Summary Of The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

In this passage, Walls portrays the theme of being independent and growing up. When the bullying first started, Jeanette wanted to confront her parents about it, but due to their personality, she

Often times one can fully understand what Walls was experiencing by the tone she was conveying with different adjectives. “It was cold in the house, and the air smelled of mold and cigarettes and unwashed laundry (Walls,131)”. After reading this passage one can conclude that Jeannette was clearly not fond of their new home in Welch. Additionally, this can be seen by her use of more negative descriptions of the house. “His face was inches from mine. “What are you going to do to punish me?”I asked. “Stop taking me to bars?”(Walls,220)”. This quote displays Jeanette's pain and anger she was feeling towards her father. Although Walls is not using harsh words in this statement you can sense her annoyance of her father through her sarcastic remarks. By using different tones throughout the book, the reader is able to indicate Jeannette’s true emotions towards situations in her life.

Jeannette Walls, the narrator and author of this book, is talking about her mother and how she feels about being seen with her. As far as readers know, it seems that Wall’s mother is homeless while Jeannette, who is heading to a party, is well off and fears being seen with her mother. This quote foreshadows that readers will learn later on in this memoir what happened between Jeannette and her mother that could cause Jeannette to panic at the thought of being seen by others with her own mom. It might also explain why mother and daughter are in such different living conditions. Readers sense that

The Walls children are not only raised by parents that can’t hold down a job, but by parents who are also mentally unstable. In a recent study by Princeton University it was said that “ Long work hours, lack of autonomy, job insecurity, and a heavy workload are also associated with adult mental health problems.” (Princeton). No matter how bad of a “childhood” the Walls children had it’s worse because both parents can’t hold down a job. With both parents rarely working the children are left to fend for themselves, essentially raising themselves. The Walls children have a poor quality of life and a huge factor of their quality of life is because their parents can’t keep a job. For example if Rex Walls kept a job and didn't spend his money on booze the children would have food to eat. At one point in The Glass Castle it says “whenever Mom was too busy to make dinner or we were out of food, we’d go back to the dumpster to see if any new chocolate was waiting for us.” (Walls 125). Jeanette’s parents were so selfish that the children had to go to the dumpster to get a meal, and that problem could’ve been solved if either parent was dedicated to keeping a job and putting food on the table. The children also spent most of their childhood wearing the ripped and tattered clothes because their parents were unable to afford new clothes. Not only is this extremely sad, but if their parents had steady

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.

Jeannette Walls, Shows in the book The Glass Castle that there are a lot of situations that happen in life where people make countless mistakes, but it is very important to forgive her father and her mother for many mistakes. She has to cope with many obstacles without her parent's help. In the author's memoir, we become attracted with Jeannette constant struggle between protecting her family and the pleasure that her family is based on the same hopes and senseless falsehood with her unbelievable storytelling method. The feelings of forgiveness hold the Walls family together. Jeanette was able to describe her family's childhood, relationships with one another. The children of the Walls family are forced to begin the independent life at an

With no limits or boundaries, Walls is thrown in a big body of water without knowing how to swim. Rex and Rosemary has a sense of doing it by yourself or not at all asserting “But the Hot Pot didn’t have any ehat edges like that swimming pool. There was nothing to cling to. I waded up in my shoulders. The water above my chest is warm and the rocks i was standing on felt so hot [...] Dad who watched me unsmiling[..] “you’re going to learn today”(65). Rex, in athrows Jeanette in water with no edges, knowing she can’t swim.He puts Jeannette in a live or die situation. Rex shows the faults of parenting because the parents have no regards on Jeannette’s safety or life and wall states”You’re going to learn today’ declaring “Dad pried my fingers from around his neck and pushed me away. My arms flailed around and i sank into the hot smelly water. Water surged in my nose and down my throat. My lungs burned[...] He pulled back and did it again” (65-66).Putting a child in a dangerous situation to show them a lesson shows bad parenting.Rex and Rosemary causes the reader to reflect on their lack of responsibility as being a parent so that they can understand from both sides of view of the poverty situation.

