The Glass Castle

The Glass Castle, a both heart throbbing and emotional story written by Jeanette Walls shares her life through her child eyes. Walls grew with a different lifestyle than what we would normally see today. A family that isn’t much of a family but is a sense of stability and security to her. Throughout her life her family has been through hunger, unstable homes, a drunk father and very little of outer family relationships. She struggled along with her brother and sister but with free-spirited parents for her that is all she needed.

The Glass Castle's Themes Everybody has someone who has raised them, and the results of how someone was raised whether it be good or bad can result in how the child ends up as an adult. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls has to deal with a lot of things growing up such as Peculiar Parenting Styles, alcoholism, and living in poverty. Because of the things she had to go through growing up, it made her self-reliant and very independent. Sometimes though, many kids dealing with such harsh living conditions may have an opposite effect on people such as Jeanette's sister, Maureen.

American journalist, writer, and magazine editor David Remnick once said, “The world is a crazy, beautiful, ugly complicated place, and it keeps moving on from crisis to strangeness to beauty to weirdness to tragedy.” In the memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls the main character and author of the book tells of her crazy and adventurous life she experienced with her not so ordinary family. This quote relates to The Glass Castle, because like it states, life is full of both tragedies and beauty which is exactly what Jeannette experienced growing up with her free spirited and non-conformative parents. Walls is able to express her main purpose of the book that life is a mix of good and bad times through imagery, tone, and pathos.

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.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a perfect example of selfishness and neglect brought upon by the parents and how influences their children through life. The Glass Castle isn’t just a story, but it is someone’s actual life and how it was affected by selfish/neglectful her parents. This is a memoir of her life and all that she went through as a child with troubled parents and how it affected her life and the life of her siblings. Jeannette is the middle child out of four children. There is Lori who is the oldest sister, Brian who is Jeannette’s younger brother, a their

In this both heart wrenching and slightly humorous memoir, successful journalist Jeannette Walls tells the bittersweet story of her rather dysfunctional and poverty stricken upbringing. Walls grows up in a family trailed by the ubiquitous presence of hunger and broken down homes. Throughout the memoir she recounts memories of moving from one dilapidated neighborhood to another with her three other siblings, insanely "free sprinted" mother, and incredibly intelligent yet alcoholic father. The author focuses on her unconventional childhood with somewhat unfit parents much too lazy and self-absorbed to even obtain decent jobs. Although Walls's childhood gushes with heartbreaking tales of searching through dumpsters for food, she remains as

The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls and it tells a story the life of Jeannette Walls and her family. Towards the beginning of the novel, the family made a pitstop at a casino in Las Vegas where the parents decided to gamble hoping they will earn extra cash. On their way home, the doors flew open, and Jeannette suddenly falls out of the car and rolls down a hill after the car took a sharp turn. The accident left her with a blood nose, multiple scrapes, and pebbles stuck on her skin. After a long wait, she began to panic that her parents decided to desert her. Eventually the car returned, and Jeannette accuses her family for leaving her behind and even refuses to hug her dad. This occurrence ends with her family calling her

The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls, giving the public a look at her rough upbringing and her nomadic childhood. The memoir, however is written in a way of which the author is not seeking sympathy from the reader. She also wrote in such a way as to not induce anger in the reader, as that is not what she was searching for. Jeannette wrote in order to inform and inspire, and to tell a tale as crazy as it is. Jeannette grew up, one of four siblings. Her parents had alternate methods of parenting and different ideas of how children should be raised. They taught them to have similar morals to them, and similar values. Although, as the children age, they begin to realize how wrong their parents are, and how

“I’m thankful for my struggles because without it I wouldn’t have stumbled across my strength.” Through the eyes of Alex Elle you first must struggle in order to find your true strengths. An obstacle that most of us deal with throughout our lives. Some, more extreme than the other, regardless having the power to lift us as humans or tear us down. These crossroads are formed at different points and for different reasons in each person's life, nevertheless morphing them into the people they will soon become. Along with struggle comes forgiveness. Allowing yourself to let go of the things that cause you the pain and struggle in order to move on. Giving yourself the opportunity to wipe your slate clean and start fresh. Throughout Flight,

