Metaphors In The Glass Castle

In the memoir, The Glass Castle, it was evident the Glass Castle was not just a physical object itself, but holds a deeper meaning of symbolism towards the author, Jeannette Walls. After completing the book, it has been noted that the Glass Castle symbolizes the constant reminder of Jeannette’s hope that one day both her family and house will be in a stable, working position. Throughout the novel, the Glass Castle was vaguely mentioned as the Walls family continued their journey through the United States. However, through their ongoing journey, Jeannette’s view of the Glass Castle changed, as it was inevitably just a vision that her father had implanted in her brain but never actually built in reality.

The Glass Castle is a memoir by Jeanette Walls in which she tells the story of her childhood and the way she became who she is. Her path to her balanced present was too difficult and full of hardships, yet she managed to become a successful and prosperous person whose life experience gives her a push to make her life happy. It stands to mention that the novel is full of symbols which contribute to reader's understanding of Jeanette's character and represent her most important traits and desires. Besides, all the symbols such as the fire, the Joshua tree, the geode and the glass castle are recurring and contribute to understanding the struggle of Jeanette's childhood, her ability to overcome it and build a successful life.

Throughout the book, The Glass Castle, Jeanette developed through individual, cultural, and social factors by many negative and positive influences in her lifetime. Before this topic gets addressed, here is the main concept and summary of this bestselling book. This is a very powerful and touching book about a girl, Jeanette, who is the main point of view in the book, and she talks about her life as a kid till she attended college. She talks about all of the tough times, and moving constantly from state to state has affected her and her siblings. She always was looking at the bright side of many people, such as her parents, but as she got older in life, she started to changing her views on many things and people in her life.

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.

Jeannette Walls, Shows in the book The Glass Castle that there are a lot of situations that happen in life where people make countless mistakes, but it is very important to forgive her father and her mother for many mistakes. She has to cope with many obstacles without her parent's help. In the author's memoir, we become attracted with Jeannette constant struggle between protecting her family and the pleasure that her family is based on the same hopes and senseless falsehood with her unbelievable storytelling method. The feelings of forgiveness hold the Walls family together. Jeanette was able to describe her family's childhood, relationships with one another. The children of the Walls family are forced to begin the independent life at an

One of the most important theme in The Glass Castle is forgiveness. Jeannette and her brother and sisters spend their whole lives forgiving their parents for their irresponsibilities. They still love them and welcome them into their hearts even though Rex and Rose Mary didn't deserve it. By forgiving them, she feels less angry and her attitude as a whole is much more positive. When she is three years old, she burns herself cooking and her mother doesn't take care of her. After being in the hospital for 6 days, she let her cook again and says “Good for you, you have got to get right back in the saddle (15). ” Another example of forgiveness, is when she is trying to learns how to swim and her dad drops her in the water making her almost drown. She thinks he did this so she can learn, so she forgives him. Jeanette says, “I figured he must be right, there was no other way to explain it(66).” This means that she thought he didn't have an intention to harm her, but he tried to make her learn. At the end of the story, she meets her father for the last time and forgives him for all the bad things that had happened in her life and all the chaos. Although all of these bad things happened to her and her brother and sister because of him, she says she knew he loved her like no one else ever had. Jeanette said she forgives him for “all the hell-raising and destruction and chaos he [has] created in [her life].” On the other hand though, she says, “I could not imagine what my life would be like- without him in it. As awful as he could be, I always knew he loved me in a way no one else ever had(279).” This means that she knew that he made all those mistakes throughout his life, but she still found a way to forgive him and look on the brighter side of things.

Jeanette Walls memoir, the Glass Castle, illustrates Jeanette’s unusual childhood caused by constant poverty and chaos of her dysfunctional parents. This memoir teaches you to be thankful for what you have and to never give up no matter how hard things get.

