The Glass Castle Analysis

Therefore Rex Walls is uninvolved in his children’s lives because of one example when Jeannette has been injured in the hospital for six weeks and her father comes to the room for the first time when she is supposed to stay in the hospital to rest and keep under supervision by the doctors. Most parents would stay at the hospital with their children but instead, Rex takes her out of the hospital. Jeannette is still hurt and is trying to heal, yet he comes in with the smell of alcohol on his breath and leaves without paying the doctors for the safekeeping of Jeannette. Jeannette’s father tells her to trust him when he hasn’t been there for her for what probably seemed like forever to Jeannette, when she needed him the most.

The Glass Castle, a memoir published by Jeannette Walls in 2005, shares the harsh and troubling times a family is forced to overcome. Two very important women in the Walls family’s life impact their struggle tremendously. The mother of Rose Mary Walls, Lily Smith, also known as Grandma Smith is a caring yet strict influence on the Walls family. On the other side, Erma who is Rex Walls’ mother, is an extremely rude and careless mother and grandmother who doesn’t want anything to do with Rex and his family.

The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls is a memoir about her early years and her family situation. Throughout the story you learn about her Father Rex, her Mother Rose, and her three siblings Loir, Maureen, and Brain. With each story she tells it conveys such emotion and feeling. The theme of the memoir starts with a hopeful tone the transforms to a somber tone, this is conveyed through imagery, language and dialogue.

Jeannette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle, is about her growing up with parents whose beliefs and persistent rebelliousness was both their curse and their salvation. The book starts when Walls is four years of age; she is gullible and energetic, and trusts her dad can't take the blame no matter what. The family ventures a great deal, living in Las Vegas, Blythe, and Battle Mountain (Nevada), San Francisco (California), Phoenix (Arizona), Welch (West Virginia), and New York City. Additionally, a great part of Walls’ memories happens while her family is in their car, traveling to new places. As the book advances, and she hits her pre-adolescent years, she turns out to be less innocent and starts to acknowledge how strange her family truly is. Jeanette has a kind identity, she learns all through the novel to act naturally, dismissive and strong. As the brokenness of the family is raised, Walls and her siblings fought for themselves, supporting each other through their parents’ neglect and, finally, find the advantages and will to leave home.

The Glass Castle is an enthralling story of Jeannette Walls’s extraordinary childhood riddled with unfortunate circumstance after circumstance. With her parents unable to hold steady jobs, Jeanette and her siblings became accustomed to constantly running from bill collectors, living in a continuous cycle of hazardous, disheveled homes, never knowing when or where their next meal was going to come from. Her memoir begins with the rehashing of a trip she took as an adult to attend a party in New York City's Upper East Side. As Walls glances out the window of her taxi, she spots her mother, Rosemary, rummaging through the garbage. Jeanette panics and promptly turns back home, first worrying about her professional image hoping no one will see the two of them together. But then she worries on a much deeper level about her mother's wellness, being cold, homeless, and alone in the New York winter. Following this, Jeanette has a lunch meeting with her mother which prompts Jeannette to contemplate her parents' unfortunate voluntary lifestyle and the childhood she had with such unstable and erratic “role models.”

Not having a place to call home or a job to go to everyday to provide for your family can put a tremendous amount of stress on an entire family. However, there are many ways to succeed in life illustrated in two texts: The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck and The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls. The Grapes of Wrath, a novel of the Joad family moving westward during the Dust Bowl, and The Glass Castle, a novel of the Walls family and their struggles with modern day poverty, both show the reader the struggles they face and how hard it was for them to get through just one day at a time. The Walls and Joad families pushed through the hardships life threw at them because they never lost sight of their goal and what was important to them and they kept hope that they would find a permanent home.

After reading the first 28 pages of the The Glass Castle one question I have is, why was Jeannette’s family homeless because in the book it seemed like her father was very intelligent and could have a well paying job. The author stated in the book that her father was very good at math and electricity despite having never earned a college degree. Another question I have about the text is why did her father dislike hospitals so much and preferred the care of a “witch” doctor? Could it be religious beliefs or simply the cost of medical treatment. I have this question because in the text the author said how her father carried her out of the hospital after about six weeks and ran out the door. Prior to this, her father also had some arguments with

The Glass castle is a memoir of the peculiar childhood and family of Jeanette Walls. The memoir was turned into a movie, which was released August 11, 2017. The movie was written by Destin Cretton and Andrew Lanham. Over 5 million copies of the book have been sold and the movie and the movie has grossed approximately twenty million dollars. Movies that are derived from books usually come across complications when they are compared and critiqued from the standard of the book. When movies are created from a book they have to cut scenes and important details from the book. In the article “The Trouble with Making Books We Love into Movies” by The Atlantic, says, “But any way you look at it, the movie version of a widely successful book is bound to go wrong”(Paragraph 4, Doll). This helps solidify

