Most memoirs are written with the intention of telling the author’s significant experiences, each conveying their individual purpose. In both Jeannette Walls’, The Glass Castle, and Mary Karr’s, The Liars Club, the authors utilize their dysfunctional childhoods to achieve their independent purposes. Walls uses numerous strategies to achieve her purpose of the memoir being a way to accept the past and to not let the past define oneself. Unlike Walls, Karr also uses her strategies to show the endurance of love and family through thick and thin. Together both novels are able to tell their own individual stories and get through to the readers utilizing contrasting strategies.…
“The Glass Castle” by Jeanette Walls, is a novel about the hardships throughout her life and the several lives of her family and how they overcome those hardships. Within the novel, Jeanette goes into detail about some of the incidents that her parents made and how they each chose a different parenting style. Her father, Rex Walls, was very hands on with his parenting, while contrasting her mother Rose Mary was very relaxed in her parenting technique. In each of the tiny stories Jeanette told during the novel, they each revealed more about how her parents chose to raise her and her siblings. In order to be a successful parent it takes hard work and a lot of effort, but you have to achieve a balance between both hands- on and relaxed parenting.…
Jeannette Walls is an author of many books, one of which being her memoir The Glass Castle. After years keeping her story a secret, in 2005 Jeannette’s husband inspired her to write her sad story for the world to see. Through the 288 pages, Jeanette illustrates her story of a life as nomads constantly on the move, with a passive mother and a drunken father. The stories she shares show the side of an abusive childhood that we rarely have the opportunity to understand. The glass castle is shattered in the reader's face, and its pieces rebuild their broken perspective.…
The parenting style that the Wall’s use on their kids is very different from what other parents use on kids. Jeanette’s mother Rose Mary is not motivated to do a lot of stuff for her kids. Rose Mary is supposed to play the role of caring for the kids and watching over them while the father is at work. The father, Rex Walls, is supposed to provide for the family such as, bring home money and food for the kids to survive. Throughout the book the parents, Rose Mary and Rex, often do not pay attention to their kids and are not responsible in looking after them. This issue causes the Walls’ kids to work for what they needed and how to be more independent in life. The Walls’…
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls tell about young Jeanette’s life living with her family. They’re poor,hungry and living in bad conditions. It tells about how she get’s out of the life she’s living, and makes something of herself in New York. In this excerpt, Jeannette’s family moves into a new house in Welch, after Jeanette’s father’s mother kicks them out of her basement. Jeanette’s mother tries to use her positive thinking to help her children deal with the poor conditions they live in, but she’s actually just hiding her problems. The author conveys that her mother’s positive thinking is only hiding their real problems by using the literary element, characterization.…
The book, Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, is an unbelievable memoir about a dysfunctional family. The author, Jeannette Walls, is also the main character in the book. Jeannette and each of her unique and interesting family members differ from any other character in a book you can imagine. Jeannette’s father teaches and inspires her each and everyday with new and interesting things. But when Jeannette’s father was not helping them embrace life, he was drinking alcohol, leaving his children with no one to take care of them. “In my mind, Dad was perfect, although he did have what Mom called a bit of a drinking situation.” (page 23). This quote describes how much Jeannette cares for her father, but sometimes his drinking problem got in the way. Jeannette’s mother was a very nice, sweet, and caring woman, but the whole idea of responsibility and being a parent wasn’t her cup of tea. Jeannette and her brother and sister are left to take care of themselves. Throughout the story Jeannette and her family persevere greatly, and prove to each other how…
The memoir “Glass Castle” covers a variety of serious concerns that affect any modern society. One of these concerns is child abuse. Child abuse is defined as any deliberate action taking against a child by an adult. These actions may be be physical violence, emotional or verbal abuse, refusal to meet a child's basic needs and even sexual molestation. There is much debate as to what exactly could turn someone, particularly a parent, to cause harm to child. However, a general consensus is that a few basic factors can increase the risk. Among these are mental health issues, substance abuse, lack of support and socioeconomic stress. Of all of these, socioeconomic stress is the most prominent cause of child abuse. This stress is often seen in a…
Courage is characterized as mental or moral strength to surpass notions of fear. As demonstrated by Atticus Finch and Mrs Dubose in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the development of courage gives the character’s strength and courage to hold their heads high, while fearing none. Harper Lee depicts the theme of courage incalculable amount of times, detailing courage as “ when you know you’re licked before you being, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.” (Chapter 11, Page 124) All of the characters have an alternate kind of perspective of what courage is exactly, which will be examined in depth.…
What would it be like to grow up in a family where your dad is a drunk and your mom has the desperate urge to have no kids? Well, after reading The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, I can begin to comprehend. There are six members in the Walls family, Rex and Rosemary, parents, and Lori, Jeanette, Brain and Maureen, the children. Jeanette’s dad was an enormous player in the children’s childhood, when sober Rex was inspiring and charming, but when he drank he was very destructive. Therefore creating a terrible situation for the family to be in.…
In Jeannette Walls’ memoir “The Glass Castle” many of her family members and other people in the book display certain characteristics that make her story unique and intriguing. Often such characteristics can cause problems for the characters and sometimes their own downfall. In particular, Jeannette’s father displays irresponsibility that affects not only him, but the other people in the story as well. This ultimately ends up causing his downfall and his children losing faith in him.…
The title of the book and a major theme within it, the Glass Castle represents Rex's hope for a magical, fantastic life in which he can provide for his family and please his children. Rex lays out plans for the Glass Castle, including detailed dimensions for each of the children's rooms, but he never actually builds the castle. For a long time Jeannette believes that he will but she gives up on the hope after the hole they dig for the foundation of the Glass Castle is filled with garbage. Though the physical structure is not erected, the symbol the Glass Castle represents remains with Jeannette in her childhood and helps her to believe that her father will do what he promises. When she discovers that this is not always true and realizes that…
The Glass Castle, a memoir written by Jeannette Walls is an eye-opening look at the world of poverty that touches so many lives within in the United States. There are many reasons for poverty wheather they be out of consequence or one is simply born into it there are many reason for its occurance. The story of Jeannette Walls is not only inspiring but motivating as her climb from the depths poverty allow her to become the successful journalist and novelist she is today. Throughout her life there have been many struggles including her own father, Rex Walls, the finicial instability their family faces together, and the bullies Jeannette must face alone. She clearly outlines her own growth with her father throughout the novel and proves that with…
It is more than likely that more than one person has read or watched fictional works of literature where the main character faces obstacles and trauma, but in spite of all the adversity they overcome their struggles and go on to live a long successful and happy life. Today, many individuals are suffering from trauma and are faced with many obstacles in their lives. For example, young adults, may live in situations where they suffer from abuse due to alcoholism, mental illness, or food insecurity. A work of literature that relates to this real-world issue is The New York Times Bestseller, The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls. In the book, Jeanette discusses her abnormal life as a child and as a young adult. Regardless of their struggles in life,…
1. “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. Courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what” (149).…
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 that she has successfully graduated through Erickson’s stages of development while also being the reason that she is able to do so.…