Jeannette Walls Quotes

In this passage, Jeannette Walls depicts a crucial moment in her childhood where she faces bullying and racism. Her family has moved to her grandparents house in Welch, a highly segregated, racist village. Jeanette is having a hard time fitting in as three African-American girls continuously bully her for being poor. Through this passage, Jeannette Walls conveys the theme of being independent which was strictly enforced by her parents. She learns that everyone has their own reasons behind their actions, therefore, we should not be quick to judge.

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.

Jeannette’s self-reliant behavior is frequently shown through her refusal of help from others. On one trip to retrieve her father from a bar, Jeannette’s father is so drunk that he can no longer walk. Another man offers to drive them home, and

One of the most important theme in The Glass Castle is forgiveness. Jeannette and her brother and sisters spend their whole lives forgiving their parents for their irresponsibilities. They still love them and welcome them into their hearts even though Rex and Rose Mary didn't deserve it. By forgiving them, she feels less angry and her attitude as a whole is much more positive. When she is three years old, she burns herself cooking and her mother doesn't take care of her. After being in the hospital for 6 days, she let her cook again and says “Good for you, you have got to get right back in the saddle (15). ” Another example of forgiveness, is when she is trying to learns how to swim and her dad drops her in the water making her almost drown. She thinks he did this so she can learn, so she forgives him. Jeanette says, “I figured he must be right, there was no other way to explain it(66).” This means that she thought he didn't have an intention to harm her, but he tried to make her learn. At the end of the story, she meets her father for the last time and forgives him for all the bad things that had happened in her life and all the chaos. Although all of these bad things happened to her and her brother and sister because of him, she says she knew he loved her like no one else ever had. Jeanette said she forgives him for “all the hell-raising and destruction and chaos he [has] created in [her life].” On the other hand though, she says, “I could not imagine what my life would be like- without him in it. As awful as he could be, I always knew he loved me in a way no one else ever had(279).” This means that she knew that he made all those mistakes throughout his life, but she still found a way to forgive him and look on the brighter side of things.

From enthusiastic and on board with the life she lives, to not enjoying it and wanting to stop, Jeanette Walls life changes over the time of the book. Jeanette grew up with siblings, Brian, Lori and Maureen. She had a hard childhood constantly moving and not being able to make friends and did not have a lot of food. Her father was an alcoholic and could not hold a job, and her mother was a teacher who wanted to be an artist. She always dreamt big and had a lot of hope for the future but that changes in the book.

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.

At the early age of 3, she began forgiving her mother for the way she treated her, always neglecting her children. Her mother refers to a saddle as an analogy saying that if falling off the horse, it shouldn’t stop a person from riding horses. Similarly, even if she burned herself from cooking, she shouldn’t stop doing that. As faulty as her mother was, Jeanette's extremely strong mind made her braver and more courageous through the tragedies. Despite the hardships, she walked through life optimistically no matter the circumstance. She forced herself to have complete faith in her parents. When Jeanette’s dad threw her into a pool to teach her to swim, she thought to herself, “I figured he must be right, there was no other way to explain it” (66). Rex put his daughter in a life or death situation. Although she was extremely nervous, her attitude towards the end was incredibly optimistic, forcing herself to believe that her dad was right without doubt. She doesn’t let herself experience pity and depression for being born into a unfortunate family, she hopefully searched for the sliver of light at the end of the dark tunnel. Although Jeanette went through a lot growing up, in the end when her dad is sick and in

When Jeannette’s mother did come, it was evident that she cared about the safety and well-being of her child: “Mom ran into the room” (9). Seeing as she came running rather than strolling, it can be inferred that her mother is attentive and worried about her daughter; however, once in the hospital, her father has an averse reaction to her injuries and the fact that she’s in the hospital when he says: “You shouldn’t be in this antiseptic joint” (13). Most parents would fret over their child and let the hospital do whatever they saw fit to help their child, but her father Rex doesn’t trust the hospital and potentially jeopardizes his daughter’s health by not adhering to the hospital's recommendations. A parallel episode to this tragic fire incident is when the family is staying at a hotel and are woken up in the middle of the night by a fire. The whole building burns down, similar to how Jeanette's favorite pink dress was completely singed and had to be cut

As the book follows the life of Jeannette, her dream starts out as a fantasy of hope for her father. When her father was sober he was her best friend. Yet he developed a drinking problem right before Jeannette was born, that developed and worsened over the span of her life. Her mother accounts that when they lost a child, his drinking started,

At one point in the book Dad wants money for alcohol, so he has to persuade Jeannette that the family will be okay without the extra twenty dollars.

Jeannette walls is the posterchild of outward social conformity. Born into a family ill-equipped to raise children, Walls was forced to find strength within herself in order to survive the chaos that her childhood entailed. Walls begins her memoir with her first memory at the age of three. She describes standing above the stove and watching herself catch on fire. Later when she is at the hospital her father comes in to do the "skedaddle" in order to avoid paying hospital fees. This is symbolic of the type of upbringing Walls endured. As a kid, Jeannette was daring and venturesome. Her impulsivity was fueled by her free spirited mother, Rose Walls, and her independant father, Rex Walls.

During The Glass Castle, Rex Walls lets his children down numerous times but he has actually came through for them too. An example of how he let them down was when he tried to run over his wife Rose. He was drunk at that moment, which is the problem most of the time, and Rose was pregnant dodging the car while they were in a desert. He is letting them down at this moment because while he is in his drunken rage, he could hit Rose and kill her and the baby.

In our society, we tend to follow certain many moral principles and if not followed, there could be many negative consequences. Based on the novel, we can tell that Jeannette’s parents were very unethical; in the beginning of the memoir, Jeannette shares

Jeannette talks about how her parents at times were ignorant at how they were parenting. For example, Jeannette states countless situations in the book where she felt excluded or neglected. There was a situation in the book where she was cooking or preparing herself hotdogs and she got her dress on fire. The flames grew on her rapidly and the injuries became severe; soon after that her mother and father expressed to her that they were little to no concerned about their daughter. In the book it states, “Mom, in an unnaturally calm voice, explained what had happened and asked if we could please have a ride to the hospital. The woman dropped her clothespins and laundry right there in the dirt and, without saying anything, ran for her car” (9-10). This just shows the mother wasn’t the least bit scared for her daughter’s life, she didn’t even panic or react the way a mother should. With that being said, we can even notice that the neighbor was more affected by the situation than that of the mother. This is the earliest stories Jeannette can recall, which is mentioned in her book, and all the stories and memories after that only go to show the neglectful lifestyle she had to endure. It is really a sad reality of this woman’s life. However, Jeannette Walls is now a successful author, and journalist in New York, is one of the few people in this world that has made a successful life from a horrible and neglectful

Jeannette asks her dad for a favor on her 10th birthday, not for food, or clothes a new toy, but for him to stop drinking since she had realized that is what consumed the family’s wealth.