The Glass Castle Themes

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

Imagine living in a life where everything around you is different from reality. Imagine running from the police, living wherever one can find, and still taking care of one's family just at the age of 16. Jeannette Walls had to deal with all of this and more in her early childhood. In the book “The Glass Castle”, the author uses the characters, Jeannette and Rex Walls, to emphasize the importance of family bonds.

Well-known book writer, Jeannette Walls, in her book, The Glass Castle, describes the dramatic mood altering effects of her struggles through life. Jeannette’s purpose is to show the readers her struggles throughout her childhood. She creates a dramatic tone in order to convey to her readers that you can make your dreams come true. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette uses powerful diction, very descriptive imagery, and symbolism.

In The Glass Castle, author Jeannette Walls was a perfect example of resilience. Her life was not an easy one. Her parents didn’t have

Everyone has some kind of hope for the future, something that they want to achieve or experience. “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls, is the real life story of Jeannette growing up in poverty and her experiences as a child. Jeannette’s father was an alcoholic man, he was very irresponsible when it came to taking care of his children. Rex still managed to keep an emotional connection with his children, and this helped shape the Walls kids into who they became and kept their family together. Throughout Jeanette's childhood, she was always moving from place to place, and was constantly struggling to keep her family together. Throughout the book, “The Glass Castle” was mentioned a multitude of times. “The Glass Castle” was representative

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.

As flames engulfed her dress, they burned down her stomach as she screamed for help. This was the first memory Jeannette Walls had in The Glass Castle . The plot of the story reveals her childhood of poverty as she moved around the country with her delusional family. Her alcoholic father and mentally ill mother created a very different lifestyle for their children, and raised them like no other. The unique plot, strong characters, and many settings make the novel successful. In this autobiography, she perseveres through tough times and leads the reader down the path she took to adulthood.

In this both heart wrenching and slightly humorous memoir, successful journalist Jeannette Walls tells the bittersweet story of her rather dysfunctional and poverty stricken upbringing. Walls grows up in a family trailed by the ubiquitous presence of hunger and broken down homes. Throughout the memoir she recounts memories of moving from one dilapidated neighborhood to another with her three other siblings, insanely "free sprinted" mother, and incredibly intelligent yet alcoholic father. The author focuses on her unconventional childhood with somewhat unfit parents much too lazy and self-absorbed to even obtain decent jobs. Although Walls's childhood gushes with heartbreaking tales of searching through dumpsters for food, she remains as

The Glass Castle shows an infinite amount of themes; however, there are 5 themes that stand out the most. Coming of age, home, possessions, non-conformity, and Turbulence and order. Coming of Age is when a character starts out with little knowledge or maturity and by the end of the novel becomes mature and has moral values. In The Glass Castle Jeanette experiences coming of age. For example, Lori asks Jeanette if she likes moving. Walls writes, “Do you like always moving around?’ Lori asked me. ‘Of course I do!’ I said. ‘Don’t you?’ “Sure’ She said… ‘What do you think would happen if we weren’t always moving around?’ I asked. ‘We’d get caught’” (Walls, 29). In the beginning of the book Jeanette views her life in poverty as an adventure and

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,

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 human experience of an outcast is illustrated by Jeannette Walls in The Glass Castle by the element of chaos expressed throughout the book, the parents’ refusal to conform to social standards, and the poverty that shaped her childhood.

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

The scene in The Glass Castle that presented me with the strongest universal topic of theme is abuse. An example of this in The Glass Castle is when Jeanette’s parents are having a heated argument. Towards the end, her mother is dangling from the window, her father trying to hold her up. When the kids interfere and pull their mother to safety, she says he tried to kill her. In the book his response was, “I didn’t push her, I swear to God I didn’t. She jumped” (Walls 72). But even though Jeanette’s father said he didn’t push her, it is very obvious that he lied. This is because later in the book, he stated that he only believed in science, and claiming that there wasn’t a God. Therefore, his swear didn’t

In Jeannette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle the author’s use of symbolism conveys the memoir’s theme of internal strength and determination. These two skill sets are what Walls the successful woman she ended up being at the end of the memoir. She expresses her internal strength through the challenges she is faced with during her childhood. A well as her unstable relationships she experienced made her woman she became at the end of the Memoir. Wall’s use of symbols demonstrates Jeanette’s degree of internal strength and her determination to have a stable relationship in her adulthood.