The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a personal narrative revealing moments of weakness and strength that Jeannette and her family experienced. This memoir is what Jeannette had held on to for so long and hid from her closest friends; her story is now revealed. Had Jeannette not experienced the many hardships that she underwent growing up, she would not have become as aware in the different aspects of life that helped her thrive as a successful journalist. There is a considerable amount of profound intellect in the book, which includes defining moments of Jeanette’s life in untainted detail. The situations Jeanette faced are motivating, and convey a distinct message concerning the difficulties in life through which perseverance is necessary. Jeanette’s unconventional childhood allowed her to develop her desire of learning, by granting her the opportunities that not many children had, she was able to venture off into the world and learn for herself. All of these circumstances helped establish the person that Jeannette is today. This memoir is bias because it is written by Jeannette, therefore it is her point of view and each memory is narrated in the way that Jeannette experienced it, and how she remembered it unfolding. A memory could quite possibly have been a different experience for one of her siblings. The Glass Castle is a story of attainment against all odds, but also a fragile, emotional tale of unconditional love within a family. Despite the family’s all-to-human flaws, they had a major role in motivating Jeannette and constructing the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms. This is shown when Lori leaves Welch for New York City, and shortly after Jeannette follows her there. With this determination Jeannette was able to leave her family whom she loved in order to search for a better life that she knew she could achieve. Through Jeannette’s strong literary skills she was able to portray significant parts of her life, and the reader can vision Jeanette’s reflections as if they lived through them. Judging by Jeanette’s diction, the reader can assume that each memory shared had its own significance. Short chapters in The Glass Castle pose as both a strength and weakness. Short chapters are concise and get to the point, but can miss detail which could be valuable to the storyline. Although most reflections in the book are negative, some reveal the positive side of Jeanette’s life. One major weakness is the positive parts of her life are not very extensive. This memoir is quite different from others in its genre; this is because Jeannette’s attitude in the book was extremely forgiving and never seems bitter. She learned this attribute from her parents, because their eyes everything could be twisted and turned into something positive if seen in the right light. The Walls were taught that no situations was a bad one, you learn to have an appreciation for everything in life. Overall, The Glass Castle was an intriguing book. I enjoyed reading about her life and all the tribulations that Jeannette had to face. Her memoir inspired me to try and look at the positive side of things.
Memoirs, in a sense, are like modern fairytales. In some of these fairytales, a brave child somehow manages to escape her fate of being cooked and served for dinner. In others, the reader may find that the loving parent and evil stepparent are in fact two people coexisting in one body. The situation is not black and white, but a shade of gray. Jeannette Walls conveys these messages perfectly in “The Glass Castle” as she describes her narrow escape from being baked into gingerbread, and at the same time attempt to understand, forgive and even love the witch.
Amazingly, Walls is able to crate an air of fantasy and magic that one usually finds in these fairytales. The title of the book is the name given to the transparent palace that her father Rex often promised to build for his three children. This also serves as a metaphor for the carefree façade with which two people who were quite unsuited to raise children camouflaged their struggle to survive in a world for which they were likewise ill equipped.
Rex Walls, although brilliant and charming, was a deeply damaged man who suffered from “a little bit of a drinking situation”. This made it impossible for him to hold down jobs as a mining engineer, electrician, or what ever handy work he could find using his charismatic charm. Rose Mary Walls was a self proclaimed “excitement addict”, free spirit, painter and writer. She refused to conform to society’s views of life and parenthood in general, and stuck strictly to her own conventions. Ironically, it is her happy-go-lucky characteristics that ultimately helped pave the road to grief and disaster.
With a mother who believed that kids were best off to suffer all they can, Jeannette Walls, her brother and two sisters soon discovered that their nomadic, meager lifestyle—constantly on the move from one dreary, dusty southwestern town to another—was never short of painful lessons to teach them. When she was only 3, Walls was so severely burned as a result of cooking hot dogs unsupervised, that she required skin grafts and and spent 6 weeks in the hospital. It is during this early memory that she recalls her father “rescuing” her, ignoring the panicked cries of a nurse as they fled. Little did she know at the time, this would begin of a lifetime of running.
