The Sandcastle Girls Essay

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

In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting an excerpt from a book and a refugee story. I will talk about both the differences and the similarities of each story.

The memoir entitled The Glass Castle, written by Jeannette Walls is a story of the eventful life Jeannette endured growing up with her three siblings and her parents. Jeannette lived a tough life, she was constantly moving, never had nice clothes to wear, and had to grow up faster than most children. The reason for the constant struggles in Jeannette’s life led back to her parents. Her father Rex Walls was outrageous, always making spur of the moment decisions which had taken a toll on the family as a whole. He was a severe alcoholic who made way too many promises he knew he couldn’t keep. Throughout the novel, the idea of the “Glass Castle” appears quite often. The Glass Castle is

A. Jeannette Walls, in her memoir The Glass Castle, demonstrates Erikson’s eight stages of development. Through the carefully recounted stories of her childhood and adolescence, we are able to trace her development from one stage to the next. While Walls struggles through some of the early developmental stages, she inevitably succeeds and has positive outcomes through adulthood. The memoir itself is not only the proof that she is successful and productive in middle adulthood, but the memoir may also have been part of her healing process. Writing is often a release and in writing her memoir and remembering her history, she may have been able to come to terms with her sad past. The memoir embodies both the proof

Bad Parenting is the act of not showing the responsibilities that should be taken as a mother or father. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls reveals the faults of parenting through the use of symbolism , imagery and characterization. Rosemary and Rex’s Struggles to show their children (Jeannette, Lori, Brian) the importance of the appearance and guidance of being by their side as a parent. Jeannette and Rex show their faults by destroying everything the children try to accomplish because of their personal bad habits.

In the film Lars and the real girl by Craig Gillespie, an important character developed is Lars. Lars lives in a tight knit community based in a small American town. Lars has a fear of human contact which results in him suffering form a delusional disorder where he falls I love with, Bianca, a life sized ‘real’ doll. Through his relationship with Bianca he is provided with unconditional love and lack of criticism he desires. This inurn helps him gain confidence he requires to engage in his community and begin to relate to those around him. Gillespie shows the development Lars undergoes through the techniques setting, costume and dialogue.

After telling the anecdote of the women and two children who gave Jolie the last of their drink, she says, “Since before the parable of the Widow’s Mite it has been known that those who have the least will give the most” (Jolie 3). The parable of the Widow’s Mite tells of a poor widow who gives everything she had for God. By alluding to the Widow’s Mite, Jolie once again reflects upon the generosity of refugees and those who are in need. By making those listening to her speech once again think about the generosity of the women giving the last of their drink supplies away, Angelina Jolie creates a emotional appeal. Jolie uses historical allusion again when she compares what’s happening to the refugees in Pakistan to other situations in the Middle East. Jolie says, “Whether it be Darfur, Myanmar, or Swat Valley, or some as yet unknown crises, mass migrations will be a feature of our future…” (Jolie 5). The allusion to the genocide taking place in Darfur, the displacement of over 139,000 people in Myanmar, and the Malala shooting in Swat Valley gives examples of other times people like the Afghanistan refugees in Pakistan have been displaced from their homes. Many of those listening to Angelina Jolie’s speech are familiar with the events that she alludes to and have felt sympathy or even helped those people affected by those situations. By alluding to those events and comparing what is happening in Pakistan to those events, Jolie creates an emotional appeal to those listening to her speech by making them feel the same sympathy they felt for those who were affected by the events she alludes to. Because of the sympathy they now feel for Afghan refugees, listeners are persuaded to help those

Ronald Suny’s book They Can Live in the Desert But Nowhere Else: A History of the Armenian Genocide is a deeply researched work of the Armenian Genocide. Published the same year that marked the Centennial Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, Suny's book has created a well-informed history of the complex world that committed the Armenian Genocide. Through the examination of scholarly articles and eyewitness accounts of the persecution of the Armenians, Suny explores the political and international issues that lead to the genocide. His captivating and powerful narrative of the atrocity attempts to investigate “those moments of choice when political actors might have acted differently but decided instead to embark on a course that led to devastation and destruction” (Suny, xi). Suny is one of the authors that takes a deeper look at how the perpetrators of the genocide used human emotions of fear and resentment to commence mass killings as a way of finding a solution to the Armenian problem, showing their intent to

In view of a memoir, The Bosnia List, there are various emotions that children will experience during wars and events of persecution in their homeland. Kenan demonstrates that he was anxious when he is wandering through the streets when he is required to leave his apartment to get necessary items for his family. While the war is going on, he encounters a couple new individuals that come to his family’s apartment. Kenan mentions that he feels safe, but also worried because these individuals could do anything and get away with it. He begins to lose faith in his people because all of the people he trusted before the war turned against him and his family. His family was no longer secured in their homeland they are afraid and hope for the best.

