Rose Mary Walls’ character in The Glass Castle portrays someone who, upon first glance, doesn’t appear to behave at all rationally in any situation, from her eccentric, unpredictable attitude to her seeming lack of regard for the well-being of her children. A closer analysis, however, reveals her attitude and ideas not only to be more consistent within her character, but reveals her to play an important role in the development of the story and key to the experience of the reader. This essay moves to reveal Rose Mary’s role as a mirror to Jeanette’s experience throughout the story, as well as exploring her character through Jeanette Walls’ writing choices via diction and other literary tools to create a consistent character. By comparing the way Rose Mary is portrayed in the story before and after the Walls family’s move to Welch, her relevance to the story is revealed. Before the Walls family moved to Welch, Rose Mary is introduced as a character, while rather eccentric, still serves as a core member of the Walls family. The very beginning of the book revolves around Jeanette’s injury and subsequent visit to the hospital after she was allowed to cook hot dogs by her mother, despite her young age of three. This introduction sets the stage for a character, while a little strange in her very relaxed ideas of parenting, seems relatively normal in all respects. As the story progresses we see more of Rose Mary, each time with a focus on her eccentric views expressed through
Rose Mary Walls is far from being a caring mother or a positive role model to her children. She is unable to provide the basic necessities required for survival and even resorts to stealing what little resources the family has for herself; “I wondered if she had been looking forward to
Rose Mary Walls acts as a person who focuses on herself only. In the novel, she loses or quits her jobs to peruse a career as an artist. In doing this, the family is not making money. Due to her actions, Rose Mary Walls is adding to the poverty of the Walls family. At times, she acts more like a child then a mother. You catch Mrs. Walls throwing tantrums, skipping work, etc.
In the novel The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, the uncertain future of the Walls’ children was questionable from the start. From a drunk father, to never having a steady home, the author tells of her idiosyncratic youth to describe the bitterness and longing for an ordinary childhood.
Readers are first introduced to the character of Rose Mary Walls in the beginning of the memoir and over the course of book come to understand her personality and her struggle due to a possible mental illness. Jeannette states, “Sometimes, things just got to her. She retreated to her sofa bed and stayed there for days on end, crying and occasionally throwing things at us. She could have been a famous artist by now, she yelled, if she hadn’t had children… The next day, if the mood had passed, she’d be painting and humming away as if nothing had happened” (Walls 186-87). It becomes apparent that Rose Mary is suffering from depression. On multiple occasions, she is unmotivated to leave her bed and fulfill her daily routine, leaving her children to make up for her absences. These bouts of depression presumably occurred all of her life and have prevented her from developing into a mature adult, thus keeping her from fully nurturing her
In Jeannette Walls’s, The Glass Castle, a complex relationship forms between Rex and Rose Mary, and their children. Most of the time, Jeannette, Lori, and Brian, were left to take care of not only themselves, but their little sister, Maureen; fending for the utmost basic essentials, such as food and shelter. Throughout the memoir, one may see that many of the situations Jeannette found herself in, are some of the most poignant moments. Each experience was difficult with her parents’ during her upbringing. Her selfish yet free-spirited mother and alcoholic father were too lazy and self absorbed to keep decent jobs. Any range of emotions are expressed, due to how Jeannette seems fond yet
“Life with your father was never boring.” – Rose Mary Walls. Rose Mary Walls, Jeannette Walls’s mother and Rex Walls’s spouse, reminisces life with Rex, which included migrating frequently, refusing to conform, and advocating self-sufficiency. Despite Rose Mary finding Rex disdainful at times, she still believes that being with Rex was an adventure. In Jeannette Walls’s The Glass Castle, Walls reveals that there are turbulence and order in life, the influence of family, and how she develops as she grows up through Walls’s recollection of her life, from living in a nomadic household, where her parents neglect their children, to living in a squalid hovel with no plumbing, and finally living in New York City, where she is employed as a journalist.
After nearly drowning Jeannette Walls, Rex Walls tells her that, “if you don’t want to sink, you better figure out how to swim”(Walls 66). The Glass Castle, told through Jeannette Walls, is a straightforward and content-toned memoir that describes the life within her dysfunctional family, consisting of an eccentric, free-spirited mother, an intellectual, but alcoholic father, and self-sufficient siblings. The Glass Castle should be considered as a summer reading for the class of 2019 because of its unique abilities to entertain the audience while simultaneously giving helpful guidance in the audience’s life. The book, although true, is told from an optimist’s viewpoint that gives the story an almost humorous vibe that the audience can appreciate,
As flames engulfed her dress, they burned down her stomach as she screamed for help. This was the first memory Jeannette Walls had in The Glass Castle . The plot of the story reveals her childhood of poverty as she moved around the country with her delusional family. Her alcoholic father and mentally ill mother created a very different lifestyle for their children, and raised them like no other. The unique plot, strong characters, and many settings make the novel successful. In this autobiography, she perseveres through tough times and leads the reader down the path she took to adulthood.
