Analysis Of The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

Throughout the novel, the readers have the ability to follow along Jeanette’s life story. She deals with her distracted yet present parents. They remind her of the important lessons in life. One of the most important lessons that Jeannette learns is that life will eventually work in the end and if it still isn't working that just means it is not the end

At one point in the memoir, Jeannette’s mother, Rose Mary Walls, told Jeannette to expect a check in the mail, but her father, Rex Walls, got to it before she did and denied the fact that he had the check. This money was for the food that they were desperately trying to buy. Instead of Jeannette saying a word to her dad, she knew that saying something would not get the money back, so she took initiative while her mother was gone and did her best to find a job and make up the “lost”

This method is very effective, as Jeannette gains a sense of fun out of it, and her and Brian bond a little bit. At this point in the memoir, the kids are basically on their own. Their mother has dedicated her entire time to her love, painting, and the children only see their father every few days because he spends his life going out drinking nights at a time. All Jeannette has are her siblings, so she has to make the best of it. Jeannette uses this mechanism, along with her siblings, to get by this tough point in her lifetime.

In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls tells the story of her childhood and describes her life in poverty. She had experienced what injustice was first hand. Her father, Rex, was an alcoholic that spent all of their money on booze. Because of this, they never had any money to spend on a house or food. They were always moving because they did not pay their bills and were running away from their problems. Her mother, Rose Mary, was irresponsible and only thought about herself. She refused to get a job and when she did, her kids had to drag her out of bed every morning. She did not watch her children and she let them do whatever they wanted. This caused the children to get into trouble with other kids and even adults. She spent money on useless commodities and could not afford to buy her starving children any food. Every day, the children had to rummage through the trash to find food to eat. When Jeannette finally realized she did not want to live with injustice anymore she left. It was very hard for her father to watch her go but she did not look back. She started focusing on the future and became a successful journalist. This was one of the many ways she gained her justice back. She offered to help her parents by buying them clothes and offering them money. She was trying to make everything just again by giving her parents what they never gave to her. Her parents never took any of her gifts because they saw it as charity and did not appreciate it. The injustice that happened to Jeannette made her who she is today. If she did not go through all of those injustices, she might not have realized that her passion in life was to write. It has made her a better person and she can now help others going through the same thing through her writings.

In Jeannette Walls’s, The Glass Castle, a complex relationship forms between Rex and Rose Mary, and their children. Most of the time, Jeannette, Lori, and Brian, were left to take care of not only themselves, but their little sister, Maureen; fending for the utmost basic essentials, such as food and shelter. Throughout the memoir, one may see that many of the situations Jeannette found herself in, are some of the most poignant moments. Each experience was difficult with her parents’ during her upbringing. Her selfish yet free-spirited mother and alcoholic father were too lazy and self absorbed to keep decent jobs. Any range of emotions are expressed, due to how Jeannette seems fond yet

The Glass Castle, written by Jeannette Walls, is an autobiographical novel that shows how hard life can be when you have little to no money and highly deteriorated parents. During the whole memoir it shows how hard it is to live in poverty while at the same time trying to raise a family. The exposition of the novel is how having parents that cannot support their children because the lack of a stable income. The rising action is when Jeannette was in a taxi cab going to a party when she sees her mother digging through the trash can and feels embarrassed and tells the taxi driver to take her home. The major conflict in the novel is a man vs. man because Jeannette, her brother, and her sister are all affected by her

The memoir The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is the tragic story of Wall’s abusive childhood with her alcoholic father and living in poverty. One of the most important and memorable parts of her story of struggle is when she actually stands up for herself against her father on pages 236-238. Throughout Jeannette’s horrid childhood, she has always been loyal to her father, even though he has been highly abusive. It is at this point of the story Jeannette’s rhetorical strategies help convey to the reader her realization that she needs to stand up for herself and get away from her parents. Even in only three pages, Jeannette's strategies show how much better off she would have been without the help of her parents.

Throughout the novel, the entire Walls family ignored Rex’s alcoholism and violent episodes. This reoccurring theme of negligence impacts The Glass Castle greatly, whether it was from the mother’s carelessness to the father’s alcoholism. In fact, Rose Mary referred to Rex’s addiction as a mere drinking problem when, over the years, it has manifested into a major conflict that affects the Walls’ family’s financial security. This puts the family in danger multiple times, but Rose Mary never tells Rex to control himself or to leave the family. Another example of negligence in the novel happened when Rose Mary glosses over Uncle Stanley’s perverted harassment of Jeannette, the dire condition of the house on Little Hobart Street, and her children’s starvation. Again, as stated formerly, this neglect that these children had experienced all their lives shaped how they were later in

In the book The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, Walls recalls her life and the significant experiences within it. She goes through the perils of being poor, not having a stable home, and having changing beliefs of the world around her. With an alcoholic and paranoid father, an irresponsible mother, and many nights with an empty stomach, Jeannette Walls grows up loving and supporting her parents as a young child only to realize the neglect that she and her siblings have gone through as she got older. The Glass Castle is a book full of life lessons, unique and baffling experiences, and eye opening scenes of the world and the many different people within it. This book shows the ups and downs of one’s life, showing dysfunction, misfortune, and how these impact someone over time.