In the book “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls poverty goes deeper than just low income. Even while Jeannette’s parents had money coming in, they struggled to support their family properly. They went hungry, had no electricity, or even indoor plumbing, so this proposes the question can poverty be caused by more than just low income? Do people actually want to live in poverty? For Jeannette’s parents it sure seems that way.

Similarily examined in GBTWYCF, the participant’s genuine “refugee experience” allows them to identify social understanding about the fact of other people’s lifestyles and how they withstand the most severe of individual adversities. An extensive structure taken of Raye weeping followed by a remote taken of the moon enhances her concern towards Maisara “I’ve had issues holding child birth through…I do know where she’s arriving from…” examines how by your same circumstances as others, people are able to empathise.

Through help and hurt, throughout the novel, Vahan Kenderian an Armenian twelve-year-old boy, experiences all kinds of different emotions and encounters many different types of people. These people help him reach the end of the Armenian genocide. This novel first takes place at Bitlis, a province located near the far east of Turkey where mass amounts of Armenian people were located at the time. This genocide occurred during 1915 to 1918 and started because the Turkish government felt threatened by the Armenian people. Consequently, more than 1.5 million Armenians had perished and in 1918 the genocide had finally ended. Vahan being a very spoiled and vulnerable boy in the beginning of the book, meet various people that throughout his long journey help him change and grow in many traits he did not possess before. One of the many people that help Vahan grow as a person is Ara Sarkisian, the seventy-five-year-old Armenian coppersmith from Sivas, teaches Vahan that your real home isn't located anywhere else except for your own heart. In addition, a girl who lived with the German Consul named Seta not only showed Vahan how to truly love, however, also teaches him not to get attached or else you’ll end up getting hurt in the end. Lastly, one of the most important people in Vahan’s life would be his father Sarkis Kenderian. His father shows a full understanding of how being strong in this world will always let you prevail in the end. In conclusion, Ara Sarkisian helps Vahan

Gerda Weissmann Klein and Joseph Sebarenzi both are survivors of genocides that I would not wish on my greatest enemy. Barely escaping death, both authors spend much of their adolescent years either escaping from his killers or enslaved by her persecutors. After living through the mass killings of their people, Klein and Sebarenzi became activists and made sure that this goes unnoticed. Though each author did not write these memoirs to put themselves as the hero or heroine of the narrative, both authors meant for their stories to spread awareness of the Holocaust and the genocide in Rwanda, so this would never happen again.

Banu calls on Allah to “give [her] the strength to bear the knowledge”, and Mr.Bitter then shows her the events of the past in the form of a flashback (Shafak 193). After bearing witness to the horrendous events, Banu is forced with the moral decision of how to handle the information presented to her. Because of Armanoush’s efforts, the silence of the genocide is beginning to break. Armenians were robbed not only of their homes, belongings, and family members, but also robbed of “recognition of the past”(Gursel). If the Turkish government is to break the silence and “apologiz[e] for crimes against humanity” the Armenians can finally begin to their road to recovery, to truth and reconciliation(Gursel). Without recognition by sharing the stories, it seems near impossible for the Armenian people to ever

This is about a little girl named Lola, who happened to grow up in the time of the Holocaust. All of her troubles began at the young age of 4 years old. Lola before this time, had never known true fear before, until the day when the Russians were sent into her town to help protect the Jews from Hitler’s reign of terror. The day the Russians came to town was the day that some of the people decide that they don’t need the Russians protecting the Jews, mind you the ones shooting at the Russians are not Jews themselves, so they decided to shoot at the Russians and that became Lola’s first memory hearing those gun shots and having her mom pull her quickly away to the hallway in case the gunshots were coming toward them. Lola’s second memory was