The memoir catalogues the nightmares that the Walls children were encouraged to view as comic or thrilling adventures in their daily rhythm. They spent their lives pursued by bill collectors, which were in fact “conspirational F.B.I. agents” according to Rex. As a result, the family embarked on one hasty getaway after another, during which Dad felt compelled to toss Jeannette’s beloved cat out the car window. At 4, Lori was bitten by a scorpion and suffered convulsions. At one point, Jeannette was accidentally ejected from their station wagon onto a railroad embankment. She waited patiently in the scorching desert sun until her family realized she was missing. When they finally came back for her, Rex sat gently plucking pebbles out of her face while she scraped off the blood.
Jeannette not only faced the physical and emotional hardships of abject poverty, but at times fell victim to sexual abuse in the form of molestations from a neighborhood pervert. When their adventures finally ran out, they threw themselves on the slim mercy of Rex’s family in Welch, West Virginia, who’d claim to fame was a river distinguished with having the “highest level of fecal bacteria” of any river in North America. Here, her hardships only worsened, and she was repeatedly groped by her uncle and teased by ironically stuck up neighborhood kids. But where the Walls were, adventure was sure to follow. A family trip to the zoo was cut short when Jeannette and a drunk Rex reached inside the cheetah’s cage to pet the giant cat. This memorable bonding moment pales in comparison to the time when a prankish Rex set the family Christmas tree ablaze with his cigarette lighter.
Along the way, Jeannette and her siblings enjoyed their mother’s adaptation of home-schooling. They were taught reading and the health advantages of drinking unpurified ditch water. Rex taught them the practical things, like ''how we should never eat the liver of a polar bear because all the vitamin A in it could kill us. He showed us how to aim and fire his pistol, how to shoot Mom's bow and arrows, and how to throw a knife by the blade so that it landed in the middle of a target with a satisfying thwock.”
By the age of 4, Walls was “pretty good with Dad’s pistol, a big black six-shot revolver, and could hit five out of six beer bottles at 30 paces. . . . It was fun. Dad said my sharpshooting would come in handy if the feds ever surrounded us.'' It leaves one contemplating the flaws of America’s educational system when the Walls children are academically ahead of the rest of the children despite rarely attending school. Despite, or more likely due to their intelligence, they were tormented and treated as outsiders by their schoolmates.
Walls has a vivid memory that complements her appealing, concise style. The reader sympathizes with her, and there is something admirable and refreshing about her refusal to indulge in typical, youthful over-analyzation of her situation, and be consumed by daily chaos and dysfunction or even try to theorize the sources of her parent’s behavior.
My favourite part about Walls’ portrayal is how she deceives the reader with ease, and leaves us almost convinced that her family’s turbulent life was a glorious adventure. In a touching moment with her father, Rex lies with Jeannette under a starry desert sky and gives the brightest planet, Venus, to her as a Christmas gift. Even as she recounts how the family’s circumstances deteriorated, with her mother sinking into depression, and how the harsh cold and hunger, combined with Rex’s increasing irresponsibility, dishonesty and abusiveness made it harder to pretend, Walls remains notably even-leveled and unjudging.
The intelligence and resilience of the Walls kids will leave readers amazed. As they escape to New York City, one after another, we cheer them along and watch them transform. Jeannette attends a prestigious college, marries and finds work at a magazine. When their parents eventually join them in the city, we find ourselves nervous for them yet again. The children’s patience is once again exhausted and they are left to care for their parents, just as they once had as kids. Despite their hospitality, the parents wind up homeless and spend the remainder of their lives as squatters in abandoned buildings on the Lower East Side. The book paints a picture of shocking childhood trauma and scarring, but teaches us all how one can emerge from their circumstances to avoid their predicted fate. Walls’ story will give hope to everyone facing obstacles in their life, no matter how big they may seem.
