Jeannette Walls: A Short Story

Jeannette Walls changes over the course of the the story because at first she always believed in her father but now she knows her father isn't reliable. In the beginning of the story, Jeannette was being taught how to swim. Rex was letting her drown and then after some time taking her out the water. Soon she finally learned how to swim by her dad’s method. Instead of thinking he was crazy she believed in him. She taught that the way her dad taught her was the only right way and her dad had done this only for her sake. A quote to prove this, ‘“If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim." What other reason, he asked, would possibly make him do this? Once I got my breath back, I figured he must be right. There was no other way to explain it” (Walls 67).

Jeannette is very insecure about her past life of poverty, and although she has now dug herself out of the rut of destitution, her parents’ continued homelessness is always a reminder of

Well-known book writer, Jeannette Walls, in her book, The Glass Castle, describes the dramatic mood altering effects of her struggles through life. Jeannette’s purpose is to show the readers her struggles throughout her childhood. She creates a dramatic tone in order to convey to her readers that you can make your dreams come true. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette uses powerful diction, very descriptive imagery, and symbolism.

Author Jeanette Walls is an example of someone who has preserved and made something of herself despite the fact that she has a less-than-normal childhood. Her parents Rose Mary and Rex Walls struggled at time to parent efficiently, as shown in Jeannette Walls’ memoir of her childhood The Glass Castle. In the recalling of her unique and sometimes disturbing childhood, Walls paints a picture of inadequate parenting, dangerous techniques used on her siblings and herself, and events that may have inflicted permanent damage on the Walls children. Not only Jeannette, but her other siblings Brian, Lori, and Maureen Walls were also negatively affected by the way they were raised and the things that happened to them under their parent’s watch. Rose

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.

Imagine living as nomads, without any sense of a real home. In addition to that; living with a troubled family that suffers from poor living conditions, alcoholism, and family drama. To what extent would you go to fix your family, or even moving away from them? The book The Glass Castle portrays the bizarre, impoverished upbringing Jeannette Walls and her siblings, Lori, Brian, and Maureen had to endure due to her dysfunctional parents. The author of the memoir The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls, writes about everything that occurred in her life from when she was 3 to when she was old enough to have her second husband; in which I would imagine in her thirties. Her stories consist of many adventures, both meaningful and traumatic. The reasons

There are several different social issues presented in Jeannette Wall’s memoir “The Glass Castle.” These issues included neglect – medical and education,

Jeannette Walls’s memoir is the heart wrenching story of her past. Walls had a very troubled upbringing which consisted of her alcoholic father, careless mother, malicious schoolkids and abusive extended family. The horrible things that Jeannette Walls went through in her childhood are important social issues that should have more light shed on them by the media.

In her novel The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls discusses social problems that people deal with daily. One of the most basic issue we deal with every day is the kind of parents we want to be and the things we feel are the most important to teach our children. The lessons learned in childhood is eventually what shapes a person’s moral and values as they mature into an adult. Walls’ memoir enables us to see how Rex and Rosemary Walls choose to teach their children to see the positive side of their problems. The Walls teach their children that no matte the circumstances tosses at them, they can shoulder the burden. Rex and Rosemary Wells may not be considered good parent, and probably not even mediocre parents today, but their children turned into well-educated adults.

In this section, Jeannette Walls starts off, in the present time by telling the readers about her seeing her mom on the street, that she hasn’t seen in a long time. Jeannette uses emotional words like blustering and fretted to show that seeing her mom was an emotional time. Later in the section, she goes way back into her life to when she was three years old and when her family and her was living in the desert. She started off telling a story of when she was on fire. This story was intense, it was really dramatic on her parents part, her dad was screaming at her and the doctor a lot. Then she talked about when they moved to Las Vegas, her family lived in a motel room, which didn’t last long, they had to leave Vegas in a rush, because her dad was cheating in blackjack and the dealer found out. The last story in the section is where her family drove to San Francisco and stayed in another motel. One night her dad was at the bar, across the street. He left Jeannette and her three other siblings in the room. Jeannette got bored so she decided to play with fire and that let to a big disaster resulting in the whole hotel burning down.

“He [Jeannette’s father, Rex] will not keep me out of harm’s way, he will put me in harm’s way and I have to find a way to remove myself from the situation.” (Diversity Connection). I feel like this quote, from Jeannette, came t directly from the situation where Rex took her out to the bar to help him earn money for alcohol, but yet she still doesn’t see herself as a victim. Even though Jeannette Walls was the victim of sexual abuse at a very young age, she tries to recreate the freedom from her childhood into her adult life, But in her younger years where she has no occupational activities, no nurturing, no money and no friends to turn to, it proves to be very hard to maintain.

Introduction: Our parents. Our inspirations. Who we look up to. People who could never do wrong. But what would you do if your parents did something so wrong that they could be arrested? Or perhaps they did something unacceptable but you didn’t know anything more? Jeannette Walls deals with this throughout her childhood as represented in The Glass Castle. Her parents challenge the social norms and expectations with their uncommon lifestyle and teachings. While doing so, they put their children in awkward sometimes dangerous predicaments. This causes Jeannette in particular to decide whether she trusts and/or forgive her parents. Despite their questionable actions, Jeannette always finds a way to have love her parents. Jeannette always has to forgive her parents for their mistakes. Of course we love our parents, but how much are we willing to accept them if they aren’t as admirable as they seem. I have a few questions for you guys to think about on this idea. We will discuss the answers to these questions at the end so keep your responses in mind. Would you still love your parents if they convicted a crime? Would you still love your parents if they hurt someone? Would you still love your parents if they weren’t able to provide for you? Would you still love your parents if they lied to you? Would you still love your parents if they stole from you? These are hypothetical situations, but they allow you to think about the unconditional love you have for your parents. Now, why

Jeannette Walls uses imagery to give the reader a clear insight to what she is think and what is going on in her mind. An example of this would be when she said, “Until then, when I thought of writers, what first came to mind was Mom, hunched over her typewriter, clattering away on her novels and plays and philosophies of life and occasionally receiving a personalized rejection letter. (204) In seventh grade Jeannette is the first person her age to work for the school newspaper, The Maroon Wave and this depicts the imagery in her head. She uses her own experiences with her family to influence and inspire her writing making her a great writer. The imagery in this book takes the reader to another level with understanding how the author truly sees the world.

In the novel, The Silver Star, by Jeannette Walls, a conflicted mother, named Charlotte, struggles with taking care of her two kids named, Liz and Jean. Jean is a twelve year old girl who goes by the name Bean. She is very responsible and good at taking care of herself. Liz is fifteen years old and she takes care of Bean and herself. The girls try hard to figure out where to stay whenever their mother unexpectedly leaves for a couple days.

Susie’s mother opened the door to let Molly, Susie’s babysitter, inside. Ten-month old Susie seemed happy to see Molly. Susie then observed her mother put her jacket on and Susie’s face turned from smiling to sad as she realized that her mother was going out. Molly had sat for Susie many times in the past month, and Susie had never reacted like this before. When Susie’s mother returned home, the sitter told her that Susie had cried until she knew that her mother had left and then they had a nice time playing with toys until she heard her mother’s key in the door. Then Susie began crying once again.