The Glass Castle is a memoir by Jeanette Walls in which she tells the story of her childhood and the way she became who she is. Her way to her balanced present was too difficult and full of hardships, yet she managed to become a successful and prosperous person whose life experience gave her a push to make her life happy. It stands to mention that the novel is full of symbols which contribute to reader 's understanding of Jeanette 's character and represent her most important traits and desires. Besides, all the symbols such as the fire, the Joshua tree, the geode and the glass castle are recurring and contribute to understanding the struggle of Jeanette 's childhood and her ability to overcome it and build a successful life. Fire is an
The reader will feel sympathy toward the reactions of the characters to remedy their problems. The plot of the story allows you to experience Jeannette’s growth and her knowledge of her surroundings as she is being exposed to new people and places. The Glass Castle, will induce a rising senior to continue on reading the book during their summer break.
The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls. The book switches back and forth between her childhood adventures and her current life in New York City. During the childhood adventures, Jeannette describes growing up with her mom, Rosemary Walls; her father, Rex Walls; and her three siblings, Lori, Brian, and Maureen Walls. Life is not pleasant or comfortable with this family. They are constantly short on food and money.
In the memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls, the author, was most influenced by her time in the desert, as indicated by how she describes the time live in different places and how it has shaped her into the woman she is today. Jeanette’s time in Welch changed the way she viewed the world. Jeanette was harshly bullied by many different girls at her new school in Welch. One time she was surrounded by six girls and one girl said, “You think you [are] better than us?” and Jeannette replied with “No... I think we’re all equal.”
The book, The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls, was about her younger self along with her family explaining how they struggled through hard challenges such as relationships, financially, and mainly through life. Jeannette had to learn to survive on her own by growing up fast to an adult in order to take care of her siblings, when her parents wouldn’t, and had to fit into the normal world outside of their home. It was very hard for Jeannette and her siblings to attend school because they would always move to different locations and they didn’t have the clothes that everyone else had, or didn’t have enough food to make them look healthy, and it was difficult for them to make friends with other people, when people from each town viewed
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.
It is evident that her childhood may have impacted her in a more severe psychological way. The book The Glass Castle is a very interesting narrative. The author Jeanette Walls is able to bring new light to circumstances that many people choose to ignore or overlook by writing about her own childhood. This gives the book a new perspective and allows the reader to gain insight.
The Glass Castle is the one idea that helps the family continue to grow and move forward even though the Castle has different meaning to each of the members of the family. To Jeanette and her siblings the Glass Castle is a symbol of hope, to the mother, it is a symbol of relaxation and what life would be like without responsibilities, and to dad, it symbolizes every broken promise he has made to his children, but in the Glass Castle, he has not broken a single one.
Jeannette is ashamed at times throughout The Glass Castle because of her parents lifestyle choice. At the end of the book Jeannette overcomes hiding her life from people. She then becomes a professional writer and publishes a book about her
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.
In the memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls, the author was most influenced by her time in Midland, California, as indicated by how she describes the scenery there. In Midland her she is taught many important life lessons mostly taught to her by her parents, Rex and Mary Rose. One of the lessons she is taught in Midland was hinted at in the beginning of the book. While traveling to Midland upon arriving the family runs into the beautiful scenery and one particular tree; the Joshua tree that caught Rose Mary’s eye.
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 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.
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.
The 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.
