The lesson “life is what you make it” was a big part of the novel. But also this lesson was reflective. When Edwin asked Cole to go to the freezing pond, he gave him a stick and says that the right end of the stick represented happiness while the left end represented anger. Cole broke the anger side of the stick, until he recognized that everytime he broke…
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck both show the struggles of average middle class Americans in hard times. Some hard times can be brought by personal financial choices, like in The Glass Castle, while other financial hardships can be brought by terrible economic times, such as the Great Depression Era in The Grapes of Wrath. Through all of the tough times the Walls’ and the Joad’s faced, they still stuck together. The two families stuck together by being there for one another. They also stuck together by accepting change, even if it wasn’t expected or wanted. The Walls’ and Joad’s faced so much difficulty, but with love and acceptance, they stuck together.…
I. Introduction. What was good about the first few paragraphs? Was it an effective beginning to the…
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…
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a memoir relaying the young life of the author as she struggles to live through poverty with her family. As he gradually ages throughout the book, Jeannette has to face the hardships of a normal growing girl while also facing problems that go on behind closed doors. Walls gives the reader hard-to-read tales of growing up, acting as a parent figure to her younger siblings due to neglect, and trying to keep the family financially stable. At the same time, as she ages and becomes more mature, she tries to break free from her familial roots and move to New York. Once it seems like Jeannette and her siblings have their chance to get out and move to New York, their parents follow them there and decided to live on the streets without a home. Now Walls and her siblings, whom have all moved on, must…
The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls as well as October Sky by Homer H. Hickam, Jr. both resemble the hardships faced by children living in poverty. The Glass Castle is the story of Jeannette Walls and how her siblings have learned to take care of themselves in their dysfunctional family. Jeannette walls is a willful and independent individual who dreams of leaving her haunted past behind. October Sky tells the story of Sonny and his three school friends with the same dream of launching rockets in an attempt to leave the mining town of Coalwood, West Virginia. Sonny is smart and determined, and serves as the leader of the group. Sonny Hickam and Jeannette Walls are similar, because both characters live in a life of poverty, both of their fathers display selfish qualities, and both have dreams of making a name for themselves.…
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.…
Walls has grown up in poverty her whole entire life until she made the move to New York to start her life on her own life she experienced most of her child undernourished and hungry Walls mentions one of these instances where she is going through the trash at school and getting the leftover from others lunches, “I began smelling the bologna. It seemed to fill the whole room. I became terrified the other kids would smell it, too, and that they’d turn and see my over stuffed purse,”(Pg. 173). This is a difficult time for Walls because she was raised to not rely on others when she could probably tell one of her friends and they could give her some food with no problem. This eventually helped Walls later on in life, like when she moved to New York, she needed to be able to live on her own and she was pretty good at it because that’s how she lived her whole life.…
In life there are those that endure awful events and sometimes their life may achieve an altitude of order or peace. However, this never lasts, an example being The Glass Castle’s Jeannette Walls. In her life, she experiences intervals of hard times, followed by peaceful times. One moment in Jeannette’s roller coaster of a life, the shed they were in caught on fire by her and Brian putting lit matches with different liquids. After her dad had saved them Rex, “pointed to the top of the fire, where the snapping yellow flames dissolved into an invisible shimmery heat that made the desert beyond seem to waver, like a mirage” and said “was known in physics as the boundary between turbulence and order. It's a place where no rules apply, or at least…
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…
Jeannette changes over the course of the novel tremendously, and she uses acceptance to obtain the fact that life is not as successful as it could be. In the book The Glass Castle there are many instances where the family has a problem and they have to accept the fact that life is going to change. Doing this guides them through their hardships so that they are able to move on faster. Despite the fact that Jeannette has an unstable home and family, she accepts her drunk father, poor family, and her struggling mom, which shows that inner strength is essential to overcome dilemmas.…
A quality education is one of the most important things a human being can receive in their lifetime. It can lead to amazing opportunities and experiences that may not be available to others who do not have proper education. Some families cannot afford the best possible schooling for their children so they have to settle for less. This is not always the case. The Glass Castle defies all statistics and shows the story of how three low income children grew up to be successful in their own way—despite the many obstacles the children face regarding their education during the formative years. The keys to the Walls children’s success can be found in three aspects: 1) Their parents’ emphasis on reading and questioning 2) Their acceptance into the gifted/talented programs in Phoenix and 3) Their resilience during their time in the Welch School District.…
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.…
A person’s childhood or past should not define who they are or become. In the narrative text, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls expresses the life of homelessness, neglect, and poverty in her childhood. The author uses characterization, imagery, and epiphany to convey the truth that the difficulties in your past should not have to alter who you become in the future.…
The memoir, The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls has been converted into a movie in which was released on August 11, 2017. The movie also called The Glass Castle was written and directed Destin Daniel Cretton. In the movie Jeannette Walls was being played by Brie Larson, Rex by Woody Harrelson, and Rose Mary by Naomi Watts. My expectations were set high for the movie due to me having the background knowledge of the book and it's fine details. Therefore it did not meet my expectations as much as I wanted it to because some of the scenery descriptions given in the book and what the actors said in the film didn't correspond to the novel.…