The Glass Castle

Maureen is often forgotten throughout the entire story of The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls. We are very tragically reminded of Maureen’s presence when she stabs her own mother while living in New York. Reflecting back to the beginning of the story, we can see why Maureen has a mental breakdown. She is born into a world of violence, her parents fail to care for her, and she lives her entire childhood in neglect.

Author Jeanette Walls is an example of someone who has preserved and made something of herself despite the fact that she has a less-than-normal childhood. Her parents Rose Mary and Rex Walls struggled at time to parent efficiently, as shown in Jeannette Walls’ memoir of her childhood The Glass Castle. In the recalling of her unique and sometimes disturbing childhood, Walls paints a picture of inadequate parenting, dangerous techniques used on her siblings and herself, and events that may have inflicted permanent damage on the Walls children. Not only Jeannette, but her other siblings Brian, Lori, and Maureen Walls were also negatively affected by the way they were raised and the things that happened to them under their parent’s watch. Rose

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.

I. An extended metaphor is described as a comparison between two unlike things that is introduced and then further developed throughout all or part of a literary work. Extended metaphors allow writers to draw a larger comparison between two things or ideas. In rhetoric, they allow the audience to visualize a complex idea in a memorable or tangible way. They highlight a comparison in a more intense way than simple metaphors or similes.

In this both heart wrenching and slightly humorous memoir, successful journalist Jeannette Walls tells the bittersweet story of her rather dysfunctional and poverty stricken upbringing. Walls grows up in a family trailed by the ubiquitous presence of hunger and broken down homes. Throughout the memoir she recounts memories of moving from one dilapidated neighborhood to another with her three other siblings, insanely "free sprinted" mother, and incredibly intelligent yet alcoholic father. The author focuses on her unconventional childhood with somewhat unfit parents much too lazy and self-absorbed to even obtain decent jobs. Although Walls's childhood gushes with heartbreaking tales of searching through dumpsters for food, she remains as

I would recommend this book to people who just want to read something because they're bored, because this book doesn’t really have any in-depth plot or characters. It’s not that it bore me it’s that it didn’t have any meaning. But if someone wanted a quick summer read or just wanted to distract themselves then this would be the

“I’m thankful for my struggles because without it I wouldn’t have stumbled across my strength.” Through the eyes of Alex Elle you first must struggle in order to find your true strengths. An obstacle that most of us deal with throughout our lives. Some, more extreme than the other, regardless having the power to lift us as humans or tear us down. These crossroads are formed at different points and for different reasons in each person's life, nevertheless morphing them into the people they will soon become. Along with struggle comes forgiveness. Allowing yourself to let go of the things that cause you the pain and struggle in order to move on. Giving yourself the opportunity to wipe your slate clean and start fresh. Throughout Flight,

“Life with your father was never boring.” – Rose Mary Walls. Rose Mary Walls, Jeannette Walls’s mother and Rex Walls’s spouse, reminisces life with Rex, which included migrating frequently, refusing to conform, and advocating self-sufficiency. Despite Rose Mary finding Rex disdainful at times, she still believes that being with Rex was an adventure. In Jeannette Walls’s The Glass Castle, Walls reveals that there are turbulence and order in life, the influence of family, and how she develops as she grows up through Walls’s recollection of her life, from living in a nomadic household, where her parents neglect their children, to living in a squalid hovel with no plumbing, and finally living in New York City, where she is employed as a journalist.

Through The Glass Castle, Jeannette shows the world how an impoverished, neglected girl grows into a successful author and wife. Jeanette, herself, is a living proof of ultimate success showing the world that no matter what situation you come from, ultimate success is completely possible. She starts out with memories from the time when she was as young as three along with the rest of her family, constantly on the move, deserted towns in the middle of the night "Rex Walls ' style” and lived in numerous places, all the way up to her present-day. Throughout her life, Jeanette dealt with poverty, hunger, malnourishment, along with an alcoholic father and an unstable mother. But for Jeanette, the

As I read the Glass Castle, the way Rose Mary behaves, thinks and feels vary greatly and differently throughout the memoir. The immediate question that pops up in my mind is to ask whether Rose Mary carries some sort of mental illness. Fortunately, given the hints and traits that are relevant to why Rose Mary lives like that in the memoir, we, the readers, are able to make some diagnosis and assumptions on the kind of mental illness she may carry. To illustrate, one distinctive example is when Rose Mary blames Jeannette for having the idea to accept welfare. “Once you go on welfare, it changes you. Even if you get off welfare, you never escape the stigma that you were a charity case.” (188). In my opinion, Rose Mary is being nonsense and

The scene in The Glass Castle that presented me with the strongest universal topic of theme is abuse. An example of this in The Glass Castle is when Jeanette’s parents are having a heated argument. Towards the end, her mother is dangling from the window, her father trying to hold her up. When the kids interfere and pull their mother to safety, she says he tried to kill her. In the book his response was, “I didn’t push her, I swear to God I didn’t. She jumped” (Walls 72). But even though Jeanette’s father said he didn’t push her, it is very obvious that he lied. This is because later in the book, he stated that he only believed in science, and claiming that there wasn’t a God. Therefore, his swear didn’t

Survival tactics have a big influence on self-sufficiency. For example in the book The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, who wrote a memoir about herself growing up. The author explains throughout her writing, all the hardships that her and her family went through, about how she and her siblings basically raised themselves. Also how they had to fend for themselves when it came to basic necessities, such as food, and clothes. This book really paints a vivid picture of how the kids use self-sufficiency in order to survive. Self-sufficiency plays the biggest role in influencing the characters in the books we have read this year, because they use it as a survival tactic.

I started reading this story, The Glass Castle, and the first part was from pages three to sixteen. In the beginning we are introduced to a grown woman named Jeannette Walls. She is going to a party when she sees her mother, Rose Mary Walls, going through a dumpster trying to find food. Also her father, Rex Walls, is introduced too. Their names are not said, but they are introduced as mom and dad. Right now Jeannette is questioned by the way her parents live, while she lives her life in royalty, and does not have to worry about anything, other than the fact that her parents do not have any money and they are living on the streets. I personally think that something happened to her parents after Jeannette

Jeannette Walls is the author of The Glass Castle: A Memoir. She wrote this novel based off her life and growing up in her unconventional family. As a young girl, her and her siblings, struggled to survive with her alcoholic father and bipolar mother, but her father also had a dream. A dream that they’ll live in a solar powered house made out of glass. That is why it is called the Glass Castle. Jeannette lived an adventurous life and she wrote The Glass Castle: A Memoir to share to the world her thought provoking life story.

To sum up, I would say that overall “The Glass Castle” is a magnificent book to read and one of my personal reasons why I have started reading books more often. It is sad to understand the metaphor of the Glass Castle because Jeanette’s father always told his children that he would someday build them a Glass Castle that they would live in. All the children believed the fantasy when they were little and as time passed they realized that this was just a fantasy. It is amazing to me that all of these children became active members of society. This book is definitely worth reading. This book was a real breakthrough for me. Even though you don’t like reading at least try reading this book once over the summer you might end up getting yourself