Brick House Connor

It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities. This is evident in Jeannette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle, which reiterates the story of Jeannette who is raised within a family that is both deeply dysfunctional and distinctively vibrant. Jeannette is faced with numerous barriers throughout her life. Despite the many obstacles set forth by her parents during her childhood, Jeannette develops into a successful adult later in life. One of these obstacles is the lack of a stable home base moulds her into the woman she grows up to be. Throughout her life, Jeannette must cope with the carelessness of her

Two more pertinent points are made by the author, in regards to the grandmother, follow in quick succession; both allude to further yet-to-be seen gloom within the story. O’Connor writes of the grandmother “[s]he didn’t intend for the cat to be left alone in the house for three days because he would miss her too much and she was afraid he might brush against one of the gas burners and accidentally asphyxiate himself” (1043) and of the way she is dressed “[i]n case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (1043). These two observations are innocent enough on the surface but provide true intent on the foreshadowing that O’Connor uses throughout the story. It is these two devices, irony and foreshadowing, that I feel are prominent and important aspects of the story and are evidenced in my quest to decipher this story.

Imagine living in a life where everything around you is different from reality. Imagine running from the police, living wherever one can find, and still taking care of one's family just at the age of 16. Jeannette Walls had to deal with all of this and more in her early childhood. In the book “The Glass Castle”, the author uses the characters, Jeannette and Rex Walls, to emphasize the importance of family bonds.

When living with his grandmother, Suina describes his memories during the frigid winter. During those cold months, “a warm fire crackled and danced brightly in the fireplace, and the aroma of delicious stew filled our one room house.” Suina’s description illustrates his grandmother’s house as a nurturing environment. It is a setting in which his grandmother clearly cares for him. He remembers enduring the long freezing winter nights when “the thick adobe walls wrapped around the two of us protectingly.” The characteristics of the house showcase a sense of connectedness between Suina and his grandmother. Living with his grandmother clearly give Suina several reasons to be happy. It is not only a place that cares for and protects him, but it is also a place that “was just right.” Suina’s grandmother’s house provides him with a tremendous amount of self-confidence. Unfortunately, all of that self confidence is lose when he goes to school. School leaves Suina utterly bewildered. He begins to realize how different the two settings are. He starts to lose sight of the essential aspects of life with his grandmother that once made him so

Hale and Mrs. Peters find a dead canary and a broken bird cage, it becomes obvious that Mr. Wright was an aggressive and controlling husband. Mrs. Hale states, “No, Wright wouldn’t like the bird- a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that, too” (1012). The canary represents Minnie Foster. Before she married Mr. Wright, she was a joyful girl who sang in the church choir. After her and Mr. Wright get married, she is forced to stop singing and is stripped of her happiness. The broken cage represents Mr. and Mrs. Wright’s controlling marriage. The bird cage is violently broken to represent how Mrs. Wright violently escaped her marriage. The women’s discoveries cause Mrs. Peters to sympathize with Mrs. Wright. Ultimately, Mrs. Peters decides to stand up for what she believes.

Although Jewett and Freeman both have poverty-stricken female protagonists, each women’s intentions are driven by different circumstances. Even though Sylvia’s house is described as “the best thrift of an old-fashioned farmstead, though on such a small scale that it seemed like a hermitage”, being poor is not what prompts Sylvia’s motives. She is driven by animal rights to seize the power to make her own decision to reveal the heron’s location. Whereas, the barn is much nicer than the house that Mother and the children currently live in. Mother interrogates father, stating, “you’re lodgin’ your dumb beasts better than you are your own flesh an’ blood. I want to know if you think it’s right” (C666). The sense of poverty within the decomposing house influences Mother to go against father and make the barn into their new updated living quarters. The circumstances that both protagonists were confronted with fueled their compassion to overcome the obstacles each were faced with.

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.

“I’m sick of this house” (75) exclaims 15 year old, revolutionary-minded Helen McBride. Living in a house with 11 other children was not the lifestyle she had in mind. Having her own beliefs suppressed by her mother was not what she wanted in life. Helen, feeling crowded and controlled, leaves her home and does not look back.

The author defines imagery by manipulating the environment to reflect characters’ emotions and describe the importance of sacrifice. When the father quits the house with the cat, Bedard describes that “[t]he kitchen light went off, and the house darkened.” (57) These details inform us that a big moment of fear and tension is felt inside the house, especially the little

The memoir The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is the tragic story of Wall’s abusive childhood with her alcoholic father and living in poverty. One of the most important and memorable parts of her story of struggle is when she actually stands up for herself against her father on pages 236-238. Throughout Jeannette’s horrid childhood, she has always been loyal to her father, even though he has been highly abusive. It is at this point of the story Jeannette’s rhetorical strategies help convey to the reader her realization that she needs to stand up for herself and get away from her parents. Even in only three pages, Jeannette's strategies show how much better off she would have been without the help of her parents.

The Glass Castle, written by Jeannette Walls, is a memoir detailing the childhood and family experiences of Jeannette which include the hardships she faced and the memories she has made. She documents her early life through the experiences of having to move constantly from the orders of her parents and living under poor conditions. She is eventually motivated to move away from her parents and away from the conditions to make a life and pursue a passion for herself. Although, she dealt with many inconveniences throughout her early life, she doesn’t seem angered by her parents for having to deal with those problems. This confliction in feelings resulting from experiences is why the tone of the memoir is also confliction.

Throughout the drama, Mrs. Wright and the canary share many similarities. For example, Mrs. Hale, the wife of Mr. Hale, describes that Mrs. Wright “was kind of like a bird herself—sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and—fluttery” (185). Overall, the quotation describes Mrs. Wright as a gentle and submissive woman, the type of woman society expected her to be. In addition, although Mrs. Hale compares her to a bird in a favorable manner, she also defines Mrs. Wright as a woman that is fragile and uncappable of providing for herself, another social stereotype that women were subject to. Ultimately, however, the rigid social expectations for women served to reiterate their role in the home and to further confine them to the homestead itself, especially as society typically objectified and trivialized women, celebrating the conforming wife while condemning women to have their wings clipped by society’s standards. In this way, beyond her personality, Mrs. Wright becomes even more synonymous with the canary, an estranged creature confined behind bars as an aesthetic spectacle that is unable to sing an independent song.

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.

As the ladies examine the house, while the men are other places, picking clothes and an apron up for Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Hale gains sympathy for her until finally she starts to take action. When they find the block of quilting that has stitching askew, she starts to fix it, perhaps to cover for Mrs. Wright?s distraught state of mind. While Mrs. Hale is finding sympathy for Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Peters offers a counterpoint that tries to justifies the men?s viewpoints and actions. Her comments to Mrs. Hale?s resentful musings on Mrs. Wright?s unhappy life and on the actions of men in regards to women in general all seem to be rote answers programmed into her by society and a desire not to cause any trouble. This all changes as soon as Mrs. Peters finds the bird.

A person’s home should be more than a place to shelter them from the elements. It should be a place where one could express him/her self freely and not have to worry about any harm coming to them. In the play Trifles Mrs. Wright lived in a house that was anything but calm. In block eleven,