The Glass Castle is a memoir of Jeannette Walls’ experience and her tempestuous upbringing. Her father was a charismatic and intelligent man, but when he drank he was dishonest and couldn’t hold a job. Their mother was a free spirit who felt confined by the responsibilities of motherhood, and sought refuge in her blind optimism. Without steady parental figures, Jeannette and her siblings turned to each other for support. Eventually, they made their way to New York to build lives for themselves. Their parents followed, choosing to be homeless. The novel is latent with metaphors, the biggest one being the title itself. The Glass Castle is an idea cooked up by her father, a luxurious structure in the desert that runs on solar panels. He carries around blueprints for it, and while living in Welch, Jeannette and her brother actually dig a large hole for the foundation. However, Jeannette is struck with the reality that the Glass Castle will never come to be when her father tells her to throw their accumulating garbage into the hole meant intended for it’s foundation, since he can’t afford the trash collection fee. As Jeanette nears adulthood and her plans to follow her sister to New York inch closer, she tells her father, “Go ahead and build the Glass Castle, but don’t do it for me” (Walls 238). This is a turning point for her, because she lets go of the Glass Castle, a symbol of her father’s empty promises and illusions, to move away and better herself. Another huge symbol
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.
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
This is a summary on the Glass Castle is about a young woman name Jeannette begins to look back of the pasts on her childhood and how her parents’ choices affected her and her siblings. When Jeannette was three-year-old, she was boils her own hotdogs and got burned horribly that she went to the hospital. After few days, her father got her out of bed and left the hospital without paying the bill. The most memories about the Walls of her childhood focus in the desert and how the family move to different desert towns to settling in as long as their father can hold a job. He has such paranoia about the state and society and he also have dealt with his alcoholism that has leads them to move often. They used to settle in small mining town, Battle Mountain, and Nevada while Jeannette and her young brother Brian spend their time exploring the desert. Their mother is an artist and takes a break from it to hold down a job as a teacher to extend their stay.
While Jeanette is preparing to leave for New York and her father, Rex, attempts to talk her out of it by showing her the updated plans for the Glass Castle, Walls, through Jeanette, uses an implied metaphor to show how all her father’s promises are a Glass Castle without the use of like or as. Walls uses this to illuminate how her father’s promises are broken easily like how a Glass Castle can be broken easily as it is made of glass, which is fragile. Walls also highlights how throughout the memoir her father promised to protect her, not only by building her a home like the Glass Castle, but also by protecting her from men who force themselves upon her as seen when the father states, “Anyone who… laid a finger on… Rex Walls's children was going to get their butts kicked,” (Walls, 24), but the father later goes on to allow her to be inappropriately touched by Robbie just to make some money. This shows that the father makes promises he is unable to and often does not want to fulfill throughout the memoir, which leads to Jeanette having to face adversity as her father is not protecting her. As a result of her adversity, Jeanette reaches an epiphany and learns to look out for her own well-being as she understands that her father is no longer willing to do so. She also understands that her father will never build the Glass Castle and that all the promises that her father ever made to her are like the Glass Castle, easily broken. This ultimately to Jeanette developing from a character who depended solely on her father, to one that could make the decision to go to New York without her father’s permission after the 11th grade. Finally, by going to New York, Jeanette is able to provide for her own well-being by working at a job and renting an apartment and departs from the conventional means of wellbeing. Through the use of metaphor, Walls conveys the theme that often for one to persevere against adversity in his or her lives, he or she must learn to go against conventional means of well-being, like family, and find his or her individual means of well-being.
The Glass Castle is a book written by Jeannette Walls and is about her childhood growing up in the 1960s and 70s. Throughout the book, Jeannette shows that money does not determine happiness. At various points in her difficult life, she is happy with only the essentials. Jeanette feels she is rich in her family for many reasons. They also teach her to be strong and resilient and give her something to look forward to. Jeannette sees wealth as being subjective, and as an adult, feels guilty for having money when her parents do not. In the end, Jeannette realizes it's her family and their perseverance that determine happiness.
In the novel The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, the uncertain future of the Walls’ children was questionable from the start. From a drunk father, to never having a steady home, the author tells of her idiosyncratic youth to describe the bitterness and longing for an ordinary childhood.
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
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,
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.
The Glass Castle. Sounds like a story about some fantasy kingdom with a castle made of glass, but it’s not. This is a story about the early life of a young woman, Jeannette Walls. From drinking to living in the desert to running to New York, her life is a roller coaster ride. However, there is one thing you notice in the story: forgiveness. This happened many times in the Walls family. The act of forgiveness ultimately led the family to peace.
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a perfect example of selfishness and neglect brought upon by the parents and how influences their children through life. The Glass Castle isn’t just a story, but it is someone’s actual life and how it was affected by selfish/neglectful her parents. This is a memoir of her life and all that she went through as a child with troubled parents and how it affected her life and the life of her siblings. Jeannette is the middle child out of four children. There is Lori who is the oldest sister, Brian who is Jeannette’s younger brother, a their
Writer, Jeannette Walls, in her memoir, The Glass Castle, provides an insight into the fanciful and shocking life of growing up poor and nomadic with faux-grandiose parents in America. With her memoir, Wall's purpose was to acknowledge and overcome the difficulties that came with her unusual upbringing. Her nostalgic but bitter tone leaves the reader with an odd taste in their mouth. In some memories, the author invites her audience to look back on with fondness; others are viewed through bulletproof glass and outrage.
Jeannette Walls develops her characters in "The Glass Castle" through her use of figurative language. Living with her family and going through so much in her life, Jeannette grows and learns the value of family. Even so her family wasn’t the best in the world, she could never hate them but only grow to love them more. She knew that even though her family was one crazy family she learned the value of having a home or having food on the table. Always on the run with her family, either running from the FBI, Police, or land owners.
The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls. In this book, Jeannette recounts her unconventional upbringing along with her three siblings. Yet, despite of it all, she grew up to have an ordinary life as an adult with a professional career in journalism. Throughout childhood, Jeannette’s family lived like vagabonds, having no permanent residence, sometimes even not having an actual home but sleeping in the family station wagon. One day they lived in the middle of the desert by Joshua Tree, the next week they lived in Las Vegas, then following week it was Welch, West Virginia. Because of all the moving that the family did, the children sometimes found themselves homeschooled, and other times were enrolled in school. The parents, Rose Mary and Rex, though flighty parents, were intellectual, artistic, and visionaries. They instilled these values into their children. Coincidentally, the children tapped into having their own traits and talents. Lori is the artist, Jeannette is the journalist, while Brian is the mediator. Unfortunately, Maureen, the youngest, never learned resiliency nor did she find herself or come to her own. As the children grew older, one by one, they moved to New York to live an ordinary life and pursue their own individual passion. Lori became a fantasy illustrator, Brian became a police sergeant, and Jeannette became a TV correspondent. Maureen was the last one to move to New
“The Glass Castle” by Jeanette Walls is an extremely captivating novel that really kept my attention throughout the entire story. It’s a fascinating story of growing up in circumstances that kept me shaking my head as I turned the pages. The Walls family is unquestionably one unlike any I’ve ever come across. The lessons and experiences that the children learned and endured were ones that molded their lives and established who they are today. Jeanette Walls goes through many descriptions of situations that she faced that people normally should not face. For most of her childhood, her family traveled from town to town because her parents always thought that they would hit it big, unfortunately her father was never ever to find a