In the book, The Glass Castle, the Walls encounter many interior and exterior conflicts. The children learned how to fend for themselves because their parents were not suitable for that job. Jeannette and Brian, two of the Walls children, took responsibility for themselves and their siblings. Jeannette retold this true story from her point of view. The characters struggles did not end in one place. The Walls were constantly on the move because their living situations were always temporary. They switched from their car to a family house in Welch. Once the kids became older, some of them decided to move to New York City to skyrocket their careers. Weaved into all of this chaos, were a few underlying themes. The reader was taken on the children's journey and witnessed them blossom. They had to mature quickly because their parents stripped them from their childhood. This was difficult and a lot of pressure for these young kids. They had to persevere which in turn made them stronger individuals. The rich characters, surplus of settings, and easily comprehensible themes made this a successful novel. The variation of characters help the reader keep interest. Although this book is from a first person point of view, it is easy to comprehend the emotions and visualize the events occurring. The feeling of the book would change completely if the array of characters were not included. Each Wall child has a significant part in Jeanette's story. Jeannette is a
After nearly drowning Jeannette Walls, Rex Walls tells her that, “if you don’t want to sink, you better figure out how to swim”(Walls 66). The Glass Castle, told through Jeannette Walls, is a straightforward and content-toned memoir that describes the life within her dysfunctional family, consisting of an eccentric, free-spirited mother, an intellectual, but alcoholic father, and self-sufficient siblings. The Glass Castle should be considered as a summer reading for the class of 2019 because of its unique abilities to entertain the audience while simultaneously giving helpful guidance in the audience’s life. The book, although true, is told from an optimist’s viewpoint that gives the story an almost humorous vibe that the audience can appreciate,
“The Glass Castle” by Jeanette Walls is an extremely captivating novel that really kept my attention throughout the entire story. It’s a fascinating story of growing up in circumstances that kept me shaking my head as I turned the pages. The Walls family is unquestionably one unlike any I’ve ever come across. The lessons and experiences that the children learned and endured were ones that molded their lives and established who they are today. Jeanette Walls goes through many descriptions of situations that she faced that people normally should not face. For most of her childhood, her family traveled from town to town because her parents always thought that they would hit it big, unfortunately her father was never ever to find a
In the book The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, we learn about the authors childhood. It goes into depth about her family relationships as well as the battles they face. With a book this complex there could be different feelings the author is intending for the reader to feel. Although there are other readings I’ve done that relate to problems in The Glass Castle.
Prior to the second half of The Glass Castle, the story focuses mainly on Jeannette’s family moving around in the West. It introduces how she was brought up, the views that shaped her as a child, and how she viewed the world when she was younger. There is a stark difference between this part of the story, and the next. The first part seems innocent, before Jeannette was aware of the other parts of the world, and the one that followed showed her developing her views--truly growing up.
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.
The memoir The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls follows the socially impaired and significantly eccentric Walls family and the consequences of their life style. Lori, Jeannette, Brian, and Maureen Walls endured a poverty stricken upbringing at the fault of their egotistical parents Rose Mary and Rex Walls, the hardship the children faced in their young years had an effect on how they adjusted to life as adults. The lack of support allotted for the children left them to fend for themselves. This came into effect when in order to escape a life of starvation, penury, and instability they each migrated to New York City one by one to develop a new life for themselves. Their atypical childhoods left them seeking resilience and made it
Life is a journey filled of many surprises, and while one day you will lose 5 bucks, the other day you will find 10. Whether you broke your leg, you got the flu, or you got a bad grade, I believe that we can always make the best of every situation.
Reading The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls was a journey in itself. As I dived deeper into the book everyday, I started feeling like I was apart of the Walls family, going through everything that they were experiencing. Reading about all their crazy experiences from one of the daughter's point of views, was incredibly intriguing. It is a personal memoir of her years of growing up with her alcoholic father, delusional mother, and three siblings. The book is full of hardships. The family continually suffers especially the children as they grow up. The amazing part of the book is how the kids, especially Jeanette, made good lives for themselves even when throughout their childhood they had just about nothing. Jeanette took all her struggles
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.
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a descriptive and emotion filled memoir of her childhood and how it affected her in her adulthood. The novel was released in 2005 and in 2017 the film version was released. The purpose of both the novel and film was not only to inform the reader about Jeannette’s story, but to also encourage people to achieve their dreams and to not let their past determine their future. In comparison to the movie, the book portrays the theme, characters and the mood of events better. Although both the novel and film allows the audience to get a sense of the central purpose, the book has a way of making the reader emotionally attached and want to continue reading.
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,
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.
Oscar Wilde once said, “Children begin by loving their parents, as they grow older, they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.” This quote represents Jeannette Walls relations with her father, Rex Walls, in her memoir, The Glass Castle. Jeannette's relationship with her father is symbolic of Oscar Wilde’s thought. Early in her life, Rex is a good father, teaching Jeannette and caring for them, but toward the end of his life, Rex is seen by Jeannette as a distraction and a bad influence. She slowly learns more and more of her horrific drunk dad, and her overall relationship with Rex changes quite a bit throughout her life captured in The Glass Castle.
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
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.