The Glass Castle Literary Analysis

I. An extended metaphor is described as a comparison between two unlike things that is introduced and then further developed throughout all or part of a literary work. Extended metaphors allow writers to draw a larger comparison between two things or ideas. In rhetoric, they allow the audience to visualize a complex idea in a memorable or tangible way. They highlight a comparison in a more intense way than simple metaphors or similes.

One of the most important theme in The Glass Castle is forgiveness. Jeannette and her brother and sisters spend their whole lives forgiving their parents for their irresponsibilities. They still love them and welcome them into their hearts even though Rex and Rose Mary didn't deserve it. By forgiving them, she feels less angry and her attitude as a whole is much more positive. When she is three years old, she burns herself cooking and her mother doesn't take care of her. After being in the hospital for 6 days, she let her cook again and says “Good for you, you have got to get right back in the saddle (15). ” Another example of forgiveness, is when she is trying to learns how to swim and her dad drops her in the water making her almost drown. She thinks he did this so she can learn, so she forgives him. Jeanette says, “I figured he must be right, there was no other way to explain it(66).” This means that she thought he didn't have an intention to harm her, but he tried to make her learn. At the end of the story, she meets her father for the last time and forgives him for all the bad things that had happened in her life and all the chaos. Although all of these bad things happened to her and her brother and sister because of him, she says she knew he loved her like no one else ever had. Jeanette said she forgives him for “all the hell-raising and destruction and chaos he [has] created in [her life].” On the other hand though, she says, “I could not imagine what my life would be like- without him in it. As awful as he could be, I always knew he loved me in a way no one else ever had(279).” This means that she knew that he made all those mistakes throughout his life, but she still found a way to forgive him and look on the brighter side of things.

In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Jeannette finds herself caught between colliding ethnic cultures when she makes a new friend who is African American and her grandmother, Erma, does not approve. Jeannette is confronted with Erma’s opinion when she says, “Keep this up and people are going to think you’re a nigger lover” (143). This quote shows how Jeannette was caught between the approval of a family member and what she considered was the right thing. It is obvious Erma is very racist and this greatly bothers Jeannette, whose parents have taught her to see no difference, but regardless she is not swayed by anything Erma says. Jeannette later recalls, “That didn’t seem like Mom. She and Dad happily railed against anyone they disliked or

Forgiveness can save relationships, or it can damage them depending on if you use the knowledge you have in a positive or negative light towards a person. In The Glass Castle, forgiveness saved the relationship between Jeannette and her parents. Even though her parents did awful things to her and did not necessarily take care of her, Jeannette still lets her love for them shine through and she forgave them for it. Although Jeannette’s parents imposed many hardships and she endured many difficulties, Jeannette found it in her heart to forgive her parents for what they had done.

It is untroubling to find the flaws in people. Often times it is only the imperfections that we remember and judge people off of. This is just a part of human nature. However it is more healthy to focus on the good in people; Find the positives rather than the negatives of a person's character and consider them for those qualities. In the book, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls emphasizes the poor qualities in her parents. Even though they were not generally good parents, they were not all bad and there are many redeeming qualities that can be seen throughout the memoir. Jeanette's father, Rex Walls, is able to hold on to her love for him through his redeeming qualities. Despite her father's lack of responsibility and inability to protect his

Often times, when a family decides to have children, those children are usually a priority. In order for a child to lead a healthy, functional life, a family needs to be strong. When a family becomes dysfunctional, the most effected are the children. However, sometimes as the child grows up. They see past the dysfunction and forgive the parents for the problems they had caused in their children’s lives. In the novel, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls she describes a unique dysfunctional family story. The Walls family have lived through constant struggles, and ran into new situations every day. Rex and Rose Mary Walls, the parents of their children Jeannette, Brian, Lori and Maureen, chose to live in poverty bringing their children along

The life of a parent is a difficult journey. To be an acceptable parent, the parent must complete different tasks such as being employed therefore providing needs of children. Oftentimes, society judges a parent on their ability to provide for their children. For example, if the father determines to abuse his daughter, society will rebuke him. However, it only takes a child to show their love towards their parents for society to accept that he is able to provide for that child’s needs. In the book The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the relationship between Jeannette and her father projects throughout the book due to the attachment they have towards one another. Despite the destruction her father have placed in her life, Jeannette continuously

The Glass Castle was a memoir of Jeannette Walls life. Her memoir as well as her autobiography, gave a new perspective to her life that showed how she become the person she is and the most important moments in her life that changed her. The book is in first-person view, which showed a lot of what she went though. Though the book is only in her view it does give an inside on the lives of the other character. But, it doesn’t show what is really going on with them. For example, Jeannette’s father, struggled with alcoholism though she always has a remarkable view on him. There had been certain things in the book that show that his life was struggle. Such as on page 43 when Jeannette’s mom jumped out of the moving car and ran into the darkness.

