Symbolism In The Glass Castle By Jeanette Walls

In The Glass Castle, Jeanette Walls was faced with many life changing and hard obstacles. Many people who have read this book think that these hardships have helped her later in life. Her parents were never there for her when she was growing up. Her dad was a raging alcoholic who spent all of his money away at the bars. Her mom was intelligent, but still never seemed to help much with Jeanette and her siblings. Even though her parents were not much help, she loved them the same no matter what. When Jeanette was younger, she was constantly bullied at her new schools, but never went home and told on the kids her had beat her up. She stood up for herself even if she knew she had no chance at winning the fight. This showed how brave and strong

Jeannette Walls, the author of The Glass Castle, creates an overall universal message, or theme, that family is more important than money because family lasts forever; She does this by including the fact that the mom didn’t sell family owned land just for money. The Walls family lives a run-down life moving from place to place practically homeless. Towards the end of the memoir, a big secret is revealed: the mother, Rose Mary Walls, inherited land valued at about one million dollars, but instead of selling this land for money she decides to keep it and rent it out for a little extra money. A million dollars would be great to have and could provide Rose Mary’s children, Lori, Jeannette, Brian, and Maureen, with healthy food, a nice home, and

Elise Gomez Mr. Zimmerman Creative Writing, P. 04 November 09, 2015 The Glass Castle The Author and Her Times & Form, Structure, and Plot: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a memoir written in first person and length in chapters that illustrates Jeanette's life in her own words and experiences. Born in Phoenix, Arizona on April 21, 1960 by her parents Rex Walls and Rose Mary Walls.

“The Glass Castle” by Jeanette Walls is an extremely captivating novel that really kept my attention throughout the entire story. It’s a fascinating story of growing up in circumstances that kept me shaking my head as I turned the pages. The Walls family is unquestionably one unlike any I’ve ever come across. The lessons and experiences that the children learned and endured were ones that molded their lives and established who they are today. Jeanette Walls goes through many descriptions of situations that she faced that people normally should not face. For most of her childhood, her family traveled from town to town because her parents always thought that they would hit it big, unfortunately her father was never ever to find a

In the memoir, The Glass Castle, it was evident the Glass Castle was not just a physical object itself, but holds a deeper meaning of symbolism towards the author, Jeannette Walls. After completing the book, it has been noted that the Glass Castle symbolizes the constant reminder of Jeannette’s hope that one day both her family and house will be in a stable, working position. Throughout the novel, the Glass Castle was vaguely mentioned as the Walls family continued their journey through the United States. However, through their ongoing journey, Jeannette’s view of the Glass Castle changed, as it was inevitably just a vision that her father had implanted in her brain but never actually built in reality.

The human experience of an outcast is illustrated by Jeannette Walls in The Glass Castle by the element of chaos expressed throughout the book, the parents’ refusal to conform to social standards, and the poverty that shaped her childhood.

While Jeanette is preparing to leave for New York and her father, Rex, attempts to talk her out of it by showing her the updated plans for the Glass Castle, Walls, through Jeanette, uses an implied metaphor to show how all her father’s promises are a Glass Castle without the use of like or as. Walls uses this to illuminate how her father’s promises are broken easily like how a Glass Castle can be broken easily as it is made of glass, which is fragile. Walls also highlights how throughout the memoir her father promised to protect her, not only by building her a home like the Glass Castle, but also by protecting her from men who force themselves upon her as seen when the father states, “Anyone who… laid a finger on… Rex Walls's children was going to get their butts kicked,” (Walls, 24), but the father later goes on to allow her to be inappropriately touched by Robbie just to make some money. This shows that the father makes promises he is unable to and often does not want to fulfill throughout the memoir, which leads to Jeanette having to face adversity as her father is not protecting her. As a result of her adversity, Jeanette reaches an epiphany and learns to look out for her own well-being as she understands that her father is no longer willing to do so. She also understands that her father will never build the Glass Castle and that all the promises that her father ever made to her are like the Glass Castle, easily broken. This ultimately to Jeanette developing from a character who depended solely on her father, to one that could make the decision to go to New York without her father’s permission after the 11th grade. Finally, by going to New York, Jeanette is able to provide for her own well-being by working at a job and renting an apartment and departs from the conventional means of wellbeing. Through the use of metaphor, Walls conveys the theme that often for one to persevere against adversity in his or her lives, he or she must learn to go against conventional means of well-being, like family, and find his or her individual means of well-being.

