Pride And Responsibility In The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities. This is evident in Jeannette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle, which reiterates the story of Jeannette who is raised within a family that is both deeply dysfunctional and distinctively vibrant. Jeannette is faced with numerous barriers throughout her life. Despite the many obstacles set forth by her parents during her childhood, Jeannette develops into a successful adult later in life. One of these obstacles is the lack of a stable home base moulds her into the woman she grows up to be. Throughout her life, Jeannette must cope with the carelessness of her

As a child, Jeannette’s sense of wonder and curiosity in the world undermine the need for money. During her young adult years, a new wave of insecurity associated with her poor past infects her. Finally, as an experienced and aged woman, Jeannette finds joy and nostalgia in cherishing her poverty- stricken past. It must be noted that no story goes without a couple twists and turns, especiallydefinitely not Jeannette Walls’. The fact of the matter is that growing up in poverty effectively craftsed, and transformsed her into the person she becomeshas become. While statistics and research show that living in poverty can be detrimental to a child’s self-esteem, Jeannette Walls encourages children living in poverty to have ownership over their temporary situation, and never to feel inferior because of past or present socio-economic

Before the children’s success, they were neglected which led to them wanting more in life. Most of the time Jeanette Walls and her siblings, Lori, Brian, and Maureen, were neglected and left alone. Money was also an issue for the Walls family. The children’s needs were hardly ever met, leaving them to have nothing, so they hardly had clothes and hardly ate. According to Walls, her mother stated, “‘You can be hungry every now and then, but once you eat, you’re okay’” (188). The parents would have the children starving, for there was never food left for the kids to eat. This quotation is an example that despite the mother knowing that her kids were starving, she refused to sign up for welfare. Due to these hardships, the children were left wanting more in life. The abuse that the children went through also led them to

A. Jeannette Walls, in her memoir The Glass Castle, demonstrates Erikson’s eight stages of development. Through the carefully recounted stories of her childhood and adolescence, we are able to trace her development from one stage to the next. While Walls struggles through some of the early developmental stages, she inevitably succeeds and has positive outcomes through adulthood. The memoir itself is not only the proof that she is successful and productive in middle adulthood, but the memoir may also have been part of her healing process. Writing is often a release and in writing her memoir and remembering her history, she may have been able to come to terms with her sad past. The memoir embodies both the proof

All I knew was that it meant grocery shopping and a full refrigerator. When it ran out, I knew that meant an empty refrigerator and a stressed mom. As I grew older and more aware of its connotations, Food Stamps began to symbolize shame. I imagined all that people were thinking as I bought groceries for my family, and I felt shame. The shame that my mother couldn’t provide for us became a dark secret that I abhorred. Nevertheless, I began to accept it as a part of my life after coming to understand that having help didn’t negate my own mother’s hard work. It made me proud and loyal to the country that helped take care of me. Most importantly, I began to understand why economic inequality is often misunderstood by much of

“Just the way it was”. That was Anne W. viewpoint of poverty when she was growing up and going to school. Anne and I met working for the same school district. She was born fifth of eleven children and started her schooling in the 1960s. Although Book’s writes about poverty in a more modern time a lot of what she writes was still true to Anne’s schooling. Her mother stayed at home and her father was a farm cropper, but never owned his own land. Book’s reminds us that poor people are working people. She reminds us to “Consider the role of the working poor in a market economy. Unable to support their own families, they provide a wealth of services to others.(Chamberlin 1999)” (PG. 29) The GI bill payed for her childhood home. She grew up in rural farm town of 1,600. When Book’s wrote about the demographics of poverty in chapter 5 I was surprised to learn that poverty is higher in rural areas.

With no limits or boundaries, Walls is thrown in a big body of water without knowing how to swim. Rex and Rosemary has a sense of doing it by yourself or not at all asserting “But the Hot Pot didn’t have any ehat edges like that swimming pool. There was nothing to cling to. I waded up in my shoulders. The water above my chest is warm and the rocks i was standing on felt so hot [...] Dad who watched me unsmiling[..] “you’re going to learn today”(65). Rex, in athrows Jeanette in water with no edges, knowing she can’t swim.He puts Jeannette in a live or die situation. Rex shows the faults of parenting because the parents have no regards on Jeannette’s safety or life and wall states”You’re going to learn today’ declaring “Dad pried my fingers from around his neck and pushed me away. My arms flailed around and i sank into the hot smelly water. Water surged in my nose and down my throat. My lungs burned[...] He pulled back and did it again” (65-66).Putting a child in a dangerous situation to show them a lesson shows bad parenting.Rex and Rosemary causes the reader to reflect on their lack of responsibility as being a parent so that they can understand from both sides of view of the poverty situation.

