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
Jeannette Walls is a critically-acclaimed author (of both biographies and works of fiction), despite her unorthodox upbringing. Her parents supported giving their children excessive amounts of freedom, even though they were clearly too young to be taking care of themselves, causing Walls to light herself on fire while cooking herself a meal at only 3 years old. Also, they did not believe in proper treatment, hence why they force Jeannette to leave the hospital, although she is not finished with treatment
Jeannette Walls grew up in the 1970’s with her family traveling around the desert states. She was a young, fearless child that enjoyed adventure, family, and the ability to live anywhere. Jeannette was independent at a young age, cooking food, caring for her siblings, and growing up with very little. Jeannette was a skinny girl when she was young and was always dirty from her mini adventures. Jeannette was always dirty from her adventurous because she lived in the desert for some time and would
Maya Hildebrand AP Lit Period 5 09/09/15 Summer Assignment Jeannette walls is the posterchild of outward social conformity. Born into a family ill-equipped to raise children, Walls was forced to find strength within herself in order to survive the chaos that her childhood entailed. Walls begins her memoir with her first memory at the age of three. She describes standing above the stove and watching herself catch on fire. Later when she is at the hospital her father comes in to do the "skedaddle"
in today’s society,children are often judged by the act of their parents but in this memoir, written by Miss Jeannette Walls shows how unstainable and dysfunctional relationship Jeannette had with her parents but she still managed to use her tough upbringing for confidence and resourcefulness. Firstly, Every hardship and obstacles she endured throughout her childhood helped Jeannette to become a successful adult.Jeannette’s parent were very unpredictable, her mother was self absorbed in her hobbies
In the memoir The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, she portrays a dysfunctional family with family members that suffer from mental illness and alcoholism. The raw story telling of Walls puts into perspective the real and shocking obstacles that she overcame. Her determined mind is opened when showing how she tries to cope with her living situation and make it bearable. Rex Walls was someone Jeannette looked up to at a young age, his research and promise of building her family a “glass castle’
The Glass Castle: Theory and Practice Paper Synopsis The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls. In this book, Jeannette recounts her unconventional upbringing along with her three siblings. Yet, despite of it all, she grew up to have an ordinary life as an adult with a professional career in journalism. Throughout childhood, Jeannette’s family lived like vagabonds, having no permanent residence, sometimes even not having an actual home but sleeping in the family station wagon
explained to us that we would explore in this course on one inquiry: is learning computer science important to our life? Dr. Lu underscored throughout the semester that computer science can teach the skill of computational thinking. According Jeannette M. Wing, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, “computational thinking[It] represents a universally applicable attitude and skill set everyone, not just computer scientists, would be eager to learn and us.” In other word, computational thinking
In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Jeannette to most people is considered successful, while her parents are not. The odd thing is that it is all perspective and the parents find themselves successful. This is a difference in how people constitute success. There is no set definition to success but many people’s definitions are somewhat the same but others can be very different. Success can vary in many different fields as well, like family, money, fame, religion, sports and anything else your
Welfare Research paper Since the dawn of the United States, our nation’s government has committed to helping its people to advance society and its general welfare. As early as 1785, America’s federal government reserved lands in the Articles of Confederation that would be set aside for the placement of schools and other establishments for the public domain. In 1789 the federal government acquired the responsibility of providing pensions to disabled veterans of the Revolutionary War. Later that
an act of cowardice by those who are left behind, whereas those who give up believe living requires much more courage than they have. Suicide has been creating controversy over the years. Its history and causal patterns are being discussed in this paper, as well as my interest and own experience of the subject, followed by a review of the possible contributing factors of its increasing rates in our mod-ern society. The word “Suicide” has Latin roots. The first half of the word comes from the Latin
American Literature II 2120 25 March 2013 Women and 19-Century Domesticity in “The Yellow Wallpaper” “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story about a new mother attempting to overcome her diagnosis of depression by being cooped up in a room without normal human interaction as prescribed by a top-rated male psychologist. The gender role expected of the nineteeth century woman was not ideal to the main character. The story goes on to critique the treatment plan set forth