This summer I read the memoir “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls. This is the first book that I have read of hers, although I would be interested in reading one of her other books such as “The Silver Star” or “Half Broke Horses”. The memoir takes place in many different cities and states. The novel starts out in New York City when the author is an adult and married, but then it flashes all the way back to when Jeannette, the main character, was three and living in southern Arizona. Jeannette was home alone and she was making herself food when she caught on fire and was taken to the hospital. After six weeks of being in the hospital, her dad, Rex Walls, decided that the nurses and doctors were not trustworthy and was uncomfortable with hospitals, so he snuck her out without being discharged. Soon after, the family “did the skedaddle” as Jeannette called it, and moved to Las Vegas. On the way to their destination, at night, the kids asked their dad to tell them a bedtime story. He told them mostly stories about himself and in the stories he was always the hero. In this particular story, however, the author’s dad describes the plans that he has for the future. This plan consisted of building the Glass Castle, which he has been planning for a very long time. The castle would be a large house for the whole family in the middle of the desert and it would have a glass ceiling, thick glass walls, and a glass staircase. For electricity, there would be solar cells on the

One of the many themes for the Glass Castle is forgiveness. Jeanette and her siblings always forgave their dad and mom for their mistakes and always welcomed them back into their hearts. Forgiveness for Jeanette decreased her anger and made her more positive since things weren’t always good for her. She first starts to forgive her mom and dad when she is three years old, and she burns herself because her mom let her cook hotdogs. She ended up getting burned severely and had to be hospitalized for 6 days. As soon as she gets back home from the hospital, her mom is letting her cook again on the very thing that burned her and saying, “good for you, you have to get right back on the saddle” (The Glass Castle, pg.15). She also forgave her father when he

Jeannette Wall’s memoir, The Glass Castle, displays Jeannette’s life growing up as a child living in an impoverished family. It is surprising to see that Jeannette is truly loving and caring towards her family despite how completely irresponsible and negligent both her parents were. Rose-Mary and Rex Walls are unfit parents to their children.

In the beginning of the book, Jeanette’s father promises to build her a dream house in which she and her family could finally live the life they deserve. As the story progresses, Jeanette realizes that her father’s promise would go unfulfilled yet the glass castle remains as an image of hope. Through her arduous upbringing, Jeanette continues to hold on to the idea of the glass castle with a sort of childhood innocence even at the end of the book when it becomes apparent that “[Rex Wall will] never build the Glass Castle.” As it influenced the lives of both Jeanette and Rex Walls and helped them not only survive but overcome their onerous situations, The Glass Castle remains one of the biggest symbols throughout the

"And I'll build the Glass Castle, I swear it. We'll all live in it together. It'll be a hell of a lot better than any apartment you'll ever find in New York City, I can guaran­goddamn­tee that." I found this interesting because Rex Walls and his wife is the reason that their family fell apart. The children grew up independent, foraging for food at school in garbage cans. The reason why they live like scavengers are because of their irresponsible parents who often do not bring home enough money to live on and impulsively splurges on unnecessary items such as alcohol. When Lori moves out, Jeannette follows her older sister’s lead, frustrated by her parents’ antics. Rex Walls brings out the blueprints of the Glass Castle to prevent the family from being broken even further. However, Rex often postponed the building when the children were younger because he used the excuse that he couldn’t perfect his inventions that would fund the building of the

The Glass Castle is a memoir by Jeanette Walls in which she tells the story of her childhood and the way she became who she is. Her path to her balanced present was too difficult and full of hardships, yet she managed to become a successful and prosperous person whose life experience gives her a push to make her life happy. It stands to mention that the novel is full of symbols which contribute to reader's understanding of Jeanette's character and represent her most important traits and desires. Besides, all the symbols such as the fire, the Joshua tree, the geode and the glass castle are recurring and contribute to understanding the struggle of Jeanette's childhood, her ability to overcome it and build a successful life.

Jeannette and her little brother Brian spent a long time digging this hole, therefore it must have been devastating to watch as it was used as a place to stow away the family’s garbage. Jeannette was starting to realize that her father was probably never going to build the Glass Castle. Rex still hoped that his daughter would believe him, that she would feed him the lies for a little while longer even though the idea of the Glass Castle was slowly slipping away.

Jeanette Walls had a sense of responsibility when her parents didn’t have any. When it came down to Walls’ younger sister she says, “At times I felt like I was failing Maureen, like I wasn’t keeping my promise that I’d protect her.” (Walls 206) Structure. Through misguided trials with the family the children picked up on things they knew or at least felt what a family should be and act like. She strives for protection.