“The Glass Castle” is a memoir that will resonate with you long after you close the book. The reader learns that it is not the events that make a story resonate, but the voice in which they’re recounted. It will tempt the reader to evaluate their own relationships and weigh the importance they place on irrelevant worries. In an interview, Walls once stated that “my favorite books all involved people dealing with hardships”. Perhaps this gave her solace while she lay reading in her handmade bunk beds with cardboard mattresses and helped her face each new day. No matter the reason, she has succeeded in what most writers strive to do; write the kind of book they themselves most want to read.
Heat and flames, Jeanette Walls first memory was when she was on fire at the age of three, cooking hot dogs over the stove in a pink tutu, and the flame from the stove caught her tutu. A few days after leaving the hospital Jeanette climbed back up on a chair and cooked some more hot dogs. The Glass Castle is truly a work of art as it starts the audience is immersed into her life. Her first childhood memory of being on fire brings out the thesis of the book right from the start that whatever knocks you down in life you must learn to overcome it and learn from it. Jeanette and her family are very poor, living with an alcoholic father and a mother who they must beg to function and help them, makes it that much harder. Jeannette proves to all readers that an alcoholic parent and living in poverty don’t have to hold you back. In many ways her story can be considered as the all American dream, she came out of poverty to work her way up to now being the author of a bestselling book. Her childhood consisted of moving from house to house when bills became too steep to pay, or when the family got into some kind of trouble with the police; they would pack up and leave in a matter of minutes. As school wasn’t always an option for Jeanette while they were constantly moving Jeanette stayed literate by reading, when the children were bored sometimes they would begin to make a new invention or plan for a better future. It was the children’s perseverance and the circumstances of her childhood that led her to be the woman she is now.
Due to this memoir being written by Jeannette herself there is a bit of bias towards the good and bad times in her life. The main bias Jeannette has in the memoir is towards her father; to outsiders he may have been a gambler, an alcoholic, and the father who can’t look after his own family. However there was always a special spot for Rex in Jeannette’s heart no matter what he did. The Glass Castle signifies that you should always have faith in what your passionate about and to believe in your dreams. Throughout her life their hardships included sleeping in cardboard boxes instead of beds, and rummaging for food in garbage bins, though their family’s love for each other may not be shown directly it is their unconditional love that for the most part of her childhood kept their family together. The first person to leave the family is Lori, Jeannette’s sister when she leaves for New York City to pursue her dream, this is the motivation that pushes Jeannette and Brian, her younger brother, to follow her to New York a few years later to succeed as a journalist.
The layout of the book was one of its strengths, because the chapters were so short and not defined made it hard to put the book down, as there was always something new happening. There were very few weaknesses in the book, however one of them was that the book was in the perspective of only Jeannette, it may have been interesting to read more about the other family members take on their childhood as well. Another weakness is that it focused primarily on the negative points in her life, when something amazing happened, such as moving to New York, it seemed as though important details may have been missed. The Glass Castle though a memoir has very similar qualities of an autobiography, Jeannette writes about her life up till she is successful and in older age. A memoir is also generally written about a person’s career instead of their personal life, however Jeannette has twisted this and made it her own. In conclusion The Glass Castle was an incredible true story to be told as it was unimaginable hardship to through her childhood, it was absolutely page-turner and it definitely includes something for everyone.
The Glass Castle tells a story about the life in a rather dysfunctional family. Jeanette Walls, who is the author and main character in the book describes to her readers that sometimes the most animated people can hurt you, but there is still reason to believe in them and look up to them. As Jeanette and her siblings were forced to fend for themselves, she found herself to be growing as a person, becoming stronger and learning important values such as the ability to forgive and loyalty. Through the struggles that the Walls children face, they are taught that family means everything, and find that in the direst of situations their ability to stick together will allow them to stay strong.
