In the memoir The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the Walls children go on perilous adventures and are given independence from society’s rules and dicipline as a result of their parents’ beliefs. However, they are oftentimes wishing they had the security and comfort offered from a “normal” upbringing. Living a stable, sheltered life with parents that protect and disipline me and a fair chance to comfortably raise a family in the future, it is hard to even comprehend why someone would risk it at an attempt to escape the unwritten laws of civilization. In a world where freedom always comes at a heavy cost and the future of a child is never guaranteed, and in a world where children have easier access to knives and guns than to an opportunity to settle down after a safe and fruitiful life, it is difficult for me to see why a child would not be taught to follow society’s fail-proof blueprint for prosperity. …show more content…
This, however, meant that the Walls children were bullied and talked about everywhere they went because of the clothes they wore, the houses they lived in, and their parents’ odd and dysfunctional ways of life. Their upbringing made it hard for them to adapt to school life and drown out the harsh opinions. At school in Welch, Jeannette was often picked on, kicked, or punched for being different from the rest. Those injuries and scars from childhood would lower their self-esteem and make it even more challenging for them to have a “normal life”, no matter how much they wanted to. Most of the time, rebelling against society’s ideals is not always the best choice for a child because in the end, he or she might experience pains too great for them to deal with at that
Jeannette Walls never had a ideal childhood. Growing up, she was caring for herself and her siblings, they stuck together. Her parents' actions caused various burdens and embarrassment for their children. In the book The Glass Castle Walls' parents were not perfect, but she still showed compassion and love towards them. She defended her family name and cared for them.“But I could never enjoy the room without worrying about Mom and Dad huddled on a sidewalk gate somewhere”(Walls 4).
Success in life does not ultimately rely on a person’s upbringing. Often, society tends to blame their parents, or the lack of opportunities given to them as a reason for their failure to achieve an ideal lifestyle. This is one of the main ideas represented throughout Jeannette Walls memoir, The Glass Castle. She overcomes all the destructive people and behavior in her life. Even though she had no advantages growing up, we still see Jeannette become a successful adult.
In the Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls uses logic to get herself and her family out of situations while weighting out the pros and cons. For example the one time when Jeannette was turning ten and her dad, Rex Walls, asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she said “Do you think you could maybe stop drinking”. His first response was, “You must be awfully ashamed of your old man.”, and of course she responded back with “No… It’s just I think mom would be a lot happier. Plus we’d have the extra money.” She asked him, because she was thinking of her dads health, and the families well being. You can tell that she thought long and hard about how she was going to ask her dad, and about why she wanted him to quit.
Jeanette Walls and her out of the ordinary family live their lives surrounded in pure craziness and poverty. Jeanette has been raised to be as independent as her age allows her. At age three she could make herself a hot dog and by the age of eighteen she had started a new life in New York away from the craziness that followed her parents throughout the kids nomadic childhood. Jeanette and her siblings Lori, Brian and Maureen live their childhoods with almost nothing. They were always wondering where their next meal would come from and where there parents had mysteriously disappeared to. Rex Walls, the father and husband was a severe alcoholic who spent most of his money on gambling or a beer from a local bar. Rose Mary Walls, the mother and wife was not better, never being to hold onto a job for long enough to get paid and support her family caused many problems for Rose Mary, Rex and most importantly… the kids. The kids all had the dream of escaping the prison their parents called home and heading to New York or California where they could feel endless happiness. The kids grow up with almost no parents, which forces them to become independent from the day they were born. In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Jeanette's parents teach her to only rely on herself and never get attached to something you can lose, forcing Jeanette to become strong and independent throughout her childhood.
People often fall into some sticky situations, but how they deal with them is the thing that matters most. In The Glass Castle, a memoir by Jeannette Walls, she takes the readers through her life, starting at her earliest memory as a three-year-old, constantly living in a state of homelessness. Throughout the story, Walls experiences countless situations from her father being an alcoholic, to everyday school bullies. She uses a series of coping mechanisms to deal with, and sometimes terminate these issues. In fact, everyone of her siblings and parents uses various coping methods for these same situations. These methods may not always be the most effective, but people, including the Walls family, nevertheless use them to get by on their
The human experience of an outcast is illustrated by Jeannette Walls in The Glass Castle by the element of chaos expressed throughout the book, the parents’ refusal to conform to social standards, and the poverty that shaped her childhood.
Imagine living in a life where everything around you is different from reality. Imagine running from the police, living wherever one can find, and still taking care of one's family just at the age of 16. Jeannette Walls had to deal with all of this and more in her early childhood. In the book “The Glass Castle”, the author uses the characters, Jeannette and Rex Walls, to emphasize the importance of family bonds.
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.
In her novel The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls discusses social problems that people deal with daily. One of the most basic issue we deal with every day is the kind of parents we want to be and the things we feel are the most important to teach our children. The lessons learned in childhood is eventually what shapes a person’s moral and values as they mature into an adult. Walls’ memoir enables us to see how Rex and Rosemary Walls choose to teach their children to see the positive side of their problems. The Walls teach their children that no matte the circumstances tosses at them, they can shoulder the burden. Rex and Rosemary Wells may not be considered good parent, and probably not even mediocre parents today, but their children turned into well-educated adults.
Every kid wants to be able to go out whenever they want to, and yet a child wants to come home to a bed to sleep on every night. The question of whether a child wants to have freedom or security is one that someone can contemplate over and over again, and the more you think about it, the more your mind could alternate between the two options. After reading the novel The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, which is a memoir that describes the life of her nomadic family of six who dealt financial, family, social, and emotional issues all the way from her father being an alcoholic or the children at her school bullying her for her dirty clothes. The children had to deal with unusual circumstances in order to survive the ordeal, and while sometimes
Earlier this year, I read Jeannette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle. The Glass Castle tells the story of Walls and her siblings as they experience an impoverished childhood and attempt to escape the poverty-stricken lives of their parents. In her descriptions of her life and the lives of her family members, Walls influenced my ideas about poverty, homelessness, and escaping hard lives.
A trauma narrative is a narrative that describes an experience or experiences that cause someone to be destressed and cannot be incorporated into their memory easily. Throughout her own traumatic narrative, Jeannette Wall’s describes different aspects of her everyday life that showcase various levels of significance. She is able to show how certain life events impact her plans for escaping her current socioeconomic status and her plans for the future. The text is also able to tell us about trauma, poverty, ourselves, and our society. Furthermore, the text demonstrates the impact that trauma and poverty can have and how they can have lasting effects. These concepts help us to think about our own life experiences and situations and they also show us how to be analytical about our society. Lastly, this narrative is able to reveal to us the different aspects of a traumatic childhood and how important and impactful this type of upbringing can be. Jeannette Walls uses her own traumatic autobiography to show that despite her adverse upbringing in poverty and passive and unattached parenting she was able to become successful. The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, shows the benefits and the value that can come from having a traumatic narrative. This is significant because it shows that an experience can shape a person, but a person can also shape the experience.
Imagine the life of a nomad, moving around to different place, meeting different people, and having different lifestyles. This is the life of the Walls family. In the book The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, she explains that life as a nomad was never amazing. Her life of moving around and being the same old poor child isn’t what she wanted to be. Throughout her journey, she has been discriminated and stereotyped for her family’s actions, and for the way she looks to the rest of the world. The point of this essay is to tell you that there are obstacles like this outside of the world of fiction. With the school board’s recent sentiments regarding the lack of value that fiction provides, fiction should not remain
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.
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.