The Challenges In Jeannette Walls's The Glass Castle

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

During her cab ride she sees a woman digging through trash only to realize it’s her mother picking through a dumpster. Her mother analyzes through items she finds, and smiles when something strikes her appeal. After watching for a while, Jeannette tells the driver to take her back to her apartment. The first section of Jeannette Walls' memoir establishes the theme of class differences and introduces two very important characters, her parents Rose Mary and Rex Walls. First, in the opening scene in which the author, Jeannette Walls spots her mother digging through a dumpster, the class distinctions between them are immediately apparent. Jeannette is sitting in a taxi, worrying about being overdressed for a party when outside the cab, her mother wears ragged clothes while digging through trash. Thus, this scene introduces the quandary Jeannette finds herself in when she skips the party and goes home: She has wealth and social privilege, which her mother does not, and Jeannette must come to terms with this disparity. This specific entry caught my attention, my mother always tells me i’ll do greater things her and my father ever did and when I read this in the beginning I felt if I were put in that situation I’d feel guilty to see my mother digging through

In the memoir “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls, many factors shape the way the Walls family lives. The Walls family is unpredictable and abnormal compared to many families. A myriad of things influence the way Jeanette and her family live, but there are two reasons that are significant. The Wall’s families economical status is one of the two predominant reasons they live the way they do. The second influential cause is the geography of the variety of places Jeanette’s family has lived.

Jeannette begins to rediscover her optimism right away, noting things such as “New Yorkers, I figured, just pretended to be unfriendly” (Walls 246) and “Our apartment was bigger than the entire house on Little Hobart Street, and way fancier” (Walls 247) about the apartment Lori and her rented. Jeannette was also able to chase her dreams of being a journalist and writer in NYC. “I’d never been happier in my life” (Walls 248) she said about her first journalism job, despite the fact that she was overworked and underpaid. Her life continues to get better as she attends Barnard College, moves on to bigger, better jobs, and moves in with her stable boyfriend on Park Avenue. When her parents move to NYC and visit her, she is once again able to use positively connotated words towards them, finding positives in her mother like “her face had a healthy pink glow, and her eyes were clear and bright” (Wells 278). She was also able to reflect on her relationship with her father, saying that she “could not imagine what my life would be […] without him. As awful as he could be, I always knew he loved me in a way no one else ever had” (Walls 279). In the end, the book jumps five years into the future with Jeannette inviting her family to spend Thanksgiving at her home; Thanksgiving, which was a light, happy reunion, ends with the family

Hardships are terrible, but they are a normal part of everybody’s life. No matter the hardship, anybody can recover. In her memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls tells a true story of her unconventional childhood. She journeys the readers through her nomadic and dysfunctional family lifestyle. Her parents—the artistic, inattentive Rose Mary and the intelligent, alcoholic Rex—neglect their children and fail to provide for them adequately. Walls learns how to care for herself at an early age. Growing up in such a dysfunctional family, it would be no surprise if Walls would have turned out just as wrecked as her parents, but Walls was able to rise above and accomplish a successful life. It is through the sharing of her own personal success, that Wall’s demonstrates you don’t have to be a product of your circumstances you can shape your own future.

People often fall into some sticky situations, but how they deal with them is the thing that matters most. In The Glass Castle, a memoir by Jeannette Walls, she takes the readers through her life, starting at her earliest memory as a three-year-old, constantly living in a state of homelessness. Throughout the story, Walls experiences countless situations from her father being an alcoholic, to everyday school bullies. She uses a series of coping mechanisms to deal with, and sometimes terminate these issues. In fact, everyone of her siblings and parents uses various coping methods for these same situations. These methods may not always be the most effective, but people, including the Walls family, nevertheless use them to get by on their

Her family has food, a home, and they have a stable income. These circumstances begin to diminish as the story continues. They experience one problem after another, constantly being knocked off their feet. Even when a luxury came their way, it seemed to disappear faster than it appeared. For example, when they moved into their house on Little Hobart street it seemed withstandable However, she explains, “During on particular fierce rainstorm that spring, the ceiling grew so fat it burst” (Walls 153). As the story proceeds, the determination to work to support their family that the parents once held deteriorates just as the house will continue to. As they sink deeper into poverty, Jeannette decides it’s up to her to mold the life she