The thesis of the story outlines the fact that although many things in life may be presumed to break people down, when approached in the most optimistic of ways these road blocks often build character and teach values in ways that not many things in life can. Through this, the Walls children find themselves growing towards their full potential as people, but more importantly as a family. It is proved through the Walls kids that when one’s guardian is not the perfect parental figure, there is still room to make the best of any given situation. Given Jeanette’s circumstances, she was able to find herself enriched in other aspects of life that weren’t always granted to other children growing up in the typical storybook family. Jeanette did not always have the same views as her siblings on some things, for example her older sister Lori who was not as forgiving as Jeanette and viewed the shortcomings of her parents in a considerably different way. The book presents bias, as it was a memoir written by Jeanette, thus leaving the reader to view the unconventional childhood of the Walls kids through her perspective.
Jeanette proves with her story that it was through her irregular upbringing that she was able to develop the skills she needed to rise above the different forms of abuse she faced in order to become the writer she is in New York. By quickly developing an appetite to learn, accompanied by the ability to be independent Jeanette and her siblings were able to use each other’s strengths to push through all hardships that came their way, resulting in a better future for the children
The books major strength is the true connection between the author and the main characteristics talked about in the book. This was made easier, as the author and main character are the same person, but it is through the forgiving tone of the entire story that Jeanette truly proves that she will stay loyal to her values. The story signifies that Jeanette was taught to become a forgiving person, therefore it is no surprise that the narrative voice does not seem bitter towards the unfortunate events described in the story, but more so accepting. However, since Jeanette does weigh out the negative aspects of her childhood more so than some of her other siblings might, the reader is not able to grasp the brutality of what some of her family members might have been going through during their time of struggle.
The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeanette Walls that illustrates her interesting past. Walls wrote this book to share her inspiring story; having come from a difficult past she worked through the tough times while always keeping hope. Walls would like to spread hope to individuals that experience circumstances similar to her own; by letting her readers know that with determination and higher aspirations anything is achievable. Jeanette starts the memoir with her earliest childhood memory and finishes by describing her life as a married adult. This book spans most of her life and thoroughly illustrates her journey from living under poverty to becoming an established writer.
The Class Castle describes how Jeanette was able to achieve her goals despite her struggles in childhood. This goes to show that your parents and past won’t dictate who you will become. It was Jeanette’s own hope for a better future that kept her working hard for a better life.
One of Walls’ main contentions was to illustrate how sibling collaboration and support helped the Walls children reach their goal of living in New York City. This genuine caring for one another helped them get through their tough times in Welch. They worked together to raise money for their aspirations.
The Walls children can further appreciate their current situation by reflecting back to their childhood conditions. Jeanette is now an established writer, married, and living in a beautiful home in West Virginia. She can truly appreciate her successes by looking back at the undesirable conditions she experienced when growing up.
The Walls children came to appreciate non-material gifts given from their parents. Rex and Rose Mary Walls were usually unable to afford gifts for their kids. One Christmas Rex offered the children their own star. Jeanette picked Venus despite the fact that it is not a star. To this day she remembers this unique gift.
In The Glass Castle Walls reminds her readers that under unfavorable circumstances you cannot help those that do not want to be helped. Jeanette’s parents lived in New York City homeless and she tried countless times to persuade them to find a home and get jobs. They always refused and declared that living homeless wasn’t so bad after all; Jeanette had no option but to let them continue living on the streets.
Walls does a fantastic job at describing each detail of her childhood. The introduction is so bizarre that it immediately grabbed my attention and from that point in I was hooked by this fascinating story. Each detail is so vivid that I felt as though I too was growing up in the Walls family. One weakness that Jeanette has is not describing some of her family members thoroughly. Her mother remains a mystery to me as well as her sisters. I understand Brian and Jeanette’s father very well on the other hand.
The Glass Castle is a unique non-fiction book that stands alone in the literature of its subject. This story is so bizarre and it’s quite original in that sense. Overall The Glass Castle was a fantastic read that I would highly recommend to others.
