Jeannette Walls Character Growth and Development Throughout the Book
In “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls, the author ecompasses many ideas about symbolism and how the environment affects the character, but there is one idea that is the strongest and seems to be most relevant. The idea that the main character, Jeannette Walls, grows and develops throughout the book and become more independent, steering on her own path. To show this important development, the author uses many literary elements including diction, syntax and tone. By the end of the memoir, Jeannette Walls develops from a naive girl to an autonomous women, putting herself in a better and healthier environment.
In the beginning of the memoir, Jeannette depended on her father
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By the end of the book Jeannette starts seeing that she does not agree with her parents motives, ideas, and ways of parenting so Jeannette becomes more vocal of her thoughts and opinions. One situation where she stood up for herself and grasped the idea that she is the only one who controls herself is when Jeannette and her parents get in a fight about money. Her mother concludes that she should “start living her life” for herself and that Jeannette and the other kids could make their own money. This makes Jeannette question why her mother is giving up on them and it ends with Jeannette accusing her that she is not acting like a mother “My mucus is yellow,’ Mom said. ‘If everyone who had yellow mucus stayed home, the schools would be pretty empty,’ I told her. Mom's head snapped up. ‘You can't talk to me like that,’ she said. "I'm your mother.’ ‘If you want to be treated like a mother,’ I said, ‘you should act like one." Then, Jeanette's father comes in and whips her with his belt, and at that very moment Jeannette knew that she would never be whipped again “The air was clear and cool, and the forest floor was thick with leaves that had fallen from the buckeyes and poplars. Late in the afternoon, I sat down on a tree trunk, leaning forward because the backs of my thighs still stung. All through the long walk, the pain had kept me thinking, and by the time I reached the tree trunk, I had made two decisions.” The author uses imagery and symbolism to show that this is when Jeannette has had enough and comes to the realization that she is alone and only her can get herself out of the situation she is in. The imagery used is describing the forest around her, this then merges with symbolism. By saying “the air was clear and cool” it symbolizes as Jeanette's realization and that it was “clear”
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,
It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities. This is evident in Jeannette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle, which reiterates the story of Jeannette who is raised within a family that is both deeply dysfunctional and distinctively vibrant. Jeannette is faced with numerous barriers throughout her life. Despite the many obstacles set forth by her parents during her childhood, Jeannette develops into a successful adult later in life. One of these obstacles is the lack of a stable home base moulds her into the woman she grows up to be. Throughout her life, Jeannette must cope with the carelessness of her
The novel The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls demonstrates about a young girl, Jeannette Walls’, childhood. This book is memoir of the author, Jeannette Walls. Jeannette grew up in a family that had little to no money at times and has to move to different cities in deserts numerous times. Although many events in the novel were depressing the family still managed to keep humor and hope, especially when going through having to move constantly and being broke.An example as to why the family was always short on money because Janette’s father was an alcoholic and he would use up the family's money to purchase liquor. However, when the family was in need of food and money he would go out and a job. In the end the Walls children were moved out of
In the memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls, the author, was most influenced by her time in Battle Mountain, as indicated by how she describes the way she felt there. The Walls children loved being free to roam the area and make up games to play. In the book Walls writes, “DAD GOT A JOB AS an electrician in a barite mine. He left early and came home early, and in the afternoons we all played games.” (Walls.54) Jeannette loved that her dad finally had a job and could buy her things. She said they even were able to go out to week a few times a week. This was a treat for the children since they were used to having to find their own food. She also loved how her dad would play games with them when he got home from work. It gave her a sense
In the memoir “The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the author chronicles her life from her early childhood to her adult years. Walls’s writing style is ideal for writing about her lifestyle and family because she keeps the reader engrossed from the beginning of the memoir to the end. She utilizes literary devices within her book that bolster the reader’s understanding of her situation. Imagery and symbolism are both employed by Walls within the writing, and they improve the reader’s ability to elicit something from the memoir and to picture what the author’s lifestyle was like throughout her life.
The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, is a reflection on her constant struggles and miserable living conditions. The strong connection to her innocence is the source for both her and her reader’s suffering. As St. Augustine of Hippo one said: “God had but one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.” This is a validation that everyone suffers and Walls is able to tap into that emotional state in both herself and her reader. Jeannette Walls evokes suffering in both the reader, due to the lack of innocence in Jeanette, and her past self, in the realization of the disaster she called her life, in The Glass Castle.
Often times, the finger of blame is righteously pointed at a parent if he has failed his duty
To his family, Rex Walls was an excitable, caring, and intelligent man yet, he could also be dangerous, abusive, and ignorant. Rex Walls was an alcoholic and his family often suffered because of his erratic and selfish behavior. Beginning at a very young age, Rex Walls’s reckless actions left his children emotionally traumatized. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls reveals multiple incidents that show how Rex Walls’s drunken actions strained and damaged their relationship as a family. Due to Rex Walls’s alcoholism the children were far too often left feeling disappointed by the man they adored, constantly having to cope with the aftermath of his drunken stupor, and were unable to live normal lives, repeatedly being put in compromising situations, and having to conceal their displeasure.
The Glass Castle, written by Jeannette Walls, is an autobiographical novel that shows how hard life can be when you have little to no money and highly deteriorated parents. During the whole memoir it shows how hard it is to live in poverty while at the same time trying to raise a family. The exposition of the novel is how having parents that cannot support their children because the lack of a stable income. The rising action is when Jeannette was in a taxi cab going to a party when she sees her mother digging through the trash can and feels embarrassed and tells the taxi driver to take her home. The major conflict in the novel is a man vs. man because Jeannette, her brother, and her sister are all affected by her
“The Glass Castle,” written by an American author and journalist, Jeannette Walls, is a memoir about herself rising up and eluding from the continuous poverty and her unusual parents. Through out the novel, Jeannette describes her non-typical childhood with her optimistic yet delusional mother and a smart yet alcoholic father. Despite the fact Wells’ parents taught their children to be very strong and determined, Jeannette very much believed the way she was raised as being not normal.
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 is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls, giving the public a look at her rough upbringing and her nomadic childhood. The memoir, however is written in a way of which the author is not seeking sympathy from the reader. She also wrote in such a way as to not induce anger in the reader, as that is not what she was searching for. Jeannette wrote in order to inform and inspire, and to tell a tale as crazy as it is. Jeannette grew up, one of four siblings. Her parents had alternate methods of parenting and different ideas of how children should be raised. They taught them to have similar morals to them, and similar values. Although, as the children age, they begin to realize how wrong their parents are, and how
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,
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.