls’s book The Glass Castle, there are many examples of what is called human resilience. No better quote describes human resilience better than, “No matter how much falls on us, we keep plowing ahead.

And without the capability to assess future risks and repercussions of a decision, Rex almost kills his wife in the process. Struggling to cope with their father’s rages and without a means to restrain him, Jeanette’s family is forced to face Rex’s violent

Her and her siblings are exposed to unideal living conditions and have to learn to take care of themselves, especially due to the fact that their father, Rex walls seems to suffer from an undiagnosed mental illness. Considering Rex Walls symptoms throughout the memoir are linked to having bipolar disorder, he was unpredictable. Jeannette and her sibling’s ability to be resilient despite their father’s bipolar disorder growing up are perfect examples of Max Lerner’s quote “the turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt” and has let them get far in life even with everything they had to

Jeannette described that this experience made her feel used by her father and gave her a sense of self-worthlessness. Rex knew that Jeannette had a soft spot for him and he took advantage of this. Jeannette has a psychological scar from this for the rest of her life, and it produced long-term effects of distrust and diminished self-worth. As a child she had been through more than most adults, and in one case she even wakes up in the middle of the night with a child molester in her bed. “One night when I was almost ten, I was awakened by someone running his hands over my private parts” (Walls 103).

What does resilience really mean to you? The literal definition to resilience is the ability to cope with problems and setbacks. In the story Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, she shows us all different kind of ways that the characters in her story used the skills that Kendra Cherry was talking about, to help them out of every situation. In this story it shows how certain situations affect people in different ways and how each person goes through seven skills. The characteristic that Louie undergoes is the skill of Strong Problem-Solving.

In the memoir, Rex Walls’ internal conflict, Jeannette Walls’ conflict with Rose Mary, and Jeannette’s conflict with society push her to become the person she is today. Therefore, Jeannette Walls’ owes her success to the hardships she had as a child. 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.

It’s one of the main key issues addressed in this memoir. The Walls family were very poor and sometimes ‘stable’ in the basic needs of life. Unfortunately, Walls children had to grow and suffer in a wretched and miserable home, enduring poverty and hunger. Jeannette and her family always make do with the situation they are in, from sleeping in their car to overdrawing their accounts at the bank by having Mary and Rex (Jeannette’s parents) withdraw money simultaneously. And Jeannette and her siblings always picked their lunches from the cafeteria trash at school.

Since the Walls family is so poor and homeless it seems that Rex and Rosemary are not always there to give their children the support and comfort that kids need at a young age. Instead of giving love and comfort, they decide to teach their kids how to be tough and how to learn to do things themselves. Unlike most parents, who focus on supporting, caring for their children first, and then teaching them how to live on their own once they get much older. This attentive parenting method is not visible in the Walls’ family. For example, when Jeannette has her accident with fire and explained it to the nurses she gets rather surprised and

Above all, one of the things that really stood out in Jeannette’s life going hand in hand with forgiveness was her father being an alcoholic. She lived her life dealing with rages as well as experiencing sweet and memorable moments with her father, Rex. Jeannette was a daddy’s girl and always tried to look for the good in everyone after her mother told her this quote, “You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that” (Walls 144). Rex always wanted the best for his family even though sometimes he would not go the right way in handling things.

The Glass Castle is an extraordinary story of resilience and redemption, and a revelation about a family who was once deeply dysfunctional but uniquely vibrant. I believe that the story is highly suitable for people my age as it covers the issues about how the quality of parenting affects a child’s views, opinions and dreams as he grows up. It clearly shows how parents’ strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures influence how a child thinks and behaves. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive.

According to Masten (2001) “resiliency refers to a class of phenomena characterized by good outcomes in spite of serious threats to adaptation or development” (p. 228). Garmezy (1991) considers the intelligence level of an individual and ability to possess the mind power to tackle an adverse situation as one pleases as the core characteristics of a resilient individual. Garmezy (1991) resiliency framework allows student affairs professionals is to examine the strengths of disadvantaged students who are faced with various life stressors, but