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Character Analysis: The Glass Castle

Decent Essays

Everyone that has ever lived has a past. We all know this. Whether if it was filled with drug addiction, alcoholism, or abuse. Or if it was filled with supporting families, prosperous parents, or a happy childhood. Our outlook onto the world is most typically formed on what we have experienced in the past. But we cannot let this define us. In the glass castle, there are many examples of how a person’s childhood or past does not define who they become in the future. Although I agree that someone’s past can affect them, I do not agree that their past defines them as a person. Jeanette Walls, the main character and the narrator in the Glass Castle, lived through a remarkable account of resilience and redemption. In Jeanette’s childhood she was …show more content…

Her dad, who was rarely sober and disappeared for days on end, used their already inadequate money on booze and cigarettes. Because of this Jeannette and her siblings would go be forced to go hungry and resulted to eating food out of her school’s garbage. Her mother, who was a failed artist, rarely brought anything to the table either. An example of her ignorance was when Jeanette and Brian found a diamond ring outside on of their homes in Welch, West Virginia. The kids showed their mother what they discovered and begged her to sell it so they could put some food on the table that day. Rose Mary Walls then proceeded to keep the ring to replace her wedding ring and to boost her self-esteem. Jeanette’s mom was also a licensed teacher and was occasionally forced to take a teaching job when the family did not even have a penny to their name. Reluctant to take any job, Rose Mary Walls saw it as a betrayal of her true calling of being an artist. Because of this reluctance she did not keep a steady job throughout the book, which made matters even worse for the Walls family. To make the circumstances even worse for Jeanette, her childhood was jammed full of bullies. “She pushed me in the chest, and I fell backward. I tried to get up, but all three girls started …show more content…

This is when Jeanette really started becoming successful. She wrote many articles for the magazine and became a popular editor. “I loved my new job even more than I loved my Park Avenue address. I was invited to dozens of parties a week: art-gallery openings, benefit balls, movie premiers, book parties, and private dinners in marble-floored dining rooms. I met real estate developers, agents, heiresses, fund managers, lawyers, clothing designers, professional basketball players, photographers, movie producers, and television correspondents. I met people who owned entire collections of houses and spent more on one restaurant meal than my family had paid for 93 Little Hobart Street (Their Home in Welch, West Virginia).” (Glass Castle 270) As you can see by the vast number of high class people that Jeanette was associated with, she was obviously very successful. Jeanette could have become a slave to her past, and simply just fell into the tornado of her parents’

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