Andrew Li
Mr. Felder
AP English Language and Composition
20 August 2015
The Castle that Never Came to Be Jeannette Walls tells a very interesting story in The Glass Castle; few people get the chance to experience such a unique childhood. Jeannette’s father and mother are unlike traditional parents. Her father puts his children in harm’s way and justifies it by claiming that it’s a learning experience and her mother fails to provide comfort because she is preoccupied over her own goals. As an innocent child, Jeannette initially does not mind living such a childhood. In fact she admires her parents, especially her father, despite his frequent drunken outbursts. However, as Jeannette ages, she finds herself disapproving of her father’s way of
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However, a great disparity exists between Jeannette’s parents and typical parents. For instance, Rose Mary is unwilling to work to provide for her children because she is preoccupied with her dream to be an artist. Rose Mary goes as far as to tell Jeannette, “You have a job. You can earn money. Lori can earn money, too. I’ve got more important things to do” (Walls 218). The syntax of these four short sentences is unique. William Zinsser suggests that writers do not tell readers “something they already know or can figure out” (Zinsser 91) and Walls follows this advice, as exemplified by the quotation. She chose to use four short sentences in order to create a tense atmosphere and to help readers come to the conclusion that Rose Mary does not understand a parent’s obligations. Rex fares no better as a father, as he has serious drinking issue. His drinking issue causes him to devastate his family by ruining a Christmas celebration. Rose Mary presents Rex a lighter as a present but Rex, while drunk, thrusts the lighter into the Christmas tree. Walls writes, “Flames leaped through the branches with a crackling noise. Christmas ornaments exploded from the heat” (115). Walls incorporates imagery in this scene in order to strengthen her point that Rex brings about chaos when drunk. Flames leaped and ornaments exploded. The diction—word choice—emphasizes the destruction that Rex caused. Rose …show more content…
As an innocent child, Jeannette greatly admired her father. She writes, “Everybody said Dad was a genius. … Dad was also inventing things, too. … In my mind, Dad was perfect, although he did have what Mom called a little bit of a drinking situation” (Walls 22-23). Although Jeannette admits that her father has a “drinking situation,” she takes great pride in having a father who was a respected inventor. Jeannette conveys a tone of great reverence towards her father; she does so in order to emphasize the change in her perspective of Rex as she matures. On her tenth birthday, Jeannette asked her father, “Do you think you could maybe stop drinking?” (Walls 116). This suggests that she admits that her father’s little drinking situation is, in fact, a big drinking situation. Jeannette’s perspective on her father only gets more negative as she admits that Rex is dragging the family down and she tells Rose Mary, “Mom, we can’t go on living like this. … Mom, you have to leave Dad” (Walls 187-188). Finally, Jeannette comes to accept that the Glass Castle, which symbolizes an ideal future, is nothing more than a mirage. She once again watches as “the hole for the Glass Castle’s foundation slowly filled with garbage” (Walls 155). Before leaving for New York, Jeannette tells her father, “Go ahead and build the Glass Castle, but don’t do it for me” (Walls 238). As
Rose Mary Walls is far from being a caring mother or a positive role model to her children. She is unable to provide the basic necessities required for survival and even resorts to stealing what little resources the family has for herself; “I wondered if she had been looking forward to
American journalist, writer, and magazine editor David Remnick once said, “The world is a crazy, beautiful, ugly complicated place, and it keeps moving on from crisis to strangeness to beauty to weirdness to tragedy.” In the memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls the main character and author of the book tells of her crazy and adventurous life she experienced with her not so ordinary family. This quote relates to The Glass Castle, because like it states, life is full of both tragedies and beauty which is exactly what Jeannette experienced growing up with her free spirited and non-conformative parents. Walls is able to express her main purpose of the book that life is a mix of good and bad times through imagery, tone, and pathos.
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.
The novel, The Glass Castle, exhibits the human tendency to be selfish. This is manifested in both Rex and Rose Mary. Rex is characterized as a selfish father throughout the novel, and his paternal image is consistently skewed because of his actions. His addiction to alcohol ruins countless family events. One year the family’s Christmas is ruined when Rex drinks a great deal of alcohol and burns their tree and presents. Jeanette remembers, “Dad sat on the sofa [...] telling mom he was doing her a favor [...] no one tried to wring dad’s neck [...] or even point out that he’d ruined the Christmas his family has spent weeks planning” (115). Jeanette and her family are always left cleaning up their father’s drunken mess. Even when Rex is sober he does not apologize for ruining sentimental family events and continues to put alcohol before his family. Selfishness can also be seen in Rex’s relationship with money. He takes Jeanette into a bar in order to get money from his friend, Robbie. When Robbie asks if he can take Jeanette upstairs, Jeanette recollects, “So, with Dad’s blessing, I went upstairs” (212). Rex is so self-absorbed that he allows his daughter to go into a strange man's apartment, fully knowing his intentions. During Jeanette and her siblings’ childhood, they experience dangerous situations with their parents’ knowledge and approval. While Rex’s selfish nature is typically derived from his addiction, Rose Mary’s selfishness is simply a reflection of her personality.
