Jeannette Walls Cooking

One of the first appalling instances of Jeanette’s various accidents occurs when she is cooking hot dogs at the age of three. Walls writes: “...when I stood up and started stirring the hot dogs again, I felt a blaze of heat on my right side and realized my dress was on fire” (9). As a result, Jeannette ended up having to be covered in ice and given skin grafts due to the severity of her burns, despite this accident being entirely preventable. While tragic, this occurred for a few reasons, first because she was much too young to be maneuvering a hot stove, and furthermore because she was not being supervised by any parent. Nonetheless, any adult could likely have noticed the fire and put it out more quickly had they been in the room, leading to less acute injuries.

is when she was three years old, she was burned while making hot dogs. This is clearly an event significant to her as she states was one of her earliest memories. "It's my earliest memory. I was tree years old…" (pg. 9) Jeannette also mentions how she became "fascinated with it", fire that is, when she continued to test her power of it. On page 15 she is passing her finger through a candle flame. She begins stealing matches from her father and continues a fascination over fire. It is a significant event, due to the fact that she set continual fires in several areas of the first Section.

It is one thing to joke around, but it is a whole other thing to put a child’s life in danger. In multiple scenarios in this book, Jeannette’s parents risk her life, along with her siblings. She says, “When I recovered, Dad picked me up and heaved me back into the middle of the Hot Pot. ‘Sink or Swim’ (66). It makes me sick that Mr.Wall would rather almost let his daughter drown than teach her how to swim himself. Good parents supportive of their children and would put their own lives in danger before any of their children’s. Jeannette also shares about a time where she accidentally lit herself on fire. She was

In “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls, the author ecompasses many ideas about symbolism and how the environment affects the character, but there is one idea that is the strongest and seems to be most relevant. The idea that the main character, Jeannette Walls, grows and develops throughout the book and become more independent, steering on her own path. To show this important development, the author uses many literary elements including diction, syntax and tone. By the end of the memoir, Jeannette Walls develops from a naive girl to an autonomous women, putting herself in a better and healthier environment.

Success in life does not ultimately rely on a person’s upbringing. Often, society tends to blame their parents, or the lack of opportunities given to them as a reason for their failure to achieve an ideal lifestyle. This is one of the main ideas represented throughout Jeannette Walls memoir, The Glass Castle. She overcomes all the destructive people and behavior in her life. Even though she had no advantages growing up, we still see Jeannette become a successful adult.

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.

Later on in the story Brian and Jeanette are out on an adventure by themselves when they come across a small shed-like building. They go inside and discover chemicals which they of course immediately start to play with, one mixture they created made a violent reaction and flames erupted out of the beaker. (Insert Quote) In the late of the story it was a very cold morning in the house and Lori could not get a fire to start, being desperate for warmth she resorted to use kerosene to start the fire. Rex had told her to do this before but was not present when she used it. Lori put too much on the fire and when she lit it the fire stimulant exploded in her face and singed her eyebrows. If the children had the protection of their parents from fire their lives would have been safer and more secure.

“Firefighters never die, they just burn forever in the hearts of the people whose lives they saved” (Susan Murphree). In our society firemen extinguish fires and stop them rather than burning houses by starting fires. Fireman have dogs to find the people that are in the fires and help them out, however in the book they have mechanical hounds that have proboscis senses where the hound hunts down people who are going against the law. Another difference from real life and the book is the comparison between the firemen hoses. In real life water comes out of the hoses to stop the fires; kerosene comes out of the firemen hoses to start fires in people’s homes.

“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.

The Glass Castle, a memoir by Jeannette Walls, tells the story of Jeannette's upbringing and her road to adulthood. Jeannette, and her siblings, were raised by dysfunctional, poor, and sometimes homeless parents, Rose Mary and Rex Walls. The Walls children were pretty much abandoned by their parents and in some cases they were forced into making their own money, or stealing food just so they would not starve. Rose Mary and Rex Walls allowed the children to do anything they wanted, whenever they wanted to do it, but that did not stop Jeannette from being successful. She recognized that she did not want to live her life the same way her parents have lived their lives. In The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls believes that sometimes people are actually

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 had a very atypical childhood, as she wrote about in her memoir The Glass Castle. As an adult she left her childhood aspects of life behind to create a new life for herself. Her ability to develop into her adult life was supplemented by the enriching intellectual environment she was continually exposed to as an adolescent. Jeannette and her siblings might have not lived in the most luxurious of conditions but they were taught an excess of information which was apparent when the Walls were enrolled into a new school. She noted that “once our new teachers heard us read, they’d realize we were all gifted” (Walls 124). Reading is considered a popular source of determining intelligence, the better a kid can read, the smarter the

Sometimes, one may feel trapped in a lifestyle or situation that leaves them confused and frustrated. Jeannette Walls grew up in such a situation; her life was an adventure full of childhood tales and unique experiences. Jeannette learned how to be self- sufficient, independent, confidence, strength, and optimistic despite the stark reality behind their plight. In Jeannette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle, the author demonstrates how she values self-determination, which I agree with because it reveals how one can take control of his or her life despite the past.

The delicious smell of the roasting turkey adds to the mix of wonderful aromas drifting through the house. My grandmother’s kitchen looks like a circus of pots, pans, and utensils spread out all over the place. However, it might look like a mess and cramped you can tell my grandmother and the other girls know what they are doing. It’s hard not to follow the scent of the buttery aroma of the fresh sweet rolls. Even though you know you’re supposed to stay out of the kitchen you keep finding yourself trying to get whatever mouthwatering food you can get your hands on. Every time you think your being sneaky, you finally think you successfully got a piece of food, but there’s always hand there to stop you.

Starting off the book Richard is four years old living in Mississippi with his grandmother, mother, and younger brother Alan. This is the first time fire becomes significant, when Richard starts to become curious. In a household were the rules are so restricting you could barely breathe “All morning my mother had been scolding me, telling me to keep still, warning me that i must make no noise.” (Black Boy,pg.1) due to his grandmother's illness he spent all day inside a house being unable to be a kid and explore. He begins to become curious about the fireplace in his living room when his brother warns him against a rebellious act involving the fire and a few straws. After he learns what happens with the fire Richard describes, “My idea was growing, blooming. Now I was wondering just how long the fluffy white curtains would look if I lit a bunch of straws under them. Would I try it? Sure.” (pg. 2) This results in the first presence of fire,