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a personal narrative revealing moments of weakness and strength that Jeannette and her family experienced. This memoir is what Jeannette had held on to for so long and hid from her closest friends; her story is now revealed. Had Jeannette not experienced the many hardships that she underwent growing up, she would not have become as aware in the different aspects of life that helped her thrive as a successful journalist. There is a considerable amount of profound intellect in the book, which includes defining moments of Jeanette’s life in untainted detail. The situations Jeanette faced are motivating, and convey a distinct message concerning the difficulties in life through which perseverance is necessary. Jeanette’s unconventional childhood allowed her to develop her desire of learning, by granting her the opportunities that not many children had, she was able to venture off into the world and learn for herself. All of these circumstances helped establish the person that Jeannette is today. This memoir is bias because it is written by Jeannette, therefore it is her point of view and each memory is narrated in the way that Jeannette experienced it, and how she remembered it unfolding. A memory could quite possibly have been a different experience for one of her siblings. The Glass Castle is a story of attainment against all odds, but also a fragile, emotional tale of unconditional love within a family. Despite the family’s all-to-human flaws, they had a major role in motivating Jeannette and constructing the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms. This is shown when Lori leaves Welch for New York City, and shortly after Jeannette follows her there. With this determination Jeannette was able to leave her family whom she loved in order to search for a better life that she knew she could achieve. Through Jeannette’s strong literary skills she was able to portray significant parts of her life, and the reader can vision Jeanette’s reflections as if they lived through them. Judging by Jeanette’s diction, the reader can assume that each memory shared had its own significance. Short chapters in The Glass Castle pose as both a strength and weakness. Short chapters are concise and get to the point, but can miss detail which could be valuable to the storyline. Although most reflections in the book are negative, some reveal the positive side of Jeanette’s life. One major weakness is the positive parts of her life are not very extensive. This memoir is quite different from others in its genre; this is because Jeannette’s attitude in the book was extremely forgiving and never seems bitter. She learned this attribute from her parents, because their eyes everything could be twisted and turned into something positive if seen in the right light. The Walls were taught that no situations was a bad one, you learn to have an appreciation for everything in life. Overall, The Glass Castle was an intriguing book. I enjoyed reading about her life and all the tribulations that Jeannette had to face. Her memoir inspired me to try and look at the positive side of things.
ReplyDelete(PART ONE)
ReplyDeleteMemoirs, in a sense, are like modern fairytales. In some of these fairytales, a brave child somehow manages to escape her fate of being cooked and served for dinner. In others, the reader may find that the loving parent and evil stepparent are in fact two people coexisting in one body. The situation is not black and white, but a shade of gray. Jeannette Walls conveys these messages perfectly in “The Glass Castle” as she describes her narrow escape from being baked into gingerbread, and at the same time attempt to understand, forgive and even love the witch.
Amazingly, Walls is able to crate an air of fantasy and magic that one usually finds in these fairytales. The title of the book is the name given to the transparent palace that her father Rex often promised to build for his three children. This also serves as a metaphor for the carefree façade with which two people who were quite unsuited to raise children camouflaged their struggle to survive in a world for which they were likewise ill equipped.
Rex Walls, although brilliant and charming, was a deeply damaged man who suffered from “a little bit of a drinking situation”. This made it impossible for him to hold down jobs as a mining engineer, electrician, or what ever handy work he could find using his charismatic charm. Rose Mary Walls was a self proclaimed “excitement addict”, free spirit, painter and writer. She refused to conform to society’s views of life and parenthood in general, and stuck strictly to her own conventions. Ironically, it is her happy-go-lucky characteristics that ultimately helped pave the road to grief and disaster.
With a mother who believed that kids were best off to suffer all they can, Jeannette Walls, her brother and two sisters soon discovered that their nomadic, meager lifestyle—constantly on the move from one dreary, dusty southwestern town to another—was never short of painful lessons to teach them. When she was only 3, Walls was so severely burned as a result of cooking hot dogs unsupervised, that she required skin grafts and and spent 6 weeks in the hospital. It is during this early memory that she recalls her father “rescuing” her, ignoring the panicked cries of a nurse as they fled. Little did she know at the time, this would begin of a lifetime of running.