According to a 2017 study done by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “More than 10 percent of U.S. children live with a parent with alcohol problems.” The author Jeannette Walls uses the book, The Glass Castle, to talk about her childhood struggles of growing up with an alcoholic father. The reason this book was appealing was because I grew up with an alcoholic father as well and I found it interesting to read about someone who had gone through similar situations. In the first 90 pages the author tells us about her chaotic family life. Her father, who is weary of civilization and authority, packs up the family camp often to roam around the desert. Due to their frequent moving her father is not able to keep a stable job,

I believe that the quote on page five of The Glass Castle (“‘You want me to change my life?’ Mom asked. ‘I’m fine. You’re the one who needs help. Your values are all confused.’”) is very significant because the mother is correct, and makes a valid point. Of course, the mother’s life lacks some basic necessities, like proper food and shelter, but she’s content in the way her life is. Besides, even though it wouldn’t be a piece-of-cake to turn such a life around, it’s still possible, and the mother could achieve a better life if she really wanted, so it’s really not Jeannette’s responsibility to better her mother’s life. Also, like I said before, the mother is content and I don’t think you can change a person who doesn’t want to change. In fact,

To many people poverty is simply a socio-economic issue. To Jeannette Walls, poverty is her entire life. In this passage of The Glass Castle, Jeannette and her siblings are forced to face a situation they seem to have encountered before; hunger. Due to her dad’s newfound unemployment, Jeannette and her family are forced to limit the amount of food they eat and when Jeannette brings up this idea of eating less to help limit costs, Lori simply replies “We have before”, which helps to infer that this isn’t a new issue for them. This is one issue of many that have affected the Walls family due to the environment the parents have made. In the Glass Castle, we see Jeanette’s parents create an environment for Jeanette and her siblings where for a

Bean blatantly tells her mother that she is sick of running away from her problems and moving every time something goes wrong. She disagrees with Charlotte’s way of dealing with difficult situations which seems to be: when the goings gets tough pack your bags and get going. Bean represents Jeanette Walls’ desire to have had a stable family life as a child. Like Bean and Liz, she too had a neglecting mother who was also poor and traveled a ton. Jeanette Walls gives her audience an inside scoop of her dysfunctional childhood in “The Glass Castle” where she elaborates on her parents’ rashness in raising their children. “In it, she describes a hardscrabble childhood, during which her poverty-stricken parents evaded creditors by

The Glass Castle, a story about Jeannette Walls and her more than dysfunctional family. Jeannette and her family move around from town to town throughout America's west coast. Eventually, Jeanette’s begins to run out of money because of this they decide to move in with Jeanette’s grandmother in Welch, West Virginia. Jeanette and her siblings eventually decide to start saving up money to move to New York. Jeanette’s parents follow her and her siblings to new york after a while and end up on the streets. Rex, Jeanette's dad dies of a heart attack in New York City and her mother sticks to her life on the streets. The memoir comes to a close as Jeanette is able to reconcile with her past and all the adversity that she has gone through. The author uses literary devices such as imagery, irony, and foreshadowing to captivate the reader. The literary devices imagery. The irony and foreshadowing make the story worth telling because they make her story interesting.

The Glass Castle: A personal story In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls creates a tone of anguish to illustrate to the reader the deep betrayal and disappointment she feels towards her father when he uses Jeanette’s physicality as a way to obtain money. While trying to win a pool a game, Jeannette’s father Rex, encourages Jeanette to distract his opponent Robbie who physically exploits Jeannette. Consequently, Rex gains money from the game, yet Jeannette “felt like throwing the money at him” (213). Jeannette feels “sleazy” and states that, “If Robbie had been set up” by her own father so had she (213).

After reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, I realized that my life isn’t as bad as I had originally thought. I have always known that there are people that have it way worse than me, but I know that I have not had an easy life, like I would prefer. Every family has their own problems otherwise they wouldn’t be a family. In The Glass Castle, Jeanette’s mother told her, “Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more.” That is what I am trying to do. In some degree my life and Jeannette’s life are related; we both had ups and downs, but mostly downs, throughout our lives.

“After a traumatic experience, the human system of self preservation seems to go into permanent alert, as if the danger might return at any moment” (Judith Lewis Herman). The psychoanalyst Lewis Herman describes how encountering agonizing pain causes individuals to become more cautious as a result. The psychoanalytic lens is based on Freudian theories and asserts that “ people’s behavior is affected by their unconscious:...the notion that human beings are motivated, even driven, by desire, fears, needs, and conflicts of which they are unaware…” (Tyson 14-15) High schools a place where tragedy are brought upon people, but their voices aren’t heard. Melinda, a high school freshman, is the protagonist in Laurie Halse Anderson’s book, Speak.