John Steinbeck 's The Grapes Of Wrath And Jeannette Walls

Imagine living in a life where everything around you is different from reality. Imagine running from the police, living wherever one can find, and still taking care of one's family just at the age of 16. Jeannette Walls had to deal with all of this and more in her early childhood. In the book “The Glass Castle”, the author uses the characters, Jeannette and Rex Walls, to emphasize the importance of family bonds.

In Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle, there are many important themes that pop throughout the book. Although there are many themes, the most essential one is how a hard past forces people to learn to rely on themselves to make their life better by pushing through their struggles, this changes how a person thinks and acts ultimately defining their identity. This theme is the most prominent throughout the book.

The Glass Castle is about a very poor family that constantly moves from place to place just to seemingly stay alive. The book addresses the many social issues that we deal with every day. One of the most important social issues disputed on a daily basis are the kind of parents we want to be and what we want to teach our children for their future. In this memoir we are able to see how Rex and Rosemary Walls teach their children the values of everyday life. The parents try to teach their children that whatever life throws at you, you can handle it with resilience. The parents accomplished the goals for their children by telling them that they loved them and to never give up. The Walls children gained exceptional values that may not have been learned had these children grown up with different parents. Both parents in the Glass Castle ultimately help Jeannette and the rest of her family become the people they are today, and would not have been able to accomplish this without the parents.

Jeannette Wall’s memoir, The Glass Castle, displays Jeannette’s life growing up as a child living in an impoverished family. It is surprising to see that Jeannette is truly loving and caring towards her family despite how completely irresponsible and negligent both her parents were. Rose-Mary and Rex Walls are unfit parents to their children.

The Glass Castle, written by Jeannette Walls, is an autobiographical novel that shows how hard life can be when you have little to no money and highly deteriorated parents. During the whole memoir it shows how hard it is to live in poverty while at the same time trying to raise a family. The exposition of the novel is how having parents that cannot support their children because the lack of a stable income. The rising action is when Jeannette was in a taxi cab going to a party when she sees her mother digging through the trash can and feels embarrassed and tells the taxi driver to take her home. The major conflict in the novel is a man vs. man because Jeannette, her brother, and her sister are all affected by her

In 2005, Jeannette Walls wrote The Glass Castle, a memoir of her family’s life in poverty and a quest to outrun a dysfunctional childhood and create something better for herself along with her siblings. While the children are trying to create successful adult lives for themselves they face the challenge of trying to keep their parents from being homeless in New York City. In an interview with Mondloch, Walls mentions that her childhood was “… both a blessing and a curse.” Their unusual, chaotic and an isolated upbringing, originated successful, educated and fearless children.

Perhaps the most prominent theme of the novel, The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls is the idea of self-sufficiency. Starting from the early beginnings of their childhood, the Walls children were left to survive by their parents in almost every legal (and, in some cases, illegal) circumstance. Even as times grew tough along the way, the Walls parents still believed that the idea of being self-sufficient was more valuable than any other characteristic in facing the real world, and this philosophy played a major role in determining the outcome of the novel.

The novel The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a memoir of her increasingly difficult and troubling life. Throughout these adventures her and her three siblings travel to many places from California to Phoenix, to the quite backward town of Welch, and to finally, New York City itself. In which, her relationship with her parents and family is at times, straining and at the times, one of the most strong relationships she has. This relationship she has with her parents can be defined by three parts, irresponsibility, outstanding luck, and the effect on Jeannette. All of these subjects can be separated into the good side and the bad. First, we will cover the irresponsible acts of her parents.

As frigid snow frosts the sun-licked ice, a glacial wind howls against the trees. As a child, one would sip hot chocolate and watch a movie with their family. However, Jeannette Walls would be sitting on a dirty floor, cold with no food. In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, 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 destitution and endured anguish during her childhood, these obstacles formed her into a self-reliant woman who proves that just because she did not have as much money as other families, she can still achieve success in her life.

Author, Jeannette Walls, in her novel, The Glass Castle, from pages 226 to 230, exemplifies the themes of escapism and betrayal. In this chapter, Walls’s purpose is to identify the instability that her family is going through. Through her diction, Walls creates various tones in order to convey to her audience that despite obstacles, it is possible to escape from a dysfunctional family in hopes of a brighter future. Walls begins the chapter by recalling incidents of disappointment.

“The Glass Castle,” written by an American author and journalist, Jeannette Walls, is a memoir about herself rising up and eluding from the continuous poverty and her unusual parents. Through out the novel, Jeannette describes her non-typical childhood with her optimistic yet delusional mother and a smart yet alcoholic father. Despite the fact Wells’ parents taught their children to be very strong and determined, Jeannette very much believed the way she was raised as being not normal.

Jeannette Walls never had a ideal childhood. Growing up, she was caring for herself and her siblings, they stuck together. Her parents' actions caused various burdens and embarrassment for their children. In the book The Glass Castle Walls' parents were not perfect, but she still showed compassion and love towards them. She defended her family name and cared for them.“But I could never enjoy the room without worrying about Mom and Dad huddled on a sidewalk gate somewhere”(Walls 4).

In the book The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, Walls recalls her life and the significant experiences within it. She goes through the perils of being poor, not having a stable home, and having changing beliefs of the world around her. With an alcoholic and paranoid father, an irresponsible mother, and many nights with an empty stomach, Jeannette Walls grows up loving and supporting her parents as a young child only to realize the neglect that she and her siblings have gone through as she got older. The Glass Castle is a book full of life lessons, unique and baffling experiences, and eye opening scenes of the world and the many different people within it. This book shows the ups and downs of one’s life, showing dysfunction, misfortune, and how these impact someone over time.

American writer and journalist, Jeannette Walls, in her memoir, The Glass Castle(2005), narrates her personal history. She tells the good, bad, and ugly of her childhood. Walls’ purpose is to encourage her readers that anyone can overcome adversity and be great. She kept her positivity and humor even in the roughest of times and kept her family together even through all their movement from place to place. Walls’ pushed herself through her challenges and hardships to become prosperous and happy.

An autobiography written by Jeannette Walls, “The Glass Castle” displays many points that the reader should take strongly into consideration. The book features situations that are truly appalling, and while reading, you wonder how Jeannette and her siblings made it through. On top of making it through these experiences, the Walls children were able to keep a relationship with their  parents. From reading this autobiography, I can conclude the Walls children were made stronger and were able to be successful due to their unique education, the poor personal choices of their parents, and the lifestyle of constant moving.