The memoir catalogues the nightmares that the Walls children were encouraged to view as comic or thrilling adventures in their daily rhythm. They spent their lives pursued by bill collectors, which were in fact “conspirational F.B.I. agents” according to Rex. As a result, the family embarked on one hasty getaway after another, during which Dad felt compelled to toss Jeannette’s beloved cat out the car window. At 4, Lori was bitten by a scorpion and suffered convulsions. At one point, Jeannette was accidentally ejected from their station wagon onto a railroad embankment. She waited patiently in the scorching desert sun until her family realized she was missing. When they finally came back for her, Rex sat gently plucking pebbles out of her face while she scraped off the blood.
Jeannette not only faced the physical and emotional hardships of abject poverty, but at times fell victim to sexual abuse in the form of molestations from a neighborhood pervert. When their adventures finally ran out, they threw themselves on the slim mercy of Rex’s family in Welch, West Virginia, who’d claim to fame was a river distinguished with having the “highest level of fecal bacteria” of any river in North America. Here, her hardships only worsened, and she was repeatedly groped by her uncle and teased by ironically stuck up neighborhood kids. But where the Walls were, adventure was sure to follow. A family trip to the zoo was cut short when Jeannette and a drunk Rex reached inside the cheetah’s cage to pet the giant cat. This memorable bonding moment pales in comparison to the time when a prankish Rex set the family Christmas tree ablaze with his cigarette lighter.
(PART TWO)
ReplyDeleteAlong the way, Jeannette and her siblings enjoyed their mother’s adaptation of home-schooling. They were taught reading and the health advantages of drinking unpurified ditch water. Rex taught them the practical things, like ''how we should never eat the liver of a polar bear because all the vitamin A in it could kill us. He showed us how to aim and fire his pistol, how to shoot Mom's bow and arrows, and how to throw a knife by the blade so that it landed in the middle of a target with a satisfying thwock.”
By the age of 4, Walls was “pretty good with Dad’s pistol, a big black six-shot revolver, and could hit five out of six beer bottles at 30 paces. . . . It was fun. Dad said my sharpshooting would come in handy if the feds ever surrounded us.'' It leaves one contemplating the flaws of America’s educational system when the Walls children are academically ahead of the rest of the children despite rarely attending school. Despite, or more likely due to their intelligence, they were tormented and treated as outsiders by their schoolmates.
Walls has a vivid memory that complements her appealing, concise style. The reader sympathizes with her, and there is something admirable and refreshing about her refusal to indulge in typical, youthful over-analyzation of her situation, and be consumed by daily chaos and dysfunction or even try to theorize the sources of her parent’s behavior.
My favourite part about Walls’ portrayal is how she deceives the reader with ease, and leaves us almost convinced that her family’s turbulent life was a glorious adventure. In a touching moment with her father, Rex lies with Jeannette under a starry desert sky and gives the brightest planet, Venus, to her as a Christmas gift. Even as she recounts how the family’s circumstances deteriorated, with her mother sinking into depression, and how the harsh cold and hunger, combined with Rex’s increasing irresponsibility, dishonesty and abusiveness made it harder to pretend, Walls remains notably even-leveled and unjudging.
The intelligence and resilience of the Walls kids will leave readers amazed. As they escape to New York City, one after another, we cheer them along and watch them transform. Jeannette attends a prestigious college, marries and finds work at a magazine. When their parents eventually join them in the city, we find ourselves nervous for them yet again. The children’s patience is once again exhausted and they are left to care for their parents, just as they once had as kids. Despite their hospitality, the parents wind up homeless and spend the remainder of their lives as squatters in abandoned buildings on the Lower East Side.
The book paints a picture of shocking childhood trauma and scarring, but teaches us all how one can emerge from their circumstances to avoid their predicted fate. Walls’ story will give hope to everyone facing obstacles in their life, no matter how big they may seem.
