Analysis Of The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

Think back to your own childhood. Could you imagine being a child, and not having a care in the world, but then, as quick as the snap of a finger, that all changes because of a thoughtless mistake made by your parents? In The Glass Castle it is revealed that as Jeannette grew up, she endured hardships inflicted upon her by her own parents. However, if Jeannette had not gone through these things, she never would have gained the characteristics that she values present day. Although Jeannette Walls faced hardships and endured suffering during her childhood, these obstacles formed her into a self-reliant woman who proves that just because you do not have as much money as other families, you can still achieve success in your life.

The novel, The Glass Castle, exhibits the human tendency to be selfish. This is manifested in both Rex and Rose Mary. Rex is characterized as a selfish father throughout the novel, and his paternal image is consistently skewed because of his actions. His addiction to alcohol ruins countless family events. One year the family’s Christmas is ruined when Rex drinks a great deal of alcohol and burns their tree and presents. Jeanette remembers, “Dad sat on the sofa [...] telling mom he was doing her a favor [...] no one tried to wring dad’s neck [...] or even point out that he’d ruined the Christmas his family has spent weeks planning” (115). Jeanette and her family are always left cleaning up their father’s drunken mess. Even when Rex is sober he does not apologize for ruining sentimental family events and continues to put alcohol before his family. Selfishness can also be seen in Rex’s relationship with money. He takes Jeanette into a bar in order to get money from his friend, Robbie. When Robbie asks if he can take Jeanette upstairs, Jeanette recollects, “So, with Dad’s blessing, I went upstairs” (212). Rex is so self-absorbed that he allows his daughter to go into a strange man's apartment, fully knowing his intentions. During Jeanette and her siblings’ childhood, they experience dangerous situations with their parents’ knowledge and approval. While Rex’s selfish nature is typically derived from his addiction, Rose Mary’s selfishness is simply a reflection of her personality.

At one point in the memoir, Jeannette’s mother, Rose Mary Walls, told Jeannette to expect a check in the mail, but her father, Rex Walls, got to it before she did and denied the fact that he had the check. This money was for the food that they were desperately trying to buy. Instead of Jeannette saying a word to her dad, she knew that saying something would not get the money back, so she took initiative while her mother was gone and did her best to find a job and make up the “lost”

The Glass Castle, written by Jeannette Walls, is an autobiographical novel that shows how hard life can be when you have little to no money and highly deteriorated parents. During the whole memoir it shows how hard it is to live in poverty while at the same time trying to raise a family. The exposition of the novel is how having parents that cannot support their children because the lack of a stable income. The rising action is when Jeannette was in a taxi cab going to a party when she sees her mother digging through the trash can and feels embarrassed and tells the taxi driver to take her home. The major conflict in the novel is a man vs. man because Jeannette, her brother, and her sister are all affected by her

Jeannette Walls had an extremely unique childhood that included tons of adventures, fun, and interesting events. However, it was not all good. It was full of confusion, suffering, hunger, pain, and hardships. Rose Mary and Rex Walls were not exactly ideal parents, but they cared for their children deeply and Jeannette, Lori, and Brian would not be the people they are today without what happened to them years ago. To some extent, Rose Mary and Rex are not awful parents.

Essay On The Glass Castle In the memoir The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls and her siblings must fend for themselves. Jeannette’s dad was a heavy drinker and an engineer who struggled to keep a job. Similarly, Jeanette's mom was mentally ill and was obsessed with her painting. As a result, Jeannette and her siblings grew up without the necessities of life.

Both of them had dreams they wanted to accomplish, Rex was an intelligent man who had a passion for logic. Rose Mary was a licensed teacher, but also had a passion as a unique artist who loved to paint. When Rex started losing multiple jobs, the family had become poor most of the time. As Rose Mary not working only relying on her painting and her husband, Rex had lost his way by being an alcoholic and not caring about bringing money to the table. Both of them started having problems, by fighting, being careless and irresponsible for each other and their children. The fight between Rex and Rose Mary situation of working had started to become very serious. Rex had lost his job once again, and Rose Mary was still trying to pursue her dream as being a great artist. She had been complaining about Rex’s Alcoholic behavior and lack of job searching to provide for the family. The children could not ignore the fact that their parents were fighting. Over hearing the feud throughout the whole house, Jeannette begins to state “Dad said that if mom wanted someone in the family to be punching a time clock then she could get a job.”(Walls70). The quote states that Rose Mary had argued with Rex about him not working. She wanted him to stop his habits and job search, but he was to upset and carless that he told her she needs to get a job if she wants

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls touched upon many topics including alcoholism, mental illness, and poverty. One specific topic that seemed to be particularly attention-grabbing was the possibility that her mom had bipolar disorder, or some other possible mental illness. There are so many people in the world who have some form of a mental illness, and many go undiagnosed. Some that are never diagnosed go through their life needing help or maybe even becoming a danger to others. Despite the bad reputation mental problems get, people are able to overcome their struggle and live normal lives with the proper medicine and help. The Glass Castle is one example of how mental illness is a part of many people’s lives.

