'The Glass Castle' By Jeanette Walls

When society thinks of the word “childhood,” they imagine it as a precious time for children to be in school and freely play, to grow and learn with the love and support from people dear to their hearts. It is also known to be a cherished period where children are to be innocent and live carefree from fear. However, in the context of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, childhood is viewed as a tough hardship that Jeannette and her siblings have overcame, and the memories they carry has greatly impacted their lives that it has molded them to who they are

In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Rose Mary is the mother of the Walls children who often does not act as a true adult. Rose Mary’s attitudes and behaviours are childlike, and therefore her children must take on responsibility for the lack her own. Rose Mary ignores her obligations as a parent and chooses an irresponsible way of life which endangers her children. Rose Mary has never properly matured into adulthood due to her lack of financial stability, bliss ignorance and optimism, and her selfishness nature.

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.

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. When he says “ the natural order of the world”, he means that the world should not be subjected

Forgiveness is the theme of the Glass Castle because although Jeannette Walls was neglected, betrayed, and even belittled by her parents she doesn’t hold any negative feelings towards them. She exemplifies the theme of forgiveness by never blaming her parents for neglecting them, when her mother and father both squander her money on themselves, or when her parents allowed Erma to treat them as horribly as she did. Jeannette knows who her parents are, accepts and forgives, to the point that she can have a Thanksgiving dinner with Lori, Brian, and Mom reminiscing about the days of past.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book The Glass Castle. I found the book deeply moving as well as meaningful and gives insight to a lifestyle that is usually overlooked in society. The main take away from this book I found is a family such as the Walls, who are just getting by are usually overlooked. They were not constantly living on the streets and moved around multiple times, thus alluding attention that would have affected their life.

The Finest Hours by Michael J. Tougias and Casey Sherman is the true story of the brave men who risked their own lives to save others. The journey across the sea consisted of many situations that they had to face. Not many people would risk their own lives to save someone else’s. The book describes the situations in a great deal, and any reader will enjoy reading the book.

Over the summer I read about a person who was a really good track star and served in World War II. Written by Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken is a non-fiction World War II story about a young man named Louis Zamperini. The story takes place in the pacific islands and Japan during World War II Louis grew up as a restless and naughty boy, but then became a good and famous track star before getting drafted into the second world war. Louis faces the challenge of surviving on his own and enduring cruelty against Japanese leaders as a prisoner of war.

Austen uses syntax to further emphasize the rehearsed awkwardness of Mr. Collins’ proposal. She utilizes longwinded and wordy sentences with many commas. An example of this is the quote, “But the fact is, that being, as I am, to inherit this estate after the death of your honoured father (who, however, may live many years longer), I could not satisfy myself without resolving to choose a wife from among his daughters, that the loss to them might be as little as possible, when the melancholy event takes place—which, however, as I have already said, may not be for several years.” This sentence is comprised of seventy-two words, and sounds unnatural when read aloud. The length of Mr. Collins’ speech alone, when compared to Elizabeth’s syntax, is intended to show their incompatibility. When Elizabeth makes her refusals her sentence structure is simple and to the point.” This is evident in the sentence, “I am perfectly serious in my refusal.”

After few hours reading, “The Sanctuary of School” was written by Lynda Barry, grew up in an interracial neighborhood in Seattle, Washington State. Then, I think this article was interesting to read. I love the way how she told us her past experience by using her own voice to lead us step by step get into her story, then she also shares us about her feeling and how it impacted to her future life. Plus, at the end, she argues that the government should not be cutting the school programs and art related activities. Those programs definitely do help the students and the parents as well. It helped the children learn new things and fill out the empty space that the children need their parent to fill out, but their parent were so busy with works

Frank Beddor’s book The Looking Glass Wars is another version of The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland. In this retelling of the story, Alyss is a princess in the queendom of Wonderland. Her Aunt Redd takes over the throne as Queen Alyss is cast out of Wonderland and has to find her way home to retake her throne. In this book there are many themes evident. One is making sacrifices for the good of others. It is shown through the characters Genevieve Heart, Hatter Madigan, and Alyss Heart.

Trinity falls is the kind of perfect, All- American town, that is plastered on postcards and idolized by snobby people all over the world. However as everyone knows, nothing is ever that perfect, it will always have flaws. In the book The Streams of Babel by Carol Plum-Ucci, a bizarre occurrence leaves the perfect little town in an almost perfect mess. Carol Plum-Ucci wrote this novel in 2008, and it strongly portrays the paranoia of the American people after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Carol Plum-Ucci is 59 year old novelist, currently living in New Jersey. She has been nominated for a couple awards, including; Michael L. Printz Award, and The Edgar Award for Best Young Adult. In one of her more recent books, The Streams of Babel, she is praised for her top quality writing style. The element of literature that is superior in this novel is the multiple first person viewpoints. The multiple first person viewpoints make this novel excellent, because it never becomes boring, gives the reader more information, and helps with the development of the characters.

I aspire to live each day as if it were my last and to live a life full of passion, commitment, continuous improvement, personal growth and determination. Whilst doing so, I wish to learn to love myself, and only then will I automatically receive the love and appreciation that I desire from others. I aim to inspire and touch those around me and leave the world a better place than when I arrived. I will go through life with a smile on my face and a twinkle in my eye, while I strive to fulfil my utmost potential.

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines childhood as “The early period in the development of something.” For some children their childhood is idyllic and some of the best, most carefree years of their life. Unfortunately, one cannot control their childhood. Many children who grow up with parents that are in and out of jail, alcoholics and or drug addicts, grow up to be just like them. In the bestselling memoir, The Glass Castle,Jeannette Walls parents struggle with addiction, dysfunction, eccentricity, poverty, and many other issues. During Jeanette's childhood she did not have much direction from either of her parents. Jeannette accepts the fact that she will have to fend for herself in both the film and the book, so what she had to do,

The glass castle in The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls can be taken as so many things at first thought. It could be symbolic or literal but you won 't know which it is until you read it. For me, I thought it was a castle they were trying to get to, like a safe haven. It turns out that the glass castle stood for everything the Walls family had worked for, you see this through the characters, their life in Welch and where they ended up in the end.