“The Glass Castle” is a memoir that will resonate with you long after you close the book. The reader learns that it is not the events that make a story resonate, but the voice in which they’re recounted. It will tempt the reader to evaluate their own relationships and weigh the importance they place on irrelevant worries. In an interview, Walls once stated that “my favorite books all involved people dealing with hardships”. Perhaps this gave her solace while she lay reading in her handmade bunk beds with cardboard mattresses and helped her face each new day. No matter the reason, she has succeeded in what most writers strive to do; write the kind of book they themselves most want to read.
Heat and flames, Jeanette Walls first memory was when she was on fire at the age of three, cooking hot dogs over the stove in a pink tutu, and the flame from the stove caught her tutu. A few days after leaving the hospital Jeanette climbed back up on a chair and cooked some more hot dogs. The Glass Castle is truly a work of art as it starts the audience is immersed into her life. Her first childhood memory of being on fire brings out the thesis of the book right from the start that whatever knocks you down in life you must learn to overcome it and learn from it. Jeanette and her family are very poor, living with an alcoholic father and a mother who they must beg to function and help them, makes it that much harder. Jeannette proves to all readers that an alcoholic parent and living in poverty don’t have to hold you back. In many ways her story can be considered as the all American dream, she came out of poverty to work her way up to now being the author of a bestselling book. Her childhood consisted of moving from house to house when bills became too steep to pay, or when the family got into some kind of trouble with the police; they would pack up and leave in a matter of minutes. As school wasn’t always an option for Jeanette while they were constantly moving Jeanette stayed literate by reading, when the children were bored sometimes they would begin to make a new invention or plan for a better future. It was the children’s perseverance and the circumstances of her childhood that led her to be the woman she is now.
ReplyDeleteDue to this memoir being written by Jeannette herself there is a bit of bias towards the good and bad times in her life. The main bias Jeannette has in the memoir is towards her father; to outsiders he may have been a gambler, an alcoholic, and the father who can’t look after his own family. However there was always a special spot for Rex in Jeannette’s heart no matter what he did. The Glass Castle signifies that you should always have faith in what your passionate about and to believe in your dreams. Throughout her life their hardships included sleeping in cardboard boxes instead of beds, and rummaging for food in garbage bins, though their family’s love for each other may not be shown directly it is their unconditional love that for the most part of her childhood kept their family together. The first person to leave the family is Lori, Jeannette’s sister when she leaves for New York City to pursue her dream, this is the motivation that pushes Jeannette and Brian, her younger brother, to follow her to New York a few years later to succeed as a journalist.
The layout of the book was one of its strengths, because the chapters were so short and not defined made it hard to put the book down, as there was always something new happening. There were very few weaknesses in the book, however one of them was that the book was in the perspective of only Jeannette, it may have been interesting to read more about the other family members take on their childhood as well. Another weakness is that it focused primarily on the negative points in her life, when something amazing happened, such as moving to New York, it seemed as though important details may have been missed. The Glass Castle though a memoir has very similar qualities of an autobiography, Jeannette writes about her life up till she is successful and in older age. A memoir is also generally written about a person’s career instead of their personal life, however Jeannette has twisted this and made it her own. In conclusion The Glass Castle was an incredible true story to be told as it was unimaginable hardship to through her childhood, it was absolutely page-turner and it definitely includes something for everyone.
The Glass Castle tells a story about the life in a rather dysfunctional family. Jeanette Walls, who is the author and main character in the book describes to her readers that sometimes the most animated people can hurt you, but there is still reason to believe in them and look up to them. As Jeanette and her siblings were forced to fend for themselves, she found herself to be growing as a person, becoming stronger and learning important values such as the ability to forgive and loyalty. Through the struggles that the Walls children face, they are taught that family means everything, and find that in the direst of situations their ability to stick together will allow them to stay strong.
