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Jeannette Walls Research Paper

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The past is often something that people hide from the world in order to prevent others from finding out their true nature. Glass Castle, written by Jeannette Walls, is a novel that tells the story of a woman (Jeannette) who is still impacted by her past, and the struggles she and her siblings faced at the hands of their parents. Much like Glass Castle, the play A Streetcar Named Desire, written by Tennessee Williams, is also about a young woman who invites her sister Blanche to live with her and her husband; however, unbeknownst to her Blanche battles with flashbacks of her traumatic past, which are slowly driving her to insanity. In both pieces of literature, characters conceal aspects of their past, and in turn, also obscure their true nature. …show more content…

As a consequence of this, she frequently comes up with lies as a way to avoid the topic as a whole, “I felt like telling Carol that my parents were out there, too, that she had no idea what it was like to be down on your luck with nowhere to go and nothing to eat. But that would have meant explaining who I really was.”(Walls 256).In this section, Jeannette’s friend is slandering people who live on the streets, Jeannette wants to confront her, but, is unable to because she is too afraid to talk about her past. Jeannette's lies are a form of hiding from her real identity, and the trauma she faced during her childhood, due to growing up in an unstable environment. Moreover, she is not the only one in this novel who conceals her past. Jeannette’s father is also seen suppressing the abuse he faced from his mother, “Why he was shaking so hard, almost like he wanted to put his hands over his ears, when I tried to explain what Erma had been doing to Brian” (Walls 148). As a result, this leads to Jeannette’s younger brother almost facing the same molestation, but eventually gets rescued by his …show more content…

In William’s play, he explores not only the complexities of marital relationships, but, also the impact the past can have on the present. Within the play, Stella’s sister, Blanche, comes to visit and in turn, causes chaos to ensue in the home. It is revealed later on in the play that Blanche’s late husband’s death was related to her berating him for being a homosexual. Blanche often puts on a facade when speaking to others, or even hides from the light, as a way to obscure the guilt and pain she feels, “‘I bought this adorable little paper lantern at a Chinese shop in Burbon. Put it over the lightbulb! Will you, please’...‘I can't stand a naked lightbulb...’”(Williams 60). In this scene, Blanche is asking Mitch to cover the light so she can conceal herself; this is a literal representation of how Blanche physically hides but, also shows how she can not expose her true self to the world. Unfortunately for Blanche, her concealment of the past can only go so far, and things begin to catch up with

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