Analysis Of The Glass Castle, By Jeannette Walls

The Glass Castle is a memoir about the hardships faced by a young girl, Jeannette and her tangible indigent family and how she overcame them by becoming a successful writer she is today.This memoir is an example for today’s younger generation that you shouldn’t let

Writer, Jeannette Walls, in her memoir, The Glass Castle, provides an insight into the fanciful and shocking life of growing up poor and nomadic with faux-grandiose parents in America. With her memoir, Wall's purpose was to acknowledge and overcome the difficulties that came with her unusual upbringing. Her nostalgic but bitter tone leaves the reader with an odd taste in their mouth. In some memories, the author invites her audience to look back on with fondness; others are viewed through bulletproof glass and outrage.

People often fall into some sticky situations, but how they deal with them is the thing that matters most. In The Glass Castle, a memoir by Jeannette Walls, she takes the readers through her life, starting at her earliest memory as a three-year-old, constantly living in a state of homelessness. Throughout the story, Walls experiences countless situations from her father being an alcoholic, to everyday school bullies. She uses a series of coping mechanisms to deal with, and sometimes terminate these issues. In fact, everyone of her siblings and parents uses various coping methods for these same situations. These methods may not always be the most effective, but people, including the Walls family, nevertheless use them to get by on their

Walls, “...lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire. It was...knowledge that kept you on your toes.” Often times, Jeannette, Lori, Brian, and Maureen were maltreated by Rex and Rose Mary Walls, their parents, through neglectful abuse. However, as the reader stands alongside Jeannette as she matures chapter by chapter the real conflict becomes clearer. In the beginning, as most children do, she tries to understand and accept the blatant lies or finds content in the absence of what she later begins to see as her deserved respect and need of care, but of course her father was her idol, hero, star. How could she bother to complain when he was obviously “onto something” bigger than them all? To be told “...I was his favorite child, but he made me promise not to tell Lori or Brian or Maureen. It was our secret…” then lose the same passion and faith in her father that she’d worked so hard to preserve? Unspeakable horror. This conflict with herself, distinct from Yousafzai’s person vs person conflict with the Taliban, is what she struggles with and avoids any real confrontation with through most of the memoir by distracting herself with the responsibility of improving the family’s

“Don’t call me Grandma. Name’s Erma.” (Walls, 131). This is the first thing Jeannette Walls, author of The Glass Castle, hears out of her grandmother Erma’s mouth when they go to stay at her home in Welch, West Virginia. The Walls family has come across hard times and they need somewhere to live. “She don't like it none ‘cause it makes her sound old.” This was the response of Grandpa Ted, Erma’s husband, a more even tempered and gentle man. Does this make Erma an upper social class woman concerned of appearing less beautiful? Or a hardworking woman torn down by poverty who doesn’t want to feel less able than she was when she was younger.

Throughout the book, the idea of a glass castle isn’t always brought up and recognized, but it’s a main point made over and over. It is a

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

A trauma narrative is a narrative that describes an experience or experiences that cause someone to be destressed and cannot be incorporated into their memory easily. Throughout her own traumatic narrative, Jeannette Wall’s describes different aspects of her everyday life that showcase various levels of significance. She is able to show how certain life events impact her plans for escaping her current socioeconomic status and her plans for the future. The text is also able to tell us about trauma, poverty, ourselves, and our society. Furthermore, the text demonstrates the impact that trauma and poverty can have and how they can have lasting effects. These concepts help us to think about our own life experiences and situations and they also show us how to be analytical about our society. Lastly, this narrative is able to reveal to us the different aspects of a traumatic childhood and how important and impactful this type of upbringing can be. Jeannette Walls uses her own traumatic autobiography to show that despite her adverse upbringing in poverty and passive and unattached parenting she was able to become successful. The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, shows the benefits and the value that can come from having a traumatic narrative. This is significant because it shows that an experience can shape a person, but a person can also shape the experience.

As frigid snow frosts the sun-licked ice, a glacial wind howls against the trees. As a child, one would sip hot chocolate and watch a movie with their family. However, Jeannette Walls would be sitting on a dirty floor, cold with no food. In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, 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 destitution and endured anguish during her childhood, these obstacles formed her into a self-reliant woman who proves that just because she did not have as much money as other families, she can still achieve success in her life.

In the memoir The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls, the main character explains her life story and all the struggles she went through. Along with herself, other characters such as her father Rex Walls and her mother Rose Mary Walls played vital roles to the successful memoir. The settings in this story added a deeper meaning and helped readers better understand the context. Lastly, the themes that the memoir conveyed were extremely important life lessons that shaped Jeannette Walls into the person she is today. Without the strong characters, settings, and themes, the story would not be as successful as it has become.

Author, Jeannette Walls, in her novel, The Glass Castle, from pages 226 to 230, exemplifies the themes of escapism and betrayal. In this chapter, Walls’s purpose is to identify the instability that her family is going through. Through her diction, Walls creates various tones in order to convey to her audience that despite obstacles, it is possible to escape from a dysfunctional family in hopes of a brighter future. Walls begins the chapter by recalling incidents of disappointment.

Now you're probably wondering why the heck is this book called the glass castle. Well this book is called the Glass castle because Jeannette’s father Rex promised the kids that's when he “hit it big” he would build them their dream Castle that's made of glass hence the name. Sounds like a great plan right?

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.

The definition of a good parent is simply one who cares about their child’s well-being more than their own. In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, neither of Jeannette’s parents are fit to be parents because they can’t even take care of themselves properly let alone four children. However, if the argument was to be made which is the lesser of two evils, Jeannette’s father, at least, has some redeeming qualities. Rex Walls is a smoker, an alcoholic, a gambler, and a danger to all of those around him; but, when he is uninfluenced and acts like himself, he becomes someone that his kids can look up to and love to be around. Rex Walls, at his best, exhibits the qualities that all good parents should have; he was always imaginative and loving towards

He stopped as he reached for the front door, took a deep breath, bracing himself for the horror show on behold for him and stepped through. It was all too familiar for him, the dented walls and smashed photo frames becoming a common theme in the Malone family. Ever since the birth of his sister Mary last year, and his father’s new promotion, his struggles to control the house became too much and his father couldn’t deal with the stress anymore. Something had to give, and his mother became the medium for his anger.