ReplyDeleteThe thesis of the story outlines the fact that although many things in life may be presumed to break people down, when approached in the most optimistic of ways these road blocks often build character and teach values in ways that not many things in life can. Through this, the Walls children find themselves growing towards their full potential as people, but more importantly as a family. It is proved through the Walls kids that when one’s guardian is not the perfect parental figure, there is still room to make the best of any given situation. Given Jeanette’s circumstances, she was able to find herself enriched in other aspects of life that weren’t always granted to other children growing up in the typical storybook family. Jeanette did not always have the same views as her siblings on some things, for example her older sister Lori who was not as forgiving as Jeanette and viewed the shortcomings of her parents in a considerably different way. The book presents bias, as it was a memoir written by Jeanette, thus leaving the reader to view the unconventional childhood of the Walls kids through her perspective.
Jeanette proves with her story that it was through her irregular upbringing that she was able to develop the skills she needed to rise above the different forms of abuse she faced in order to become the writer she is in New York. By quickly developing an appetite to learn, accompanied by the ability to be independent Jeanette and her siblings were able to use each other’s strengths to push through all hardships that came their way, resulting in a better future for the children
The books major strength is the true connection between the author and the main characteristics talked about in the book. This was made easier, as the author and main character are the same person, but it is through the forgiving tone of the entire story that Jeanette truly proves that she will stay loyal to her values. The story signifies that Jeanette was taught to become a forgiving person, therefore it is no surprise that the narrative voice does not seem bitter towards the unfortunate events described in the story, but more so accepting. However, since Jeanette does weigh out the negative aspects of her childhood more so than some of her other siblings might, the reader is not able to grasp the brutality of what some of her family members might have been going through during their time of struggle.
The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeanette Walls that illustrates her interesting past. Walls wrote this book to share her inspiring story; having come from a difficult past she worked through the tough times while always keeping hope. Walls would like to spread hope to individuals that experience circumstances similar to her own; by letting her readers know that with determination and higher aspirations anything is achievable. Jeanette starts the memoir with her earliest childhood memory and finishes by describing her life as a married adult. This book spans most of her life and thoroughly illustrates her journey from living under poverty to becoming an established writer.
ReplyDeleteThe Class Castle describes how Jeanette was able to achieve her goals despite her struggles in childhood. This goes to show that your parents and past won’t dictate who you will become. It was Jeanette’s own hope for a better future that kept her working hard for a better life.
One of Walls’ main contentions was to illustrate how sibling collaboration and support helped the Walls children reach their goal of living in New York City. This genuine caring for one another helped them get through their tough times in Welch. They worked together to raise money for their aspirations.
The Walls children can further appreciate their current situation by reflecting back to their childhood conditions. Jeanette is now an established writer, married, and living in a beautiful home in West Virginia. She can truly appreciate her successes by looking back at the undesirable conditions she experienced when growing up.
The Walls children came to appreciate non-material gifts given from their parents. Rex and Rose Mary Walls were usually unable to afford gifts for their kids. One Christmas Rex offered the children their own star. Jeanette picked Venus despite the fact that it is not a star. To this day she remembers this unique gift.
In The Glass Castle Walls reminds her readers that under unfavorable circumstances you cannot help those that do not want to be helped. Jeanette’s parents lived in New York City homeless and she tried countless times to persuade them to find a home and get jobs. They always refused and declared that living homeless wasn’t so bad after all; Jeanette had no option but to let them continue living on the streets.
Walls does a fantastic job at describing each detail of her childhood. The introduction is so bizarre that it immediately grabbed my attention and from that point in I was hooked by this fascinating story. Each detail is so vivid that I felt as though I too was growing up in the Walls family. One weakness that Jeanette has is not describing some of her family members thoroughly. Her mother remains a mystery to me as well as her sisters. I understand Brian and Jeanette’s father very well on the other hand.
The Glass Castle is a unique non-fiction book that stands alone in the literature of its subject. This story is so bizarre and it’s quite original in that sense. Overall The Glass Castle was a fantastic read that I would highly recommend to others.