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The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls Essay example

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In this both heart wrenching and slightly humorous memoir, 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 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 parents who were too lazy and self-absorbed to obtain decent jobs. Although Walls's childhood gushes with heartbreaking tales of searching through dumpsters for food, she remains as unbitter as possible and …show more content…

When the author catches her eating the candy and questions her mother about it she pitifully cries, "I am sugar addict, just like your father is an alcoholic." Even with insanely aggravating anecdotes like this Walls simply states, "Through my parents I saw that good people are capable of doing things that hurt the ones they love." The author avoids bitterness and chooses to see the best in her mother instead of complaining and asking for pity. She does the same thing in another even more infuriating instance. In the occurrence, Walls recalls miraculously coming across a two-caret diamond ring and asking her mother to pawn it in order to pay the bills and buy food. Her mother instead keeps the ring for herself and says, "The surest way to feel rich is to smother yourself in quality nonessentials." Along with this she adds another unbelievable remark of, "At times like these, self-esteem is even more vital than food." Even with maddening experiences like these Walls refuses to succumb to the typical revenge seeking child and instead somehow loves her mother for even her most unbearable qualities. The author's unrelenting hope serves as the very factor which allows her to endure her mother's less than motherly actions. Although her father proves even more infuriating than her mother, she refuses to hate him for his

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