The parents did not provide the basic needs for their children.Finally, they had settled in a small town named Welch in West Virginia .There they bought the oldest rustiest unpainted house they could afford and every now and then they had electricity .The dad explained he had bought that house because it came with extra land .The perfect amount to build the glass castle . The glass castle was supposed to be this huge mansion made up of glass walls and glass ceilings .In addition it was controlled by solar panels .The glass castle was never built, but young Jeannette Walls saw those words as hope .Thus Lori and Brian saw those words as excuse .For instance whenever dad was asked , why didn't he have a job he would reply it was because he was

“The Glass Castle,” by Jeanette Walls, starts off by Jeanette telling the story of how she ended up going to a hospital at three years old with severe burns as a result of her boiling her own hotdogs. This story shows that not only is Jeanette already caring for herself at such a young age, but also that her parents are irresponsible for letting her do this by herself. This seems like it is just the start for showing how reckless and irresponsible Jeanette’s parents are. The book also opens with Jeanette spotting her mother digging around through trash, which is also a sign to me that they have failed to take care of themselves let alone Jeanette. As the book continues with Jeanette recollecting her childhood memories, it is becoming more apparent as to why her father, Rex, and mother, Rose Mary, have not taken care of Jeanette, or her siblings. Her father is an alcoholic who can’t keep a job, and her mother doesn’t have a job, she instead insists that she is an artist. Jeanette’s family often has to do what her parents call the ‘skedaddle’ which is them hitting the road to find a new place to live. They are constantly running from the bill collectors, and can never seem to stay in the same place for more than a couple of months.

In the memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls, the author, was most influenced by her time in Phoenix for the second time, as indicated by how she described the events that took place there. The family, while in Phoenix, started to realize the severity of her father's addiction to alcohol as shown during Christmas. Rose Mary said that this was going to be the best Christmas they ever had. She wanted to celebrate it on Christmas for the first time so the kids were all very excited for the day. They would get to open presents and enjoy it on the day everyone else got to. Rex, on the other hand, had other plans. When Christmas day rolled around, Rex got very wasted on alcohol to the point that he couldn’t even stand when walking into the Midnight Mass that Rose Mary made him go to. Out of spite of not believing in God, he shouted some word choices that made the whole mass, priest and all, turn to him and tell him to get out of the church. This wasn’t the end of this unfortunate night for the Walls. When the whole family returned home, they decided it was time to open the presents the kids have been dying too. Rex, though, drunk and out of his mind poured his alcohol on the tree and set it on fire. The presents, the tree, and the nice ornaments were all burnt to a crisp all while he was laughing about it. Jeannette says, “Once the fire was out and the sodden, burned tree lay smoldering on the floor, we all just stood there. No one tried to wring Dad’s neck or yell at him or

The Glass Castle played with several different themes throughout the course of Jeannette Wall’s life. The novel touches frequently on the constant struggle of the socio economic underclasses, clashes with the economically prosperous majority. The heavy use of the depiction of poverty is also used in order to demonstrate the egregious struggle faced by the Walls family, yet often denied by the misguided maternal hubris of both Mr. and Mrs. Walls. Although rich with thematic elements, Walls never uses a singular plot point to encompass the entire theme of the narrative. Rather, she exercises the polymerization of several different major plot points in order to convey a resonating motif that is reinstated several times throughout the narrative. The story draws heavily on the polarizing effects that Jeannette’s parents had on her, throughout her life. Playing both hero and villain, both parents administered Jeanette's success while likewise being the cause of her strife and pain. Walls uses her parents inadequacies and struggles to great effect in order to explore the depth to which by birthright, fate has it’s grip on the mortal thread.

Henry Ward said, “We never know the love of our parents till we become parents ourselves”. The Glass Castle is a memoir written by a woman named Jeanette Walls. In the book, she described her childhood. She grew up in poverty and had to face many obstacles throughout her life. Jeanette’s parents aren't perfect parents, and they are known by many as unfit parents but they do provide good evidence of good parenting throughout the memoir and teach their children some valuable lessons that they will cherish forever.

Throughout Jeanette Walls’s memoir The Glass Castle, she uses her resources to survive a family situation that is fundamentally unstable and often unsafe. When she is young, Jeanette creates her own fun by playing with fire, forming rock collections, and exploring in the absence of typical toys or games. When her family moves to Welch, West Virginia, she scrounges for supplies, works hard, and tries to confront her father in an effort to create some stability for herself and her family. As an adult in New York City, Jeanette’s main resource is her intellect. Finally able to make a life based off her education and work ethic, she finds balance. Jeanette is resourceful her whole life when it comes to finding stability for herself and her family.

Throughout the memoir, The Glass Castle, the author, Jeannette Walls, recollects everything she has experienced growing up with her family. Many of the memories she chooses to share include her father, Rex Walls, who, for the most part, was a vivacious character that strongly believed in self-reliance and learning from experience. Rather than limiting himself and his family to only what they had, he attempted to expose his family to as much as possible for their benefit and to help guide them in their adult lives. With everything they experienced, both good and bad, they took something away each time. Although the Walls were not often appreciative of Rex’s gestures at the time, they were very grateful for him and everything he taught them.