Do you ever feel like you are the only one trying hard enough to make a difference during a hard time? Jeannette Walls can relate. In the short novel The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls presents the symbolism of welfare to display the theme of the novel, working hard but being alone is only as defeating as you make it, ultimately illustrating you can still come out those hard times strong.
To begin, the symbolism of welfare in The Glass Castle is one of many symbols but specifically, with this one we can see the lack of nourishment in the Walls household. In the novel, the author writes, “Although we were the poorest family on Little Hobart Street, Mom and Dad never applied for welfare or food stamps, and they always refused charity” (159). In context, this clearly displays the malnourishment the children of Rex and Rose Mary Walls face. This unhealthy situation makes the kids fend for themselves just to stay alive. The novel continues, “I told her child welfare might come down on us again if she wasn’t working. She folded her chest and stared us down” (219). This is showing Jeanette and her siblings are the ones taking responsibility, they are parenting their Mom. No household should be this way and the
…show more content…
It is obvious that only the kids want welfare but, why is that? Rose Mary states, “Once you go on welfare, it changes you. Even if you get off welfare, you never escape the stigma that you were a charity case” (188). This statement from her tells the reader her why to not accepting welfare. In this sense welfare is symbolizing negativity and disservice to the family. In addition to this it is also written, “Welfare, she said, would cause irreparable phycological damage to us kids”(188). In this the kids are reciting their moms crazy outlook on welfare. Welfare is representing damage, once again negativity, Rose Mary needs to take a step back and look at what is actually damaging her family – it’s not
The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, tells a story about a dysfunctional family and the hardships they faced in what we call the journey of life. Throughout the book, Jeannette Walls re-encounters her favorite childhood memories spent with her father, Rex Walls, in spite of Rex's recklessness and destruction onto different parts of her life. Rex is a skilled electrician whose alcoholism often gets to the best of him and his decisions. His profusion of alcohol led his family to poverty because instead of paying off bills and buying necessities for survival, he spends most of their income on liquor. Therefore, his children lacked the simplest things such as food and clothing.
The Glass Castle In The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls, it presents welfare to utilize the idea of overcoming adversity and achieving success despite difficult circumstances. In the beginning of the book, Walls connects her personal experience as a kid to the symbol of welfare in order to emphasize how it was proclaimed through her childhood and adulthood. Take, for example, that In the passage, Jeanette explains, “But for the time being, things might get a little tight around the house.
The memoir, The Glass Castle, is about a family that undergoes many hardships and yet remains unique and dysfunctional through it all. It is told through the eyes of young Jeannette Walls who recalls her childhood, and growing up in the special scenario that she did. Certain aspects are capitalized throughout the memoir such as the theme, the cultural experiences, and the understanding of historical accounts. As Jeannette Walls once said, “Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more.”
[The Walls family in the book The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls have had lots of adventures throughout their lives.] But during all of these adventures they had they were very poor and never really lived the way a family should live. *People in poverty learn how to do things differently to survive. * There were things that the Walls family had to do throughout the book in order to survive.
The poverty rates are growing by the year as many families struggle to afford sufficient housing, this ultimately impacts the quality of life for their kids. In the novel The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls, it shows the life of Jeannette as a child growing up in a house with a constant cycle of poverty, and homelessness. To push past her families issues, Jeannette thrived in her schoolwork and became a writer for her school newspaper. As she grew older and worked harder, Jeannette moved to New York with her siblings to pursue her career in newswriting. Soon after, both of her parents followed and were homeless for many years.
Rose Mary and Rex barely restrict the affairs of their children, but it is uncertain if their motive is to teach their kids independence, or if they truly don’t care as long as they come back safe. When Jeanette flew out the doors of the Green Caboose, left for hours in the desert, she was convinced she’d be left to fend for herself,
This shows the closeness and care that Janie’s grandmother had for Janie from the time she was born. Because, Janie’s mother wasn’t in her life, so in turn Janie’s grandmother assumed the role of bringing up her
The book The glass Castle by Jeanette Walls is a very interesting as well as inspiring novel. She and her family the Walls carry the idea of the american dream throughout the entirety of the book. The American dream is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “the idea that every citizen of the United States should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.” A big reason I believe the Walls experience the American dream is because of all of their traveling all over the United States. And also because of all of the neat experiences Jeannette has lived through and humbley told about.
They use their parental authority only when they want to; when it will act as an escape plan, and act more childish than their actual children. Yet, they keep choosing to live this way. Unlike the children, who see the problem with their situation, the parents never cease to try to find adventure, like how they see the Joshua tree’s struggle as beautiful, and similarly saw their own trials as nothing to be ashamed of; something that made them strong, and admirable. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but they failed to realize that the rest of their family didn’t see eye to eye with them. “I loved the desert” Because of the way that Jeanette grew up with her family, she looked at her experience in a positive light.
In The Glass Castle, Walls portrays the effects of poverty and neglect on mental health by showing us the ways depression lives in the lives of her and her family members. Rosemary Walls, Jeannette’s mother, is a character who experiences depression throughout the book. Her depression is shown in the lack of motivation to provide for her children, her tendency to isolate herself from her family, and her reliance
The Consequences of the Walls Children's Insufficient Upbringing In Jeannette Walls' memoir, "The Glass Castle," the author reflects on her childhood and the impact of her parents' unorthodox parenting style. Throughout the book, Walls recounts instances where her parents, Rose Mary and Rex Walls, neglected, starved, and failed to provide a stable home for their children. As a result of their irresponsible behavior, the children in "The Glass Castle" suffered from a lack of basic necessities, emotional trauma, and long-lasting scars. Although Jeannette’s parents’ parenting style can be clearly identified as horrific as it left Jeanette and her siblings afflicted and broken, their unconventional methods can be argued that it actually had a few
“Believe in miracles…. Hope is never lost” (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland). Believing that the worst is behind them and that they will come upon a better life is the only way that Jeanette Wall’s family is able to stay afloat. In Jeannette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle, the symbol of hope is portrayed through a Glass Castle: a real home in which everyone is important and loved.
In The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls faces harsh stuff through her childhood because of her parents. In the beginning of the book she finds her mother digging through trash. She feels embarrassed, so she turns around and goes home without saying hello. Jeanette then calls her mother and asks to have dinner with her. She offers her mother help because she feels guilty, but her mother rejects her help.
Paul Ryan once said, “Every successful individual knows that his or her achievement depends on a community of persons working together.” Individuals must strive upon excellence based on the society they are placed in. Watching how others react can help one become the best they can be. Throughout The Glass Castle, Jeannette is exposed to society by her parents. Her parents, Rex and Rose Mary, see society in different means than how others perceive it.
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.