They set the stage for the rest of the memoir; finding out really how Jeannette seems fond yet disappointed in them. “...he’d ruined the Christmas his family had spent weeks planning-the Christmas that was supposed to be the best we’d ever had” (115). This shows how far Rex became submerged himself into drinking, easily ruining a possibly good day at the Walls household. Unfortunately, Jeannette suffered from sexual abuse/harassment during her childhood. Her parents were unconcerned when finding out. “One night when I was almost ten, I was awakened by someone running his hands over my private parts. At first it was confusing…’I just want to play a game with you,’ a man’s voice said” (103). Jeannette asked her parents to close the doors and windows, but they would not consider it. It was essential that they refuse to surrender to fear. “I felt Stanley’s hand creeping onto my thigh...I looked down and saw that Uncle Stanley’s pants were unzipped and he was playing with himself” (183-184). Rose Mary showed no concern when Jeannette told her that Uncle Stanley touched her inappropriately. She felt bad for Uncle Stanley, knowing he is just lonely. Jeannette was most disappointed in her father when she and Brian began digging a foundation for the home that Rex designed for the family. The hole later became a garbage pit; perhaps not affording for the trash to

In the book The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, she talks about her family's dysfunctional ways of living. How they never stayed in a place for more than a few years. Her dad was a drunk and stole money from the family and her mom was a starving artist who didn’t want to get a job to provide for her family. Although her parents have some very poor qualities, they definitely have good qualities that balance it all out. Her dad Rex Walls; for example, was very caring and loving towards his family always trying to keep them together and make sure they had what they needed to survive. Jeannette’s mom Rose Mary was selfish to her family and though it seems like a bad trait it had taught her children to be self-sufficient. Them together were free-spirited never caring what other people thought and teaching their children to do the same.

Her relationship with her dad reaches a conflict when she accuses him of taking her money from her and Lori’s piggy bank, and when he denies it, they get frustrated with him and the conditions they’re living in. Although they’ve had good experiences with their dad, the support given by him starts to deteriorate and they are desperate to turn it around. Because of this, Lori claims that she will never get out of Welch with Jeannette thinking that “..if Lori never got out of Welch, neither would I” (229). Another example of the tense relationship between her dad was when he brought up plans of “The Glass Castle” once more when Jeannette was set on going to New York City. Her dad tries to bring back the plans that she had been excited about early in her childhood, but she overcomes the previous joy she had and is now realistic about outcome of The Glass Castle, saying that it will probably never be built (238). Her relationship with her mother has also been changed, with Jeannette being more conscious about what her mom is doing as she settled later in life in New York City with Jeannette telling her mom that she wants to change her life and make it better. Her mom immediately rejects this and states that she is fine and that Jeannette is the one that needs help since her values are all confused, which conflicts the relationship between them as they both feel that the other has

The “gentleman” decided to pay her back in a way I never would have thought he would: taking her to seduce the man he was trying to pawn so he can give her the money she needs. I mean she was almost raped! If it wasn’t for her scars she would have never gotten out of the place she was later dragged into, something her father allowed. I almost ripped my book apart really; I could literally feel my blood boiling at that animal. My frustration due to the injustice of Jeannette getting underpaid at Becker’s Jewelry Box was nothing compared to this. It was especially nothing to what I felt when I saw Jeannette stand up to her nightmare of a mother for not working and getting hit by her father for it. I know she was furious, that was the moment Jeannette did start saving up to escape Welch before graduation, but in my opinion that is not enough. I couldn’t and can’t believe her. She should have been out for blood, not for escape. I know what it’s like, to suffer in embarrassment after an event like that, but if I was ever in a situation worse than I have been I wouldn’t even be stuck in a situation like hers. I don’t think I would have even tried to tough it out with the savages she’s lived with for so many years. I would have left as soon as I could think for myself, I would have never

Towards the end of the memoir, Jeannette was in high school and was getting ready to graduate and get as far away from Welch and her broken family as possible. Jeannette decided to follow in her older sisters footsteps and move to New York. Jeannette is passionate about writing and believed New York was a perfect place to get her career started, along with college. Jeannette’s family was upset that she was leaving them, especially Rex. Rex felt as if he was losing

Think back to your own childhood. Could you imagine being a child, and not having a care in the world, but then, as quick as the snap of a finger, that all changes because of a thoughtless mistake made by your parents? In The Glass Castle it is revealed that as Jeannette grew up, she endured hardships inflicted upon her by her own parents. However, if Jeannette had not gone through these things, she never would have gained the characteristics that she values present day. Although Jeannette Walls faced hardships and endured suffering during her childhood, these obstacles formed her into a self-reliant woman who proves that just because you do not have as much money as other families, you can still achieve success in your life.

In the novel The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, the uncertain future of the Walls’ children was questionable from the start. From a drunk father, to never having a steady home, the author tells of her idiosyncratic youth to describe the bitterness and longing for an ordinary childhood.

Writer, Jeannette Walls, in her memoir, The Glass Castle, provides an insight into the fanciful and shocking life of growing up poor and nomadic with faux-grandiose parents in America. With her memoir, Wall's purpose was to acknowledge and overcome the difficulties that came with her unusual upbringing. Her nostalgic but bitter tone leaves the reader with an odd taste in their mouth. In some memories, the author invites her audience to look back on with fondness; others are viewed through bulletproof glass and outrage.