The Past That Changed My Life

She realizes that the person she was as she is growing up is not who she must become as a mature youth and adult. She envisions a good life for herself and accepts that she has every right to live that life she desires. Though the Walls parents have done many wrongs to Jeannette there is one life lesson that they have instilled into her. They have empowered Jeannette with the energy and hunger to have the best education that she can obtain. ” I’ve always believed in the value of a good education” (Walls 265).

Throughout the novel, the readers have the ability to follow along Jeanette’s life story. She deals with her distracted yet present parents. They remind her of the important lessons in life. One of the most important lessons that Jeannette learns is that life will eventually work in the end and if it still isn't working that just means it is not the end

Her father later told her that she was a special girl, that not many little girls can cook or boil water all on their own. Jeannette realizes that she is special just by this happening and later learned to laugh at her crisis. All of her life, decisions affected her life growing up. She decides that she will be the person she wants to be. Jeannette has had a rough life, but as soon as she faced a crisis, she learned something new about herself.

Like all other children, as Jeannette ages, she comes to understand that her parents are not the person who she thought they were and that her

Her desire to make Nola happy shows that she is trying, but inside thoughts show that she does not like the way Nola dresses, or the clothes she picks out, or the restaurant they eat at. Her emotional attachment and need for her daughter overpowers her knowledge that it is time for Nola to grow up.  She would prefer for Nola to remain young.  Despite her mother's desire, Nola is growing up and becoming her own person.

Lastly, her family betrayed her by not listening to her side of the story after her sister told lies about her, and they betrayed her when they acted as if they did not care if she moved out of the house. In all of these actions, the family itself and certain members of the family are portrayed as uncaring, unsupportive, disrespectful, conniving, deceitful, and hateful to Sister. Through every action of the family, Sister is treated harshly, and she tries to not let this bother her. Yet, anger and bitterness build up inside of her until she cannot take it anymore. Consequently, it built up so much inside of her that it severely affected Sister so profoundly that she moved away from her home to get away from her family.

Initially Jeannette Walls relied on her parents to make decisions for her. However over the course of the book her maturity transforms into self resilience. All these experiences and decisions change her over time. She starts out a young clueless and dependant person. After many lessons she ends up a realistic down to earth independent person that gives her the best life possible.

Jeannette is the narrator of her memoir, telling her story from age three into adulthood. As a child she is adventurous, wild-hearted, and Dad 's favorite. Jeannette, a middle sibling, is closer to younger brother Brian than her older sister Lori: Brian shares Jeannette 's love of the outdoors, while Lori is more a bookworm. As Jeannette matures, her feelings toward Dad and Mom change. She resents Dad 's drinking and how he constantly lets her and the rest of the family down yet never openly admits it or allows his flaws to be discussed. Jeannette also resents Mom 's refusal to hold down a job long enough to provide her kids with a stable food supply. These resentments make her more and more willful and independent. Eventually she scrapes

Throughout her early childhood, she ignores her father's drunken escapades, and thinks of him as a loving father and excellent teacher of the wild. It isn't until her junior year of high school that she realizes the indisputable flaws her father has. She resents Dad's drinking and how he constantly lets her and the rest of the family down yet never openly admits it or allows his flaws to be discussed. Jeannette also begins to resent her mother, whom she’s never been close to. Some cause of her resentment includes her mom’s refusal to hold down a job long enough to provide her kids with a stable food supply, especially since Rex won’t be providing like he says he will. This resentment eventually motivates her to move away from her parents and Welch. She ends up in New York City with her sister Lori in which she focuses on her studies and becomes a successful journalist. Jeannette is a natural forgiver and it shows even when she moves away from her parents, but this doesn’t stop her from being haunted by her past and with her transition from poverty into the upper-middle class. By the end of the novel, Jeannette is a symbol of the resilience and

Jeannette Walls was a young girl. Moving around constantly her entire life always on an adventure. Her family never had much money, and she had a hard time finding food. She was a skinny, tall girl with red hair, pale skin, and buck teeth. She was very optimistic in every hard situation she was put in and never gave up faith in her father, for a while anyways. Her father was who she had to put all her faith into. He made the decisions and he was the one who made all these empty promises to janette and her siblings. Janette lived life to the fullest, always being positive and never complaining and to be grateful of what she had, like her parents had taught her. She rarely cried, she was tough. She tried not to care what people think, because her mother taught her that it didn't matter. She stood up for herself, and her family, even in rough times. Even if it was up against someone that isn't in her favor. Through the rough times in her

When she goes to see her family, she struggles to understand their

Now she wants to extend her world to include her sister. With this extension, Denver presents herself with an opportunity to mature.

The big move from one place to another helped tie the whole story together. It made me realize just how difficult Jeannette’s life was, not only for her but also for her siblings. I cannot imagine having parents that didn’t care whether there was food on the table or not, or whether they are bullied in school. The move to West Virginia helped to give us an understanding of how she has become so ashamed and estranged from her

She finds out that she has four other older sisters and came to discover that her mother's plan was to give her to a better family in China, but her mother did not know that Haley was brought into an orphanage instead. They had no choice since they could not keep another daughter due to the policy in China of needing a son in the family. Haley loved meeting her biological family and even found out her Chinese name, and she planned to visit them during the next

her father tries to change who she is and force her into a gender role