Rex and Rose Mary began to show excessive self-reliance which consequently led to carelessness for the needs of others. Jeannette began to realize that if she wanted to get something done she couldn’t rely on her parents to get it done, she had to take matters into her own hands and learn the self-reliance trait because her parents were too self-occupied. With independence becoming a big part of the Wall’s family philosophies this allowed them to survive and stay together as a family even through the toughest circumstances. When Lori and Rose Mary had left Welch for the summer to go to Charleston, and Rex still only around the family as little as possible, Jeannette found herself getting a job over the summer to care for her younger brother and sister. She soon knew what it felt like to have to actually care for a family unlike her parents ever had, she took it upon herself to care to take hold the rest of the family together while the rest were away. Following this venture, Jeannette began to imagine what it would be like to live her own life away from the at home chaos, and she began to make this fantasy a

In the memoir The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the Walls children go on perilous adventures and are given independence from society’s rules and dicipline as a result of their parents’ beliefs. However, they are oftentimes wishing they had the security and comfort offered from a “normal” upbringing. Living a stable, sheltered life with parents that protect and disipline me and a fair chance to comfortably raise a family in the future, it is hard to even comprehend why someone would risk it at an attempt to escape the unwritten laws of civilization. In a world where freedom always comes at a heavy cost and the future of a child is never guaranteed, and in a world where children have easier access to knives and guns than to an opportunity to settle down after a safe and fruitiful life, it is difficult for me to see why a child would not be taught to follow society’s fail-proof blueprint for prosperity.

After reading the memoir, “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls you can easily see that in the memoir, some characters seek complete freedom from society’s rules while others seek the comforts and security that comes with a “normal life”. I believe that freedom comes before security. Firstly, freedom is a big part of success. Many people believe that you cannot become successful if you have freedom. Jeannette Walls proved those people wrong. Jeannette was bullied, raped, tormented, and pushed to the limit by her family and peers throughout her educational years. Despite all of this, she saw the light at the end of the tunnel and pulled through to become an extremely successful writer. She proved that you must take risks to become successful

The Glass Castle is a memoir told in the perspective of Jeanette Walls as she grows up. The memoir follows Jeanette and her family as they move from city to city in search of a better life, while also overcoming obstacles such as poverty and neglect. This memoir shows the everyday struggles of Jeanette and her siblings due to the poor decisions of their parents. In this memoir, while she is telling her story, Jeanette shows the importance of forgiveness and forgives her parents time and time again, even though they are the reason the Walls kids live such a chaotic life. In The Glass Castle, forgiveness is shown in one of the very first scenes of the memoir,

In the two final parts of this book, the reader can see Jeannette grow into a self-sufficient adult female who appears to have found her place in life. When she travels to accompany Lori in New York City, Jeannette does not know what to expect but is overwhelmed with excitement. Several years after when Rex and Rose Mary move to N.Y.C, you see them basically fall back into their same routine of barely squeaking by living on the streets of the city. I fully support the decisions made by Jeannette to get out and away from her family and ticking time bomb of a mother. She was very wise to get a job and pay for her education as this will help her succeed in the latter part of her life. For Rex and Rose Mary, I do support how they chose to live

Jeannette had enough when Rex had hit her with his belt, from then she swore to never be beaten by anyone and also swore to leave the household.

“Police officers show up with Rosemary and Rex with them to find out what happened. Rosemary and Rex became uninterested in dealing with Billy. The Wall’s family the next day decide to leave Black Mountain and head to Phoenix in the middle of the night. While heading to Phoenix, Jeannette becomes excited about spending time with Grandma Smith. Her dreams are blown away when Rosemary informs her that Grandma has been dead for awhile and they are moving a house that Rosemary has inherited from Grandma. Jeannette is angry that Rosemary didn’t see any reason to tell her about Grandma's death at the time it