In this passage of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the reader obtains a very in depth description of what the Walls Family home in Welch is like once they move in. The author is this text is conveying how poor of a state their new home is. Walls uses the literary element figurative language to reveal the state of their home to the reader.
In The Glass Castle, Jeanette Walls was faced with many life changing and hard obstacles. Many people who have read this book think that these hardships have helped her later in life. Her parents were never there for her when she was growing up. Her dad was a raging alcoholic who spent all of his money away at the bars. Her mom was intelligent, but still never seemed to help much with Jeanette and her siblings. Even though her parents were not much help, she loved them the same no matter what. When Jeanette was younger, she was constantly bullied at her new schools, but never went home and told on the kids her had beat her up. She stood up for herself even if she knew she had no chance at winning the fight. This showed how brave and strong
Rose Mary, from the memoir The Glass Castle, is a naturally self-centered woman; this can be viewed as a bad quality for a mother to possess, but in her case it does benefit her children in a certain way. Although Rose Mary’s selfishness is the reason she never provides for her family as a mother, the positive twist on this unmotherly characteristic is that it helps teach her kids not to conform to social norms. Children naturally look up to their parents, and when Rose Mary’s kids see how freely she acts when other people obviously are judging her, it influences how they perceive the opinions of others. An example of this was when the Walls were living in Phoenix. It was so unbearably hot one day that Rose Mary told her children to swim in
Jeannette Walls is an American writer in journalist who found success in New York City, most notably writing a gossip column for MSNBC in which she details the effects of gossip in politics. She published her memoir, The Glass Castle, in 2005. The book spent 261 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list. In it, Walls recounts her childhood while growing up in an unstable family with her father and mother, Rex and Rose Mary Walls, her older sister Lori, and her younger brother and sister, Brian and Maureen. Rex and Rose Mary could not settle down and constantly uprooted their family of six to different locations in the southwest region of America. Neither parent could keep a job and struggled to feed and put a roof over their heads. In the novel, Walls views her parents as irresponsible because it rarely seems as though Rex and Rose Mary genuinely want to work and make money to support the family. They thrive off their sense of adventure, as they drive all over the country in a rundown car, looking for their latest shack to pile their family into, usually without running water, heat, or indoor plumbing. Walls will tell the story of her childhood through a series of pivotal moments that ultimately shape her opinion of her parents and lead her to a successful career in New York City.
The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls. In this book, Jeannette recounts her unconventional upbringing along with her three siblings. Yet, despite of it all, she grew up to have an ordinary life as an adult with a professional career in journalism. Throughout childhood, Jeannette’s family lived like vagabonds, having no permanent residence, sometimes even not having an actual home but sleeping in the family station wagon. One day they lived in the middle of the desert by Joshua Tree, the next week they lived in Las Vegas, then following week it was Welch, West Virginia. Because of all the moving that the family did, the children sometimes found themselves homeschooled, and other times were enrolled in school. The parents, Rose Mary and Rex, though flighty parents, were intellectual, artistic, and visionaries. They instilled these values into their children. Coincidentally, the children tapped into having their own traits and talents. Lori is the artist, Jeannette is the journalist, while Brian is the mediator. Unfortunately, Maureen, the youngest, never learned resiliency nor did she find herself or come to her own. As the children grew older, one by one, they moved to New York to live an ordinary life and pursue their own individual passion. Lori became a fantasy illustrator, Brian became a police sergeant, and Jeannette became a TV correspondent. Maureen was the last one to move to New
Her dad, who was rarely sober and disappeared for days on end, used their already inadequate money on booze and cigarettes. Because of this Jeannette and her siblings would go be forced to go hungry and resulted to eating food out of her school’s garbage. Her mother, who was a failed artist, rarely brought anything to the table either. An example of her ignorance was when Jeanette and Brian found a diamond ring outside on of their homes in Welch, West Virginia. The kids showed their mother what they discovered and begged her to sell it so they could put some food on the table that day. Rose Mary Walls then proceeded to keep the ring to replace her wedding ring and to boost her self-esteem. Jeanette’s mom was also a licensed teacher and was occasionally forced to take a teaching job when the family did not even have a penny to their name. Reluctant to take any job, Rose Mary Walls saw it as a betrayal of her true calling of being an artist. Because of this reluctance she did not keep a steady job throughout the book, which made matters even worse for the Walls family. To make the circumstances even worse for Jeanette, her childhood was jammed full of bullies. “She pushed me in the chest, and I fell backward. I tried to get up, but all three girls started
To sum up, I would say that overall “The Glass Castle” is a magnificent book to read and one of my personal reasons why I have started reading books more often. It is sad to understand the metaphor of the Glass Castle because Jeanette’s father always told his children that he would someday build them a Glass Castle that they would live in. All the children believed the fantasy when they were little and as time passed they realized that this was just a fantasy. It is amazing to me that all of these children became active members of society. This book is definitely worth reading. This book was a real breakthrough for me. Even though you don’t like reading at least try reading this book once over the summer you might end up getting yourself