Short Story: The Trip To Welch

Lori and Jeannette took the role of mother to the younger kids because of lack of mother. Eventually the kids get sick of home and one by one move out of New York City. The day, Jeannette gets there she suddenly gets a feeling of responsibility and starts looking for jobs. She gets a job in a hamburger shop that helps her and Lori move out of the women hotel they were staying

Towards the end of the memoir, Jeannette was in high school and was getting ready to graduate and get as far away from Welch and her broken family as possible. Jeannette decided to follow in her older sisters footsteps and move to New York. Jeannette is passionate about writing and believed New York was a perfect place to get her career started, along with college. Jeannette’s family was upset that she was leaving them, especially Rex. Rex felt as if he was losing

Describe Jeannette’s childhood, specifically her socialization or the process by which she acquired family values, information about social expectations, and survival strategies.

When Jeannette’s family is picked up on the highway by a nice lady in a Buick. She says to them how she “can't leave those poor people out there” (Walls 121), referring to them as the poor people. In response to this Jeannette’s “Dad disappeared” (Walls 121) as soon as they were dropped off. this is a typical coping strategy often used by her dad when he encounters a stressful situation. Furthermore he uses alcohol as a way to relieve those stresses, but really only makes it worse as he broke his promise to stay sober for his daughter. Therefore sending him into a downward spiral of alcohol abuse, making him feel worse. This coping strategy was obviously not an effective strategy as it just made his 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

The summary of the story is a memoir, which is about Jeannette and her family who are constantly low on food and money, family moving around the country a lot, and having a hard time to re-settle. The family is very dysfunctional with a multiple of stories to tell. The book is filled with much different kind of experiences that the family including Jeannette has been through together.

“He [Jeannette’s father, Rex] will not keep me out of harm’s way, he will put me in harm’s way and I have to find a way to remove myself from the situation.” (Diversity Connection). I feel like this quote, from Jeannette, came t directly from the situation where Rex took her out to the bar to help him earn money for alcohol, but yet she still doesn’t see herself as a victim. Even though Jeannette Walls was the victim of sexual abuse at a very young age, she tries to recreate the freedom from her childhood into her adult life, But in her younger years where she has no occupational activities, no nurturing, no money and no friends to turn to, it proves to be very hard to maintain.

The life the Walls kids put up with was not the way the wanted to live. When Lori graduated high school she moved to New York City. Then Jeanette’s

There, she excelled in journalism, and eventually became the first high school junior to occupy the position of Senior Editor. The main issue throughout her life was her father’s drinking problem, which strained her, as well as the rest of her family’s, relationship with him. Her father would constantly discuss “The Glass Castle,” a gargantuan mansion created from his imagination, of which he even created blueprints. To Jeannette, it symbolized hope for a better life. However, it was never created due to the lack of funding. After realizing the castle of her dreams would never be created (in spite of her father’s word), Jeannette and her siblings moved to New York to create a new life for themselves, never even graduating high school. She met her future husband, and the two moved to Park Avenue, where she continued her passion for

Shortly after the incident, Jeannette turns ten years old. Her father asks her what she wants for her birthday and she tells him she is scared to tell him. Finally, she asks him if he could just promise her he would stop drinking as a gift for her birthday. Jeannette explains that “‘Mom would be a lot happier. Plus, we’d have the extra money’” (Walls 117) if he stops drinking. Her father then gets upset thinking Jeannette is ashamed of him. Although, he keeps her promise and stops drinking, but it did not last long.

Initially Jeannette Walls relied on her parents to make decisions for her. However over the course of the book her maturity transforms into self resilience. All these experiences and decisions change her over time. She starts out a young clueless and dependant person. After many lessons she ends up a realistic down to earth independent person that gives her the best life possible.

In the novel, Jeannette makes the most out of her unfortunate lifestyle. When Jeannette was young, Rex said that Blythe was too hot, so they hit the road again. Her parents put Jeannette in the back of a U-Haul and drove across the desert. The kids weren’t allowed to talk on the way there,

In the two final parts of this book, the reader can see Jeannette grow into a self-sufficient adult female who appears to have found her place in life. When she travels to accompany Lori in New York City, Jeannette does not know what to expect but is overwhelmed with excitement. Several years after when Rex and Rose Mary move to N.Y.C, you see them basically fall back into their same routine of barely squeaking by living on the streets of the city. I fully support the decisions made by Jeannette to get out and away from her family and ticking time bomb of a mother. She was very wise to get a job and pay for her education as this will help her succeed in the latter part of her life. For Rex and Rose Mary, I do support how they chose to live

All she wanted to do what fit in. It takes her another twenty years to finally accept who she was and gain all the confidence she would need to live her life. Jeanne talks about her trip that she takes with her family to visit Manzanar years later. She ended up marrying a Caucasian man and having three children. She was even the first person in her family to complete college. When Jeanne and her family arrive at Manzanar, Jeanne is reminded of her childhood. Looking back on what happened, she wouldn't want any of it to change. She “never wants to lose this piece of her.” (pg. 195) While visiting she gets to the area where block 28 was roughly stood and she remembers the day that Papa bought the car to leave camp in. On that day, he comes back with the car and takes the family for a ride. He ends up having a little too much fun and just becoming a wild and reckless driver. Nothing bad happened to them, but it was in this moment that Janie realized she believed in Papa. The wildness she saw in his eyes made her see that the years to come are going to be okay. Jeanne says farewell to Manzanar as she is leaving it with her family on this trip because one, she knows she will probably never see it again and two, farewell is what you say “when you've truly come to know a place.” (pg.195) File:Manzanar Internment Camp.

She has 2 sisters Lori and Maureen and 1 brother Brian. But she gets more along with her brother Brian. Her parents are very irresponsible and they never take care of their children. Jeannette’s father, Rex Walls, is always taking his daughter for granted and is always taking money from her since he is an alcoholic. “Hon, I need some money” “For what?” “Beer and cigarettes”(Walls, 209). He always spends a lot of money on booze and alcohol all the time and that is the main reason for their poverty. The mother, Rose Mary Walls, is an artist and is always busy painting not caring for her children. Moreover the father is always quitting jobs and the mother having a teacher’s degree never wants to work. So they never have enough money for anything.