Forgiveness can be a simple gesture. Either way it’s a difficult task to complete. Nevertheless it’s easier to pry forgiveness from certain groups of people; especially children. Children tend to easily forgive since they do not fully comprehend the severity of a situation. This theory especially applies to the parent-child relationship where the child feels the need to forgive their parents no matter the situation. Forgiveness for the parent seems mandatory to the child considering the parent is the teacher of life to their child; what the parents say and/or do is all their knowledge of how the world goes. In The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls proves this theory correct. Numerous times Jeannette forgives her parents for their wrongdoings and

Appreciation for what one has can take that person a long way, especially if they do not have much to appreciate. Throughout the memoir, The Glass Castle, the reader learns that the novel is centralized around three base ideas. These three ideas follow the outline of how one should always make realistic promises, how the loss of innocence can affect the way one lives their lives, and how self-reliance and independence can take someone far in life. The memoir sets the themes out with intricate series of events that makes these themes inarguable, from fire fights in the street with the local thug, to lying about your age to get a job to ensure food stays on the table while your parents are away. In the end it all becomes relevant to the central

While life has various precious resources, only some ever truly are important to the world. Even though we may choose what is precious to us, there will always be one above the rest. Money is our most precious resource in this world because we make lives for ourselves with it, and without money life would be difficult to go through.

Regularly, the finger of fault is uprightly pointed at parents who are unsuccessful at obligation in bringing up the child. On the off chance that parents mishandled their child, does not offer him/her security, and ignore his/her needs, society instantly criticizes them. As the child grows up, he or she even may feel disgraced by his/her parent. Nevertheless, occasionally, all it takes for the child to totally excuse the disappointments of the parent is for he/she to meet the child’s basic needs and/or wants. In the book, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls is characterized as that child, describing her most loved youthful memories she went through with her dad, Rex Walls, while looking at the best snapshots of her life, paying little respect to Rex's conspicuous negligence and devastation that negatively impacted different parts of her life. One of the many themes in The Glass Castle is that people need to forgive not just for the benefit of the person who has been wronged but for themselves to move forward.

The challenges are over lapped on top of each other, which is tougher to forgive someone that is so greatly connected to you, but learning that this person will always love you is a thought we should all keep in our minds. In the novel The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls is faced with the daunting challenge of having to forgive her father. Jeannette’s relationship with her father, Rex Walls, is not the finest. As Jeannette grows up she starts to lose faith in her father because of his alcoholism is affecting the family emotional and financially, because most of the time he spends his money on booze. It was hard for Jeannette to realize that she had no love for her father, but still forgive him for his mistakes and find a way to welcome him to her heart. Jeannette forgives her father when she tries to learn how to swim and her father dropped her into the water when she almost drowned. She forgives him and thinks of his purpose of inspiring her to learn. Jeannette thought to herself “I figured he must be right, there was no other way to explain it”. At the end of the story when Jeannette and she father meet for the last time she forgives him for “all the hell raising and destruction and chaos he created in her life”. She says “I could not imagine what my life would have be like- without him in it. As awful as he could be, I always knew he loved me in a way no one else ever had”. Therefore, you

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

The parenting style that is most exemplified by Rex and Rosemary walls in the Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls is the style of permissive parenting. According to the psychology article about parenting styles, What They Are and Why They Matter written by Kendra Cherry a permissive parent or sometimes referred to as an indulgent parent are parents who have very few demands of their children and they rarely discipline their children. “May I pet him please I asked dad (walls 106).” Rex took the kids to the zoo, they snuck into the area where the cages were, to see the cheetahs. Rex started to pet the cheetah and then Jeannette asked if she could pet the cheetah too, rex allowed her to without a care about it. No ordinary parent would have