Despite the fact that Rex Walls is sometimes depicted as an unemployed drunk with a vicious temper, there are many instances that a more educated Rex who teaches his kids a variety of important lessons. One of the lessons that Jeannette holds onto follows a moment of negligence, when she burns herself while cooking hot dogs later she would develop a fascination with fire and Rex later encourages her standing up to her fears. “ Dad also thought I should face down my enemy, and he showed me how to pass my finger through a candle flame… Dad [bellows] with a proud grin. ‘She already fought the fire once and won.’”( )showing Rex’s pride that Jeannette faced that which she was afraid of. Rex teaches Jeannette bravery and perseverance, following her very close call with fire by encouraging her to ‘face down her enemy’. There are multiple occurrences of this practice in the novel, including his ‘sink or swim’ method where he tells Jeannette “you can't cling to the side your whole life, that one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is. "If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim."”() While his methods of doing this are not ideal, he for good or for bad teaches them to develop the bravery that allows them to push out of their impoverished lives and go to New York and against all odds succeed in New York. Through this lesson Rex teaches Jeanette to stand up to her fears including him and that was what in turn what lead to their future

Jeannette elucidates Rex’s recent behavior after moving into their new house: “Dad had taken to disappearing for days at a time. When I asked him where he'd been, his explanations were either so vague or so improbable that I stopped asking” (Walls 171). When Jeannette first notices Rex’s absence, she displays a genuine concern for his wellbeing. She “asks him where he’d been,” indicating that despite his alcoholism and neglect, she still loves him. However, she gradually grows tired of Rex’s lies and “stop[s] asking.”

Undeniable Love Jeannette Walls, an American writer and journalist, recounts her most loved childhood memories she went through with her father, Rex Walls, in the novel The Glass Castle. Jeannette Walls, comes to adore her father even after all his recklessness and comes to realize that these are portions of the best times in her life. In spite of many occurrences in which her father neglects to ensure his kids, declined to assume liability for them, and even stole from them, Jeannette still adores him until his diminishing days for two reasons: his consistent capacity to make her feel special and his ceaseless source of motivation. Walls purpose is to express the atmosphere she experienced childhood in and demonstrates that a harsh adolescence,

In the two final parts of this book, the reader can see Jeannette grow into a self-sufficient adult female who appears to have found her place in life. When she travels to accompany Lori in New York City, Jeannette does not know what to expect but is overwhelmed with excitement. Several years after when Rex and Rose Mary move to N.Y.C, you see them basically fall back into their same routine of barely squeaking by living on the streets of the city. I fully support the decisions made by Jeannette to get out and away from her family and ticking time bomb of a mother. She was very wise to get a job and pay for her education as this will help her succeed in the latter part of her life. For Rex and Rose Mary, I do support how they chose to live

The most significant impact on Jeanette as a character is her father, Rex Walls. She admires her father as a child and slowly disconnects from him as she grows of age. Once Jeanette matures she makes a point of separating herself from her father. She always “[knew] that he’d let [them] all down plenty” (210) and had no delusions about him as a parent. Jeanette’s promise to herself to build a better life and to “never be like Mom” (208) exemplifies the contrast between her and her parents. How Jeanette differentiates herself from her father shapes her identity and allows her to forward as a writer. Rex Walls carries his family through various settings that make Jeanette “happy staying in [a] hospital forever” (12) rather than living in cars or abandoned houses for months at a time. Rex’s habit to live a life like his mother Erma, ensured his selfish nature and hinders his ability to make something out of opportunities. The family travels to Phoenix where they inherit wealth, yet the parents mismanage the money and end up impoverished. The motif of the parents carrying their

After the fight, Jeannette realizes that she cannot change her parents and the path they are taking. Instead of changing her parents, Jeannette focuses on changing herself so that she can be successful. After a long period of hard work she finally moves to New York to start a different life. In New York she becomes a dedicated author and newspaper reporter with lots of potential. Her change to become a better person than her parents helped overcome her struggles of living in poverty while also become wiser in the