Jeanette represents Rex as a reasonable and loving father through Christmas time during which he gave the presents stars to them. She describes the memory with admiration and love towards her father. Although Jeanette says “we had no money at all” her family showed no regret, she instead showed how they absolutely admire him, by capitalizing “Dad”. Rex has an ability to brave the cold times because ”the cold never bothered him” as he said ( Glass Castle 39). Jeanette holds onto her father when other people ignore him because he makes her feel unique, as it gives her one of the most important moments of her life. It's clearly obvious that Jeanette admiration is growing as she continues to describe the experience in positive terms. The final quotation at
The memoir of Jeannette Walls had several characters, important people in her life. But, there was one specific character, her dad, that she had a close relationship with. Jeannette Walls grew up in poverty and always moved around. Her family was close, but Jeannette was closest to her father over anyone else. She loved and admired her father and defended him too. Her memoir, “The Glass Castle” is very popular. She is a grown-up now and cares about her parents. She offers to help them out of poverty, but they resist. Jeannette certainly cares for both parents, but her father has a special place in her heart. Jeannette has a special relationship with her father because she admired his heroicness, she got to pick Venus as her star, and he helped her and distracted her from being scared and in pain.
Writer, Jeannette Walls, in her memoir, The Glass Castle, provides an insight into the fanciful and shocking life of growing up poor and nomadic with faux-grandiose parents in America. With her memoir, Wall's purpose was to acknowledge and overcome the difficulties that came with her unusual upbringing. Her nostalgic but bitter tone leaves the reader with an odd taste in their mouth. In some memories, the author invites her audience to look back on with fondness; others are viewed through bulletproof glass and outrage.
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.
While Jeanette is preparing to leave for New York and her father, Rex, attempts to talk her out of it by showing her the updated plans for the Glass Castle, Walls, through Jeanette, uses an implied metaphor to show how all her father’s promises are a Glass Castle without the use of like or as. Walls uses this to illuminate how her father’s promises are broken easily like how a Glass Castle can be broken easily as it is made of glass, which is fragile. Walls also highlights how throughout the memoir her father promised to protect her, not only by building her a home like the Glass Castle, but also by protecting her from men who force themselves upon her as seen when the father states, “Anyone who… laid a finger on… Rex Walls's children was going to get their butts kicked,” (Walls, 24), but the father later goes on to allow her to be inappropriately touched by Robbie just to make some money. This shows that the father makes promises he is unable to and often does not want to fulfill throughout the memoir, which leads to Jeanette having to face adversity as her father is not protecting her. As a result of her adversity, Jeanette reaches an epiphany and learns to look out for her own well-being as she understands that her father is no longer willing to do so. She also understands that her father will never build the Glass Castle and that all the promises that her father ever made to her are like the Glass Castle, easily broken. This ultimately to Jeanette developing from a character who depended solely on her father, to one that could make the decision to go to New York without her father’s permission after the 11th grade. Finally, by going to New York, Jeanette is able to provide for her own well-being by working at a job and renting an apartment and departs from the conventional means of wellbeing. Through the use of metaphor, Walls conveys the theme that often for one to persevere against adversity in his or her lives, he or she must learn to go against conventional means of well-being, like family, and find his or her individual means of well-being.
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.
Colson Whitehead once said, “Let the broken glass be broken glass, let it splinter into smaller pieces and dust and scatter. Let the cracks between things widen until they are no longer cracks but the new places for things”. In the memoir “The Glass Castle,” author Jeannette Walls faces despair and turmoil as a result of her impoverished and dysfunctional upbringing. As Jeannette grows up, she watches her father Rex fail to reach his full potential and his dream to build a Glass Castle shatter as his alcoholism takes control. Aware of the devastation her father was causing, she begins to slowly lose faith in him but doesn’t fail to escape her destructive household and pursue her dreams of becoming a journalist. Due to her parent’s lack of parenting and being forced to fend for herself, Jeannette developed a sense of responsibility to care for others and make amends to improve the family’s lifestyle. Despite the turbulence and destruction her parents had caused over the years, unlike her father, Jeannette was able to find the strength to overcome obstacles, developing characteristics that ultimately lead her to achieving her dream, thus illustrating that adversity has the power to shape one’s identity.
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
The Glass Castle is the story of Jeannette Walls, the main character and author, and her upbringing in a dysfunctional family ravaged by poverty. The book gives the readers insight to the life of the less fortunate in a chilling and capturing way. Throughout the book, they’re many underlying themes yet only one resonated throughout the text and captured the essence of what the glass castle is truly about: the importance of hope in burdensome situations. Through the struggle of the Wall’s family, the author is able to highlight hope as a significant factor in their survival even at a subconscious level. Be it through the mother, Rose Mary Walls, refusal to give up the farm land due to her long-held family beliefs; or the father's, Rex Walls,
Writer, Jeannette Walls, in her memoir, The Glass Castle, provides an insight into the fanciful and shocking life of growing up poor and nomadic with faux-grandiose parents in America. With her memoir, Wall's purpose was to acknowledge and overcome the difficulties that came with her unusual upbringing. Her nostalgic but bitter tone leaves the reader with an odd taste in their mouth. In some memories, the author invites her audience to look back on with fondness; others are viewed through bulletproof glass and outrage.
A relationship between two people could have positive and negative effects on a person's life. The relationship can be supportive and stressful, and throughout Jeannette’s life, this course took its toll. As a young girl, Jeannette Walls had a strong bond with her father, Rex Walls. He was the person that once made her feel the safest, yet had done the most significant amount of damage to her as time had passed. The Glass Castle was the great, big house her father promised to build for their family in the desert. Although he put all of his engineering and mathematical skills into the project, it was never built. The Glass Castle can symbolize empty promises or as hope for the future. Just like the Glass Castle, there were two perspectives to the relationship between Jeannette and her father. Each made Jeannette grow mentally furthermore helping her evolve as a person.