Significant Events Of Jeannette's Life

Jeannette reflects on how fire has continually resurfaced in many events of her life so far. During this reflection, she is drinking a Shirley Temple inside a bar across the street from the hotel they were staying in, which had caught fire that night. Jeannette eventually concludes that all the times in her life involving fire are linked and affect one another, and that fire could suddenly appear anywhere, at any time.

Despite the fact that she almost dies in a fire cooking hot dogs, she does not fear it and even admires it instead. Jeanette likes to play with matches and candles, and in the episode in the hotel bathroom, she flushes burning matches into the toilet. It clearly shows how she tries to gain control over it as one “can't live in fear of something as basic as fire”. Jeanette chooses to keep it under control thus trying to control her own life. However, she understands that fire is stronger than she is as she waits for something to go wrong: “. . . what I did know was that I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire”. As a matter of interest, Jeanette's father becomes the cause of a fire, directly or implicitly, for instance, when burning the Christmas tree down or when Jeanette uses his matches to start a fire in the shack where she and Brian conduct an experiment with flammable materials or in the hotel bathroom. One of the main reasons of Jeanette's unstable life is her

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

In the inspiring memoir “The Glass Castle” Jeannette uses the element of fire to discover and comprehend the disfunction of her family and the harm that is caused do to it. Allowing her, to use fire to understand that she does not have to continue hurting herself even if that is what her heart and society tells her to do. Throughout the memoir the symbol is developed through her episodic stories and ties in with the overwhelming theme in the book which Jeannette must admit is true.

Unfortunately, the loss of housing occurs frequently and takes a psychological toll on the people affected by depression. Desmond displays how Arleen is very troubled when she gets evicted, thrown into the cold, and stranded with nothing. It takes a toll mentally when she realizes she has no home to get away from the cold, but also the eviction will be on her record for the next move. When people get evicted there is so much going against them, that mentally they can’t keep up and become depressed. Desmond describes the depression of a Hispanic woman and her three children during an eviction. At first, she had “borne down on the emergency with focus and energy,” then she started wandering the halls “aimlessly, almost drunkenly, her face had that look, the movers and the deputies knew it well”(125). Desmond adds, “It was the look of someone realizing that her family would be homeless in a matter of hours”(125). With vivid imagery, Desmond truly shows the mindset of a woman who knows she lost everything. Eviction scars people and that it makes a lasting mark on how they mentally feel as if they are worthless.

I told you mom, I didn’t think that Eric would lend me a million dollars...and even if he would, I wouldn’t borrow it from him. ”(Walls 273) This shows that Jeannette has finally become an individual and isn’t feeding into her parents lies anymore. She knows how to say no to them and she didn’t at the beginning of the novel. It shows how she is an individual and how she had to use courage to say no to her parents.

Throughout the novel, the readers have the ability to follow along Jeanette’s life story. She deals with her distracted yet present parents. They remind her of the important lessons in life. One of the most important lessons that Jeannette learns is that life will eventually work in the end and if it still isn't working that just means it is not the end

Through this first incident, Jeanette’s mother, Rose Mary, encouragingly said, “Good for you. You‘ve got to get right back into the saddle. You can’t live in fear of something as basic as fire” (Walls 9). Soon then, Walls became “fascinated with it” (Walls 9) as she passed her finger through a candle flame, slowing her finger with each pass, watching the way it seemed to cut the flame in half.

Imagine: A young boy scavenges for food to provide for his impoverished family which was composed of his ill mother and starving siblings or a homeless, single mom desperatley seeking for shelter. These synopses from "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt and "The Street" by Ann Petry share a common theme: perseverance through hardships. In "Angela's Ashes," a memoir by Frank McCourt, he stells about the harships he endured through his childhood, such as, struggling to assist his family in the midst of poverty by stealing food to provide for them. Futhermore, in "The Street," a novel by Ann Petry, tells the story of young Lutie Johnson, a homeless single mom who is seeking shelter for herself and her children. In these two excerpts, the authors use the characters, settings, and events to develop the theme, which I've identified as perseverance through hardships.

The first major event that stuck with Jeannette Walls started when she was cooking hot dogs alone at only age three, and she accidentally lit herself on fire. This was definitely an impacting event on her, not only because it is her first memory, but it was also traumatic.

She allows herself to believe all she is told. She also allows herself to believe that being treated as she is is going to make her better, when in fact it is only making her worse. Her being sent up in a room, like a penitentiary will add loneliness to her illness. Her being told not to write or not to go and see family and friends, again, adds to her loneliness. She is separated from society. Therefore, she feels as though she is alone in society. She gives into the fact that the male-dominated society would rather her alone, than be with lots of women and cause chaos. She gives into everything the world wants instead of listening to her inner self. She ignores herself, causing her to act out in madness. When one does not listen to one's inner self, he or she is then turning away from his or her conscience. It's like the "devil and angel" episode that has been seen in numerous cartoons. If the person listens to the little devil, it will end up being the wrong decision. It the person listens to the little angel, it will be the right decision. The narrator listens to almost neither. She allows what is happening to happen and does nothing but sit back. This would cause anger inside anyone.

Poverty is and has been an issue for the majority of human history but that lack of resource and struggle to live where one could even be excused for being selfish is where miracles of humanitarianism and empathy for each others pain is shown. The loss of a family member especially the largest wage earner leads to potential starvation and a sense of hopelessness. In the case of Francie Nolan and her brother Neeley, a close friend of their

Jeannette’s second factor that influenced her on her sense of self was her father. One night, Rex comes home late and Jeannette gets up to see him. He has big gashes in his face and forearm. He was too drunk to take care of his wounds, he asks Jeannette to stitch up his arm. She is terrified to draw the threaded needle through her dad’s skin, but she manages a few stitches. The next evening, when Jeannette returns from school her father had left again. Jeannette finds it hard to continue having faith in him. According to Erickson’s fifth stage of Identity vs. Role Confusion Jeannette was learning how to develop a sense of self and personal identity. Success leads to an ability to stay true to you, while failure leads to role

“The storm that took everything and left nothing,” Elaine explained will tears welling up in her eyes. When Katrina hit Elaine, Charlie, two of their three children and their spouse and their four grandchildren, where living in a two bed room apartment in Lafayette, Louisiana. “The apartment was cramped, but it was the only place we had to go. Without our first grandchildren opening up his apartment to us I have no clue where we would have gone,” she tells. The two bedroom apartment belonging to their oldest grandchild whom at the time was attending the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The apartment was in the heart of Lafayette, really close to UL campus and close to the other grandchildren’s elementary schools. “Taking and picking up my grandchildren from school every day was a blessing. Charlie and I would take them to Chucky Cheese almost every day to keep their minds off of the storm,” she tells with a smile from ear to ear. The grandchildren where nine, eight and six at the time and they really did not know what was going on with the storm and Elaine wanted to keep it that way. “Troy our second son-in-law was a firefighter that had to say in Toca during Katrina. We could not get in contact with him for days. We did not know where he was then we received a phone call tells us that everything was gone. He told us that our houses where all under water and there was nothing left,” she explains with tears welling up

They don’t have any money and they often go without food. Their clothes are rags and they don’t have shoes. Everyone helps them out as much as we can but there’s only so much you can do. It’s not really possible to just buy them a house or all the necessities they need, especially because they’re a family of eight. It makes me sad that they once had a house and everything they needed to stay healthy and happy and then one day that was all taken away from them.