The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls And Homer Hickam
Taylor Grayson
English Honors
Period 1
Peller
Task # 1: The Glass Castle
Throughout their lives, every member of the Walls family experienced hardships. Though Jeannette and her three other siblings endured abuse both physically and mentally throughout their childhood, the peculiar ways in which both her mentally unstable parents showed their love and guidance ultimately helped to form these children and shape them into the individuals they are today. While Rex Walls, Jeannette’s alcoholic yet genius father, promised that he would one day create a house for the family made out of glass, his skills in mathematics and science unfortunately were not enough to battle his issues with alcohol and his inability to provide for his family. In the early
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Jeannette’s parents, while on the mentally unstable side, were always against being even somewhat normal. Though the younger Jeannette, at times, wished that their family could be like everyone else instead of constantly doing the “skee-daddle”, it wasn’t until she grew up that she knew her parents strange ways taught her to be an independent, unique individual. When Rex, Jeannette’s father, threw her in a sulfur spring in attempts to teach her how to swim, Jeannette got extremely upset at him for seemingly trying to drown her. Although his way of teaching her was a bit cruel, she discovered he was only trying to help her. “If you don’t want to sink, you better figure out how to swim,” he told her (Walls 66). Sonny, as well as Coalwood, also came to love the idea of not conforming to society. Since his entire town had never seen or heard of a teenaged boy building rockets, they all rejected his plans. But, he repeatedly went against them, having his rockets built and launched on the mining’s company property. Eventually, he was able to win first place in a national science fair, and become an engineer for NASA. As a newspaper article reported, “There is no more inspiring sight than that of a sleek, silvery BCMA rocket blasting off…” (Hickam 357). Walls, Hickam and Coalwood were ultimately able to identify that there were surprising benefits to
The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls Summary
860 Words | 4 PagesThe Glass Castle Summary The Glass Castle is an autobiographical story written by Jeannette Walls about her crazy, dysfunctional family. It is 288 pages long and was published by Simon and Schuster published in March 2005. Most of the characters fall into multiple categories of character types. Rex Walls, for example, is a protagonist when he gets money for his daughter to stay in college, but is an antagonist when he steals their New York money.
Summary Of The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls
1612 Words | 7 PagesAfter reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, I realized that some bad things that have happened to me aren’t really that bad. Jeannette Walls had been through a lot throughout her childhood, and that has made her a very strong person now days. For example, when Jeannette was very young she had dealt with adversity with when she burned herself and went to the hospital for 6 weeks. She also went through some tough times when her father was drinking and wandered off and she was all alone by herself.
The Rocket Boys Sparknotes
782 Words | 4 PagesThe townsfolk help him learn about rockets, make rockets, and launch rockets. First, the people of Coalwood help Sonny learn about Rockets. One of the people who helps Sonny the most throughout the novel is Miss Riley. Sonny mentions to Miss Riley that they need a book at one point to be ready to enter the science fair, so she got them a book.
Childhood In The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls
103 Words | 1 PagesWhen 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
Life Vs. Life In The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls
687 Words | 3 PagesThe Glass Castle is the story of Jeannette Walls and her family. Constantly short on cash and food, the family lives a nomadic lifestyle. For the first part of Jeannette’s life, her family lives in various mining towns on the West Coast. As Jeannette grew in these towns so did her imagination; she was enchanted by nature and the fantasies her father dreamt up for her and her siblings. Life in the desert ends when Rex 's alcoholism worsens; they leave the desert and relocate to Welch, West Virginia, the town where Rex grew up.
Forgiveness In The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls
98 Words | 1 PagesForgiveness 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.
Overcoming Obstacles In Sonny Hickam's October Sky
713 Words | 3 PagesSonny did not start off building rockets with much success. In fact, he burnt his mom's fence down in an explosion that scared the whole town, because they were afraid it came from the mine. However, instead of discouraging him, he kept working on the rockets; changing the body and nozzle design, using different types of propellants and metals, until it finally worked. The bad news, however, was that the rocket veered off course and hit his father’s office, causing Mr. Hickam to forbid his son from launching any more rockets.
The Glass Castle By Katherine R. Allen And Angela C. Henderson
626 Words | 3 PageslIn the book “The Glass Castle” there are examples of many different Family Developmental periods, however I will discuss one that stuck out to me the most. Family development according to the textbook “Family Theories: Foundations and Application” by Katherine R. Allen and Angela C. Henderson is “a longitudinal process of going through a hierarchical system of age and stage related changes” (Allen & Henderson, 84). This means that as a family there are various stages at different ages that result in different changes. For example, this can be seen within the book The Glass Castle in many ways. One way that stuck out to me the most was when Lori and Jeannette are making plans to transition into adulthood.
Glass Castle: The Walls Family
625 Words | 3 PagesThe 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.
Rocket Boys By Homer Hickam Jr.: Literary Analysis
416 Words | 2 PagesSonny felt limited by what Coalwood had to offer to him, and wanted to venture out of the dull town. Along with the town, Sonny’s father thought they were wasting their time with their rockets. At first, Sonny could not see himself going anywhere past Coalwood in the future. But after, Sonny sees the people’s future lives in Coalwood and negative comments, this motivated him to do greater and better things, rather than working in a mine for the rest of his life. Because of Sonny’s relationship with the town and most the people saying he and his friends could not build rockets, Sonny strived to prove their point wrong by making rockets.
Addicted In The Glass Castle By Jeannette
579 Words | 3 PagesRose Mary Excitement Addict How are the parents affect their kids? In the book of “Glass Castle” the author jeannette and her siblings Lori, Brain, Maurine, her dad Rex and her mom Mary. Their life was arduous, both parents are addicted, Rex in alcohol and Mary is excitement addicted. Mary and Rex are lazy parents they don't like to go work
The Glass Castle Symbolism
1211 Words | 5 PagesAs a child, Jeannette Walls moves around constantly with her family. The Walls family would move to different desert towns and settle as long as Mr. Walls can hold a job. When sober, Mr. Walls represents a charismatic father who loves his children and teaches them important life skills. He encourages imagination inside of the Walls kids and often captures their dream and creativity. Together, the family had planned to build a glass castle that contains all of the family’s hope and inspiration.
The Struggle In The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls
732 Words | 3 PagesIn 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.
Analysis Of Homer Hickam's October Sky
941 Words | 4 PagesSonny is determined to achieve his goals, even after multiple failures. Sonny soon recognizes these values and how they are essential component in the Rocket Boy’s success. Homer Hickam’s memoir October Sky shows through Sonny’s rocketry endeavors, his strained relationship with his father, and his overall goal to leave
Reflection On The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls
799 Words | 4 PagesThe Glass Castle is the life story of a girl, Jeannette Walls, and her siblings who grew up in poverty unnecessarily because of their parents’ irresponsibility. One of its themes is that strength and perseverance can significantly improve your chance at success and your future. The Walls children did not allow their childhood struggles prevent them from creating better and brighter futures for themselves. They all grew up impressively sane considering their living conditions.
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