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. 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.
As 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. However, at the same time, Mr. Walls is the biggest problem in the family. Mr. Walls is a heavy alcoholic that drinks all of the family’s money away. When desperate, Mr. Walls would even steal money from the family. The drunk Dad would curse at Mom and
Parents are the biggest influence upon their children. From the time a child is born to the time they leave the household, the values that the parents hold are instilled into their children. Parents are required to make crucial decisions about how to raise their children in order to guide them through the inevitable obstacles and hardships of life. In The Glass Castle, many would argue the lack of care and responsibility the Walls had for their children. The author, Jeannette Walls, uses Rex and Mary Walls to demonstrate that their strong traits of non-conformity, self-sufficiency and perseverance are passed on to their children, allowing them to develop to their full potential. Children are dependent on their parents to
The Glass Castle is a thrilling novel chock full of adventure, crisis, and experiences. A family moves around the country, with their highly intelligent father, who turns into a dangerous brute when he is drunk, a dysfunctional mother and three kids who must rely on one and other to survive. Watch as the children, particularly Jeannette, leave their chaotic life behind and build successful lives in New York. Unable to detach themselves from their children, the parents eventually follow them to New York. The success that Jeannette achieved was mostly due to her childhood, because her childhood taught her how to be determined, gave her strength, and made her fearless. These attributes were key to Jeannette’s success,
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. Jeanette’s mother then tells her that her values are all wrong. Jeanette opens up to her mother about being embarrassed and passing her up in the streets. When her mother asks her why, Jeannette says, “I was too ashamed, Mom. I hid”(5). This quote also relates to her childhood. Jeanette’s childhood was shameful due to her parents careless way of living. Throughout The Glass Castle Jeannette hides her childhood just like she from her mother because she is ashamed of what people might think.
Aging is a phenomena not only of the body, but of the mind as well. It is situational in practice, giving each journey into adulthood its own “thumbprint”. One’s trials and tribulations gain emotional weight as they are encountered, but the weight one holds at certain periods of time can differ according to their background. The novels Flight, The Joy Luck Club, and The Glass Castle; however, enlighten the possibility of resembling another’s venture into maturity, despite distinct differences in general conditions. Together, these three novels endeavor into their protagonists’ personalities, and they thematically portray coming-of-age transformation.
Meaning everything would be seen in a different perspective as an adult. Your feelings toward something will change as grow older, they become more mature. ”At that age your body is changing, your imagination is galloping, your mind is in the zone between a child’s vision and an adults.” When Jeanne goes back to see the camps, she notices the different perspective she had as a kid and now. Jeanne living there and being a kid she thinks this is going to be her life, you don’t know when you’re going to leave so you just try to cope with it and make the best out of it. Jeanne wouldn’t of wanted to remember this part of her life, being unproud of it, especially growing up in a culture where you never forsaken your family. Your family is your biggest honor, never let your family down, it will ruin the name. Going through the stage of where she wasn’t in the camp anymore, but she wasn’t an adult. It was when she was in school and she had the nightmare of this beautiful girl in the room and everyone is acknowledging her while Jeanne is outside, watching from the window. She had no hate or feud going on between her and this girl. Symbolizing how she felt like she was being left behind from her friend with she grew with popularity. Jeanne wasn’t jealous she just wished for her life to be like
“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. Although Jeannette’s childhood is difficult, she overcomes poverty through her skills of being hardworking and
Upon reading The Glass Castle, written by Jeannette Walls, the reader will quickly notice all of the responsibilities Jeannette; the author and narrator of the novel, takes on throughout her life. The book itself is a memoir of Jeannette’s life that takes place from 1963 to 2005 and takes the reader through the ups and downs of Jeannette’s life in poverty and somewhat neglect. While reading the novel, the reader will be shown situations where they will be shocked and heartbroken. Jeannette’s family isn’t the average family from the south. With her father; Rex Walls being an alcoholic that couldn’t keep a job, her mother; Rosemary Walls who refused to get a job, her older
In the novel the Glass Castle Jeanette Walls learns from the mistakes of her parents that being successful in life depends of your characters and the choices you make in your life . Jeanette learns from her parents that if she doesn 't start thinking about her future at a young age , she’ll eventually be following the footsteps of her parents, and having an unpurposeful and an unrewarding lifestyle in her future. The Glass Castle suggests that in order to be successful in life you have to leave some things behinds and move on and that exactly what Jeannette Walls has done. Jeanette 's parents mistake was that they never thought about the future and always tried to enjoy the present. She chose to move away from her parents and live with her older sister and that decision she made was the main reason why she succeeded in life.
Jeannette Walls depicted an epoch of misfortune and adversity in her memoir, The Glass Castle. Jeannette and her 3 other siblings were all in a constant struggle to survive. Rex and Mary, the parents of Jeannette and her 3 siblings, were often in a constant dichotomy between submitting to self-interest and supporting the family. Having misfit parents, Jeannette and her 3 siblings were often independent and left to fend for themselves and for the family as a whole. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls evolved the theme of ideal versus reality throughout her memoir though her countless anecdotes of her father and his unattainable plans to find gold and to build a home, named The Glass Castle, for his family and her mother’s dream to become a professional and well redound artist.
Jeanette Walls faced many horrible events in her childhood. Her parents barely took care of her, which resulted in a very bad experience in her life, when she got caught on fire. One fire symbol in The Glass Castle is when Jeanette, “Lit a match and held it close to Tinkerbell’s face…her face was starting to melt” (16). This newly-melted Tinkerbell doll represents Jeanette because she was also burnt by a fire. After she melts her doll, Jeanette tries to ignore the fact that it is melted, like how her parents ignored the burns on her body after the terrible fire accident. Jeanette’s Tinkerbell doll merely symbolizes the awful events that Jeanette
In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, it tells about how the Walls family move to different desert towns, settling in for as long as their father, Rex, can hold a job. However, his perspective of the state and society, and his alcoholism led them to move frequently. The children - Lori, Jeannette, Brian, and little Maureen- experiences unusual childhood, where they travel like nomads to find new money source. This lead to the theme, sometimes you can be mature and responsible at a very young age. The theme is developed by how Jeannette learns how to take care of herself and her younger siblings, and the way her parent taught her.
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.
“Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more.” The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls has very important life lessons that will teach you to laugh at your tragedies sometimes. The most important lessons are that struggle makes you unique, you either sink or swim, and sometimes crisis makes you realize your potential. In the memoir, you will learn these and accept them. There will be a lot of struggles thrown your way, but you will find a way to get through it and realize it makes you who you are.