In society, there is no “normal” but there is often a certain expectation from the member in it like holding down a job, raising children, and many other. Yet Jeannette's parents do none of these things, instead they consider it to be positive that they live outside of society. To begin with the opening of the novel Jeanette is all grown up and a full member society and a complete opposite of her younger self. Jeannette illustrates ,“ I was sitting in a taxi, wondering if I had overdressed for the evening when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a dumpster” (1). This is the opener of the memoir and is setting up a large class difference between two characters. Jeanette may never have been supported in her childhood but she has made her way to a high place in society, unlike her mother who never changed in her ways. Here Walls is creating a vivid picture of what society deems as correct and incorrect drawing the reader in to find out the cause of two members of the same family being so far apart from each other in society. In the same way when Jeannette is young and, is explaining how she receives her education. Jeannette admits, “ We might enroll into school, but not always. Mom and Dad did most of our teaching” (20). Most children in society have an education from some sort of school, but since the Walls family exists outside of society in many ways. Including how they receive their education, early on in life, the children are not inside a school system. Instead they are taught how to live outside of society like their parents even if they do not want to live that way. Later on, Jeanette has moved away from her parents and has the proper schooling she is a full member of society which is everything her mother did not want. Her mother argues, ‘ Look at the way you live. You’ve sold out. Next thing I know you’ll be a Republican.’ She shook her head. ‘Where are the

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.

Jeannette Walls’s memoir is the heart wrenching story of her past. Walls had a very troubled upbringing which consisted of her alcoholic father, careless mother, malicious schoolkids and abusive extended family. The horrible things that Jeannette Walls went through in her childhood are important social issues that should have more light shed on them by the media.

In The Glass Castle, Jeanette Walls was faced with many life changing and hard obstacles. Many people who have read this book think that these hardships have helped her later in life. Her parents were never there for her when she was growing up. Her dad was a raging alcoholic who spent all of his money away at the bars. Her mom was intelligent, but still never seemed to help much with Jeanette and her siblings. Even though her parents were not much help, she loved them the same no matter what. When Jeanette was younger, she was constantly bullied at her new schools, but never went home and told on the kids her had beat her up. She stood up for herself even if she knew she had no chance at winning the fight. This showed how brave and strong

Jeannette’s parents did many things to her as a child that damaged her, but forgave them for what they imposed on her. She had the knowledge that they still loved her, no matter the choices that they made. he reason that she chose to forgive her father for everything would be because she still loved him and if Jeannette had not forgiven him, then their relationship would grow apart. This can be manifested in the statement, “‘ But, you always loved your old man, didn’t you?’ ‘I did dad,’ I said, ‘And you loved me’” (Walls 279). It was all because of Jeannette’s love for her father and the good heart she has that gave her the ability to let go of what he did, and to go further, the ability to be optimistic about it. Furthermore, Jeannette had also forgiven her mother for the mistakes she made when Jeannette was a child. For example, Rose Mary Walls had been depicted as extremely selfish throughout the

Although it is not dealt within a way that can be seen as healthy and more as traumatic due to the parents are not doing much to solve the problems. Walls uses these stylistic devices to describe challenges she had to experience such as her father’s drinking, unstable family and living arrangements. To explain the reason she gets into such traumatic situation like catching on fire at the age of three and not being able to heal properly due to her parents negligence. Therefore people should not put a child into this world if they are simply not responsible enough to take care of a child; If the parents make the decision to make a baby then they should be able put aside their selfish ways to create a loving and safe environment for their

Walls sets the tone of her memoir with the story of her earliest memory: being on fire. She uses this story to introduce the reader to the fact that from the start, her life did not fit the picture of the typical American dream. The first line of part two is, “I was on fire.” (9) and it is a quite a powerful one indeed. By using this eye-catching sentence, she uses the Pathos method of appealing to the readers emotions, namely, natural curiosity and empathy. As the story continues, the reader experiences the cool calmness of the hospital with Jeannette. Jeannette is not afraid during a hospital stay and enjoys the attention from the nurses. Walls uses simple childlike language to take the reader on a journey with her, from being placed in an ice bed with severe burns to chewing gum for the first time. By using this language, Walls gets the reader to sympathize her. The reader feels the loneliness that she feels while in the hospital and away from her family, but the reader also feels Jeannette’s excitement from being able to watch television all day and receiving three meals a day. From the start, Walls is incredibly tough and self sufficient. Through the tough lessons her parents teach her and the strong ties she has with her siblings, Jeannett becomes strong-willed and persistent.

In her memoir The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls composes her main theme targeting the influence of the past on the present, comparing her childhood to her current life situation. Walls childhood was filled with poverty and unstable living conditions which impacted her emotional and motivated her to be successful as an adult. As a child Walls never had a stable home. Her father Rex believed bad men were after him which caused him to relocate and move the whole family frequently. He called it the “skedaddle” and they would leave the house they were in and most of their belongings behind.