Poverty is shown through many different forms throughout “The Glass Castle”. One of the main forms that poverty was shown through was the scarcity of food in the Walls’ household. According to Walls, “We did eat less. Once we lost our credit at the commissary, we quickly ran out of food” (Walls 67). When Jeanette Walls’ father, Rex, lost his job there was no money coming into the house, and without a steady income, the family was not able to buy food and pay rent. Therefore, the previously saved money dwindles rapidly. This is a problem in many American cities. The person who brings in most of the house’s income is laid off, or not able to keep a job because of psychological problems, there is no money to pay bills or buy food for the family to eat. Schools expect that children eat at least one meal a day, and whether or not that meal comes from home or directly from the cafeteria, the children are given a designated time to eat their food. Walls notes from a personal experience, “At lunch, Brian [Jeannette’s brother] and I sat together in the cafeteria. I was pretending to help Brian with his homework so that no one would ask us why we weren’t eating…” (Walls 78). Pretending to be busy is something that many people all over the country do to stop people from questioning why they do not eat at school. While there may be other reasons for not participating in lunch, one of the big reasons across the country is not being able to afford food. Most small towns like the one that Jeanette Walls lived in, have such a high poverty rate

I read Julia Mazzotti’s paper “The Influence of Pride”. Mazzotti’s paper opens by talking about how the Pride flag came to be, what it looks like, and how the flag is a symbol for the LGBTQ+ community. Mazzotti clearly states that she believes the flag is the second most influential image of the 21st Century. After this, Mazzotti goes on to discuss the positive and negative connotations of the flag. Mazzotti talks about views of the LGBTQ+ community from the Bible, and how it may be related to the cause hate crimes such as the night club Pulse shooting. Mazzotti then talks about the LGBTQ+ community on YouTube, and how it has supported fellow LGBTQ+ community members. Then Mazzotti’s talks about LGBTQ+ people in WWII and the Holocaust.

About a decade ago my mother, sisters, and I had lived alone in a small apartment. Our meals consisted of frozen beans, rice, and occasional food given to us by our elderly neighbor, Brenda Gibson. Mrs.Gibson was an extraordinary woman who’d babysit my sisters and I while our mother worked the late night shifts at the local senior center. My mother had no choice, her regular shifts could only cover one-fourth of the bills, and because she spent her days working she never had time to spend with her growing daughters. I did not know it at the time, but my family was being mangled by the ice cold fingers of poverty, digging itself deep into our bones, and trying to suck out our happiness, a scene lived by many other families in our neighborhood. Although my family made it out alright, a question remains regarding the rest of America and the future of it’s struggling families. What are the characteristics of children experiencing poverty in America and how do their characteristics affect and influence their life choices? Not only was this question influenced by my own experience but also by “A Place at the Table,” a documentary directed by Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush, explaining and showing the connection between poverty and the economy.

#1- there is a lot of ways in which this book leaves missing holes of knowledge between their readers and the text. It is clear that the family is in really poor conditions because the government will only give them so much to live in a rundown house. Readers like me who have a family that is able to provide anything for me; we don’t

When one young lady stood up as the author of “The Food Stamp Bill,” my head shot to her. What did she think of me? My family and friends? What did she think about our life support? She thought we were undeserving of name brand cereals as well as government assistance after two years. To my horror, other girls recounted stories they had seen on documentaries about Food Stamp Millionaires and drug addicts selling stamps and not feeding their children. I’m sure they didn’t understand that the woman in front of them at the grocery store may buy gluten free bread for their son with celiac disease, or that climbing the economic ladder enough to afford three meals for your family can take over two years. However, they were raised to label me as a leech on society's wallet. I raised my placard,

The Walls children are not only raised by parents that can’t hold down a job, but by parents who are also mentally unstable. In a recent study by Princeton University it was said that “ Long work hours, lack of autonomy, job insecurity, and a heavy workload are also associated with adult mental health problems.” (Princeton). No matter how bad of a “childhood” the Walls children had it’s worse because both parents can’t hold down a job. With both parents rarely working the children are left to fend for themselves, essentially raising themselves. The Walls children have a poor quality of life and a huge factor of their quality of life is because their parents can’t keep a job. For example if Rex Walls kept a job and didn't spend his money on booze the children would have food to eat. At one point in The Glass Castle it says “whenever Mom was too busy to make dinner or we were out of food, we’d go back to the dumpster to see if any new chocolate was waiting for us.” (Walls 125). Jeanette’s parents were so selfish that the children had to go to the dumpster to get a meal, and that problem could’ve been solved if either parent was dedicated to keeping a job and putting food on the table. The children also spent most of their childhood wearing the ripped and tattered clothes because their parents were unable to afford new clothes. Not only is this extremely sad, but if their parents had steady

Some American are destitute, and they always live in homeless shelters. Perhaps, some children live in this place, where they spent their childhood. For example, Eric and Christopher had both spent their formative years in homeless shelters, and they should went out in the streets to panhandle in order to pick up plenty money to buy food for their little sisters and the families in the refuges（Jonathan Kozol 2012）. Meanwhile, in this

While I was growing up we moved frequently, often packing up our belongings in a rush, stuffed in trash bags and thrown haphazardly into whatever vehicle we could procure, usually a friend’s. Evicted, yet again, bouncing from houses to motel rooms to roach-infested trailers. Every single time, in every new place, my mother somehow failed to pay the bills, and so often I would hear her beg my grandparents for money. Eight hundred for the gas bill, once. I was so young that the amount of money had blown my mind. My grandfather was and still is, a hardworking man. They had it to spare, and they always gave it to us, though not without a firm lecture. My toys, my bedding, my school clothes had all been paid for by my grandparents. I grew up