What Are Jeannette's Strengths And Weaknesses

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

Though Jeannette gave her all to support her family, she did the same for herself without anyone’s support. She understood what it was meant to be poverty at a very young age and realised that she could not have what others did. While Jeannette didn’t have money, she was smart and resourceful to achieve whatever she could for herself. When Jeannette was young, she had already decided that if she wanted to do something for herself, she was going to have to do it herself. An example of this was when she herself to have buckteeth, and promptly said, “I decided to make my own braces,” and she did (Wall 200). In spite of Jeannette being underprivilaged and with less money, she found ways time and time again to succeed.

Towards the end of the memoir, Jeannette was in high school and was getting ready to graduate and get as far away from Welch and her broken family as possible. Jeannette decided to follow in her older sisters footsteps and move to New York. Jeannette is passionate about writing and believed New York was a perfect place to get her career started, along with college. Jeannette’s family was upset that she was leaving them, especially Rex. Rex felt as if he was losing

Describe Jeannette’s childhood, specifically her socialization or the process by which she acquired family values, information about social expectations, and survival strategies.

Think back to your own childhood. Could you imagine being a child, and not having a care in the world, but then, as quick as the snap of a finger, that all changes because of a thoughtless mistake made by your parents? In The Glass Castle it is revealed that as Jeannette grew up, she endured hardships inflicted upon her by her own parents. However, if Jeannette had not gone through these things, she never would have gained the characteristics that she values present day. Although Jeannette Walls faced hardships and endured suffering during her childhood, these obstacles formed her into a self-reliant woman who proves that just because you do not have as much money as other families, you can still achieve success in your life.

In doing this, they instill her with a sense of responsibility and accomplishment. It strengthens the skills that she will need as an adult. Jeannette becomes adept at setting goals and achieving them through independence and self-control.

Jeannette’s self-reliant behavior is frequently shown through her refusal of help from others. On one trip to retrieve her father from a bar, Jeannette’s father is so drunk that he can no longer walk. Another man offers to drive them home, and

Jeannette shows that wealth is subjective. Even when she's an adult and has nice things and money, but she is still not happy. She is not happy because she is worried about her parents and she feels guilty living in a nice apartment and having all these nice things when her parents are homeless. Jeannette tries to quench her guilt by offering them help to get a house and food but her parents don't want the help. After Rex received clothes for a gift he says "you must be mighty ashamed of your old man. You think I'm some sort of goddamn charity case" (Walls 263). Jeannette sees her parents struggling to survive homeless but her dad says "Don't you fret a bit have you ever known your old man to get himself in a situation he couldn't handle" (Walls 260)?

While her father’s dismisses his destructive nature, Jeannette becomes conscious of his actions which motivates her to make amends in hopes of leaving their desolate life. Instead of getting help for his childhood trauma, Rex immerses himself in alcohol causing him to become

Secondly, self-sufficiency is illustrated through motivation. One afternoon when Jeannette was at home by herself child services came to talk to her about her living conditions and her parents. Jeannette told the man to come back when her parents were home. When Jeannette’s mom came home she told her what happened and that she needed to do something so child services wouldn't take them away, Jeannette’s mom then said, “Jeannette, you're so focused it's scary.”(195) Rosemary says when Jeannette is focused she can get intimidating. Jeannette is motivated by the need to protect her family, which shows her self sufficiency because it's up to her to keep the family together, because she knows her parents are unreliable. Additionally, Rosemary has been known to feel sorry for herself and expresses how she hates her life. When Jeannette sees her mom wallowing she stands there in disgust watching her mother give up on life when she

Without question Jeannette loves her parents very much. Even so, the way they choose to raise their children in poverty and constant relocation took a toll on her. She learns many lessons through these uprootings but she also experiences many struggles. One of the first struggles Jeannette encounters, is leaving her cat, Quixote, behind on their way out of town. “Anyone who didn't like to travel wasn't invited on our adventure, Dad said. He stopped the car, grabbed Quixote by the scruff of the neck, and tossed him out the window. Quixote landed with a screeching meow and a thud, Dad accelerated up the road, and I burst into tears.” (Jeannette 18) Traumatized, Jeannette learns to quickly disregard her resentment due to the love she has for her dad. Nevertheless, she does not forget this memory as it is now a part of the many struggles she is yet to face. Another struggle the family faces is the poverty that follows them from town to town, city to city. Many years they could not afford a Christmas until everything was marked way down. “Mom and Dad would give us a bag of marbles or a doll or a sling-shot that had been marked way down in an after-Christmas sale. Dad lost his job at the gypsum mine after getting in an argument with the foreman, and when Christmas came that year, we had no money at all.” (Jeannette 39) Jeanette and her

In her younger years, Jeannette was an smart and imaginative child. At first, she enjoyed moving around, and had a lot of faith in her father, which created a good relationship between them. “All we had to was find gold, once we’d struck it rich, he’d [Rex] start work on our Glass Castle” (Walls, 25). The tremendous faith that she has in Rex creates a strong bond because she is the only family member who trusts his ideas. Unfortunately, he is a raging alcoholic who can’t hold a job, so most of his promises are broken. As Jeannette gets older, he lets her down more and more. One time he brought her to a bar where she was then sexually violated. When the two had a talk after, he said “I knew you could handle yourself” (Walls, 213,) instead of defending her. It was upsetting to watch their relationship grow apart and to see how poorly he provided for his family, yet they still loved him.

As hard work goes, attitude is also extremely important to have when trying to achieve something. If someone’s demeanor is off, they don’t believe they can achieve something greater than them, which in turn leads to failure. However, Jeannette wasn’t one of those people who didn’t believe in themselves, she tried to do everything that she could with a positive outlook regarding her life. Even when she didn’t concur with her parents, she didn’t give up her optimism when she moved to Welch, “Seeing as how Welch was our new home, Brian and I figured we’d make the best of it,” (Part 3 Chapter 7). While Jeannette tried to make everything special for the family by including teamwork, “If we all work together, we can get it done in a day or or two,”

In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the Walls family is born and raised throughout the country, never settling down in one place. Rex, Jeannette’s father, is an independent thinker, and a highly intelligent man. He spends every second of his spare time inventing odd contraptions that he hopes will make his family rich. Despite his obvious intellect, Rex struggles profusely with alcoholism, making his goal of maintaining a job, and protecting his family very difficult. Jeannette’s dad is best known for “skedaddling”, when things get too hard in one place, or bill collectors come he takes his family, regardless of what they think or want, away from there. They have no say in it, he practically drags them along because they don’t have a choice. Rex asks Jeannette what

Jeannette’s second factor that influenced her on her sense of self was her father. One night, Rex comes home late and Jeannette gets up to see him. He has big gashes in his face and forearm. He was too drunk to take care of his wounds, he asks Jeannette to stitch up his arm. She is terrified to draw the threaded needle through her dad’s skin, but she manages a few stitches. The next evening, when Jeannette returns from school her father had left again. Jeannette finds it hard to continue having faith in him. According to Erickson’s fifth stage of Identity vs. Role Confusion Jeannette was learning how to develop a sense of self and personal identity. Success leads to an ability to stay true to you, while failure leads to role