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 …show more content…
For example, at the beginning of the memoir Jeannette is in a taxi on her way to a party, in New York City, when she sees her mother digging through a dumpster, and asks the taxi-driver to take her home. In her apartment, Jeanette feels guilty for her mother's lifestyle, so she decides to call her mothers friend to leave a message for Rose Mary. A few days later Jeannette and her mother decided to get together at Rose Mary’s favorite Chinese restaurant. While at lunch, Jeannette asked her mother if she needed anything to better her life and Rose Mary then explained to Jeannette that she was the one who needed help, because her values were all confused (Walls 5). Every time Jeanette tried helping her parents make their lives better both Rex and Rose Mary insisted that the way they were living their lives was how they wanted it. On page 256, Jeanette tells about her political science professor asking the class what results in homelessness, and Jeanette responded by saying “I think maybe sometimes people get the lives they want.” Jeanette was implying that sometimes people who are homeless are actually living the lives they wanted because they do not make their lives revolve around money. When Rose Mary and Rex told Jeannette they were living the way they wanted to be living, it supported Jeannette’s decision in not defending herself when she was accused of not understanding the difficulties of being homeless after her political science professor asked her what she knew about the hardships and obstacles the underprivileged
In a passage from “The Glass Castle,” Jeannette Walls describes what life was like growing up with her broken family and how she felt about it. Jeannette writes about how she feels about her younger sister, Maureen, and how she believes that she is failing Maureen. Jeannette promised Maureen that she will protect her, but with her manipulative, alcoholic father and selfish, depressed mother, it is a challenge to maintain that promise made at Maureen’s birth. She also includes how she was made the head of the household because her dysfunctional family couldn’t maintain their lives properly. At 13 years old, Jeannette had to create a budget of $200 over the course of two months for her two younger siblings while her mom and older sister were
The memoir entitled The Glass Castle, written by Jeannette Walls is a story of the eventful life Jeannette endured growing up with her three siblings and her parents. Jeannette lived a tough life, she was constantly moving, never had nice clothes to wear, and had to grow up faster than most children. The reason for the constant struggles in Jeannette’s life led back to her parents. Her father Rex Walls was outrageous, always making spur of the moment decisions which had taken a toll on the family as a whole. He was a severe alcoholic who made way too many promises he knew he couldn’t keep. Throughout the novel, the idea of the “Glass Castle” appears quite often. The Glass Castle is
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 Walls, Shows in the book The Glass Castle that there are a lot of situations that happen in life where people make countless mistakes, but it is very important to forgive her father and her mother for many mistakes. She has to cope with many obstacles without her parent's help. In the author's memoir, we become attracted with Jeannette constant struggle between protecting her family and the pleasure that her family is based on the same hopes and senseless falsehood with her unbelievable storytelling method. The feelings of forgiveness hold the Walls family together. Jeanette was able to describe her family's childhood, relationships with one another. The children of the Walls family are forced to begin the independent life at an
The Glass Castle, a memoir written by Jeannette Walls, is a story that discusses the insights of a dysfunctional, yet vibrant family. The four Walls children have two parents, Rose Mary who was an unconventional artist, and Rex who was an alcoholic father. The family travels constantly across the country, with their parents using their imagination as a distraction from their poverty. Despite the hardships the Walls family has faced, Jeanette writes her truth in order to reconcile with her past. She expresses through her story of how she has reflected upon her childhood, and how it has shaped her character in the present (The glass castle: Jeanette Walls, 2016). The majority of readers may believe that Rex Walls is an irresponsible, neglectful parent. However, Rex’s viewpoint of how he cares for Jeanette and her siblings can be portrayed as supportive, intelligent, and sensible.
Jeannette shows that wealth is subjective. Even when she's an adult and has nice things and money, but she is still not happy. She is not happy because she is worried about her parents and she feels guilty living in a nice apartment and having all these nice things when her parents are homeless. Jeannette tries to quench her guilt by offering them help to get a house and food but her parents don't want the help. After Rex received clothes for a gift he says "you must be mighty ashamed of your old man. You think I'm some sort of goddamn charity case" (Walls 263). Jeannette sees her parents struggling to survive homeless but her dad says "Don't you fret a bit have you ever known your old man to get himself in a situation he couldn't handle" (Walls 260)?
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.
The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls and it tells a story the life of Jeannette Walls and her family. Towards the beginning of the novel, the family made a pitstop at a casino in Las Vegas where the parents decided to gamble hoping they will earn extra cash. On their way home, the doors flew open, and Jeannette suddenly falls out of the car and rolls down a hill after the car took a sharp turn. The accident left her with a blood nose, multiple scrapes, and pebbles stuck on her skin. After a long wait, she began to panic that her parents decided to desert her. Eventually the car returned, and Jeannette accuses her family for leaving her behind and even refuses to hug her dad. This occurrence ends with her family calling her
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a perfect example of selfishness and neglect brought upon by the parents and how influences their children through life. The Glass Castle isn’t just a story, but it is someone’s actual life and how it was affected by selfish/neglectful her parents. This is a memoir of her life and all that she went through as a child with troubled parents and how it affected her life and the life of her siblings. Jeannette is the middle child out of four children. There is Lori who is the oldest sister, Brian who is Jeannette’s younger brother, a their
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.
It is a common idea that everyone's childhood is the best time of their lives. As children it is believed to be a time of freedom, happiness, safety, and no responsibilities; however, not every child could agree with this. In the novel The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, it tells the story of three children and the childhood they lived with their irresponsible parents. The novel shows the consequences a child could have if they have unfit parents while they are growing up. Although Rex and Rose Mary Walls' intentions are to help their children become self-sufficient adults, the way they try to achieve this goal unfortunately harms the children physically, emotionally, and mentally. The novel expresses how Jeannette and her siblings are raised by their unconventional parents who at many times are neglectful and careless. However they were still able to teach their kids key characteristics that turned them into well rounded adults. Despite the many instances where the Walls’ family travels from one dysfunctional society to another, as well as travelling to various locations such as Arizona, Nevada, West Virginia and New York, has a significant impact on the family. Most of the time, Jeannette, Brian, and Lori, were left to take care of their parents, their baby sister Maureen, and also each other. Through these sibling's many hardships, they were able to stick together and form a solid relationship with one another, shaping their futures. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
The memoir, the glass castle revolves around a homeless family struggling to make ends meet. The main character Jeannette walls goes in depth about her childhood explaining what her family went through and how it affected her. At the age of three living in a trailer park in a southern Arizona town, Jeannette began accomplishing things on her own such as cooking for herself. One day she decided to stand on top of a chair to reach the stove top as she boils her own hot dogs. While cooking she
Michael J. Fox said, “Family is not an important thing. It’s everything.” This relates to The Glass Castle because even though Jeannette went through difficult times with her family she was still able to care about them. The Glass Castle is a book that was written by Jeannette Walls. It tells about her experiences while she was growing up, and in those experiences she would describe how she felt about what was going on. Most of the situations that she was in was because of her family. The Glass Castle demonstrates that families can learn from each other and grow up close through fights with each other, not understanding each other, and helping each other out.
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
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a memoir about her life growing up with her dysfunctional family. Jeannette and her siblings in poverty and were very independent due to their parents. The Glass Castle should be a required summer reading for the class of 2019. The story gives reader a chance to view the world in a different meaningful perspective of a poor happy child. It also helps guide readers with meaningful advice.