“Life with your father was never boring.” – Rose Mary Walls. Rose Mary Walls, Jeannette Walls’s mother and Rex Walls’s spouse, reminisces life with Rex, which included migrating frequently, refusing to conform, and advocating self-sufficiency. Despite Rose Mary finding Rex disdainful at times, she still believes that being with Rex was an adventure. In Jeannette Walls’s The Glass Castle, Walls reveals that there are turbulence and order in life, the influence of family, and how she develops as she grows up through Walls’s recollection of her life, from living in a nomadic household, where her parents neglect their children, to living in a squalid hovel with no plumbing, and finally living in New York City, where she is employed as a journalist.

In the memoir, “The Glass Castle”, there were characters that desired freedom from the rules of society while the others however, wished for a normal life that had the happiness and security that they wanted. A normal life would be having a decent home, going to school everyday, parents with stable jobs, bills paid and at least three meals a day. The Walls Family didn’t have a normal life, in fact they always traveled from place to place because they couldn’t pay their bills, the children were home tutored by their parents (although later on they go to school) and worst of all, the Walls would starve going many days without food. For every child, it’s important that they have a sense of freedom by being able to do what they want while they’re still young. Then again, children should also feel like they’re secured, protected and safe from everything. Although if I were to choose which is more important for children, I would say security is more important .

Through The Glass Castle, Jeannette shows the world how an impoverished, neglected girl grows into a successful author and wife. Jeanette, herself, is a living proof of ultimate success showing the world that no matter what situation you come from, ultimate success is completely possible. She starts out with memories from the time when she was as young as three along with the rest of her family, constantly on the move, deserted towns in the middle of the night "Rex Walls ' style” and lived in numerous places, all the way up to her present-day. Throughout her life, Jeanette dealt with poverty, hunger, malnourishment, along with an alcoholic father and an unstable mother. But for Jeanette, the

The life the Walls kids put up with was not the way the wanted to live. When Lori graduated high school she moved to New York City. Then Jeanette’s

Phoenix, Arizona was their next destination. Jeanette’s original thought of living with their grandma again were cast aside as Mary reveals that she passed away during their stay at Battle mountain. Upon arrival the family stays in a fairly large house that was left in Grandma Smith’s will for Mary. Things were positive at first as the usually are, but slowly took a wrong turn as they usually do. Jeanette attends a new school where she is bullied for her intelligence, however this conflict soon ends when her brother Brian steps in and stands up for her. Rex got another job and supplied for the family as usual. Just as things were getting nice, Christmas day comes. This time the kids actually had real gifts, they each got a bike as well as small gifts they bought each other. Everything is looking up until their father got intoxicated and accidently burned their presents after opening up his, and using the lighter inside of it. Their father loses yet another job, and things tumble downwards. From people breaking into their house, touching the children, and just sleeping in the house. The big moment comes when

The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls. In this book, Jeannette recounts her unconventional upbringing along with her three siblings. Yet, despite of it all, she grew up to have an ordinary life as an adult with a professional career in journalism. Throughout childhood, Jeannette’s family lived like vagabonds, having no permanent residence, sometimes even not having an actual home but sleeping in the family station wagon. One day they lived in the middle of the desert by Joshua Tree, the next week they lived in Las Vegas, then following week it was Welch, West Virginia. Because of all the moving that the family did, the children sometimes found themselves homeschooled, and other times were enrolled in school. The parents, Rose Mary and Rex, though flighty parents, were intellectual, artistic, and visionaries. They instilled these values into their children. Coincidentally, the children tapped into having their own traits and talents. Lori is the artist, Jeannette is the journalist, while Brian is the mediator. Unfortunately, Maureen, the youngest, never learned resiliency nor did she find herself or come to her own. As the children grew older, one by one, they moved to New York to live an ordinary life and pursue their own individual passion. Lori became a fantasy illustrator, Brian became a police sergeant, and Jeannette became a TV correspondent. Maureen was the last one to move to New