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The basic purpose of literature review
The glass castle book analysis
The glass castle book analysis
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It is commonly believed that the only way to overcome difficult situations is by taking initiative in making a positive change, although this is not always the case. The theme of the memoir the Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is that the changes made in children’s lives when living under desperate circumstances do not always yield positive results. In the book, Jeannette desperately tries to improve her life and her family’s life as a child, but she is unable to do so despite her best efforts. This theme is portrayed through three significant literary devices in the book: irony, symbolism and allusion. Towards the middle of the memoir, the theme is shown through the irony of Jeannette’s mother’s situation as well as Jeannette’s feelings towards …show more content…
Rose Mary is a selfish woman and decides not to go to school some mornings because she does not feel up to it. Jeannette takes the initiative in making sure that her mother is prepared for school each morning because she knows how much her family needs money. Even though Rose Mary starts to go to school every day, she does not do her job properly and thus the family suffers financially again. When Maureen’s birthday approaches, Jeannette takes it upon herself to find a gift for her because she does not think their parents will be able to provide her with one. Jeannette says, “at times I felt like I was failing Maureen, like I wasn’t keeping my promise that I’d protect her - the promise I’d made to her when I held her on the way home from the hospital after she’d been born. I couldn’t get her what she needed most- hot …show more content…
When the family arrives in Welch, they notice that their newly purchased house is dull-looking and depressing, matching their moods when they first start living there. Jeannette notices that their glum house is contributing to their glum moods so she suggests painting the house yellow, a colour that is symbolic of happiness, to try and boost morale. Nobody in her family is willing to help so she paints by herself and notices an improvement in the look of their house. Unfortunately, she leaves the paint outside in the wintertime causing it to freeze, meaning that she is unable to finish painting the house. One day while playing outside, Jeannette and her brother stumble upon a diamond wedding ring lying on the ground. The wedding ring symbolizes hope to the children because they realize that it can be sold for a substantial amount of money. They bring the ring to their mother and tell her that, “it could get [them] a lot of food” (185), to which she replies, “but it could also improve my self-esteem. And at times like these, self-esteem is even more vital than food” (185). Rose Mary decides to keep the ring because she values her own selfish needs over the welfare of her children. Both the yellow paint and the ring represent positive changes for the family but neither of them ends up actually changing their
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a memoir told from the perspective of a young girl (the author) who goes through an extremely hard childhood. Jeannette writes about the foodless days and homeless nights, however Jeannette uses determination, positivity, sets goals, and saves money, because of this she overcame her struggles. One of the ways Jeannette survived her tough childhood was her ability to stay positive. Throughout The Glass Castle, Jeannette was put in deplorable houses, and at each one she tries to improve it. “A layer of yellow paint, I realized would completely transform, our dingy gray house,” (Walls 180).
The Glass Castle is a memoir of the writer Jeannette Walls life. Her family consists of her father Rex Walls, her mother Rose Mary Walls, her older sister Lori Walls, her younger brother Brian Walls and her younger sister Maureen Walls. Jeannette Walls grew up with a lot of hardships with her dad being an alcoholic and they never seemed to have any money. Throughout Jeanette’s childhood, there are three things that symbolize something to Jeannette, they are fire, New York City and the Glass Castle, which shows that symbolism gives meanings to writing.
The Struggle Of Building Adversity means difficulties or misfortune. When someone's dealing with things or a situation turns out to go against them, they face adversity. Adversity is something someone comes across in life, it's like being part of a person. Decisions and actions are influenced by a lot of things. Conflicts influence all kinds of actions and decisions, depending on the person.
The author Jeannette Walls of the Glass Castle uses the literary element of characterization to further the theme of the individual chapters. Walls, divides the novel into sections which signify different parts of her life. During one of the last sections in the later half of Jeannette Walls life she comes accross the character by the name of Ginnie Sue Pastor. Ginnie Sue is a single mother who works at The Green Lantern (a local brothel) in order to support her family. When Jeannette first comes across Ginnie Sue she thinks to herself, “It was only on the way home that I realized I hadn’t gotten answers to any of my questions. While I was sitting there talking to Ginnie Sue, I’d even forgotten she was a whore,” (Walls 163). Jeannette is referring to her question she had earlier anticipated on asking which related to her
The story of Jeannette Walls and her dysfunctional family gives insights of hope and growth. To get these points across, author, Jeannette Walls wrote her autobiography using many different literary devices to tell the story of her childhood. She used themes that were apparent her whole childhood. She used symbolism to say the things that needed to be said in a discrete way. And her similes gave her audience insight to the people around her. Devices like symbolism, similes and theme have been used in all great literature to convey information, as well as in this story in a refreshing, thought-provoking way.
The childhood of Frances Piper consists of inadequate love, loss of innocence and lack of concern, ultimately leading to her disastrous life. As a six year old child, she encounters several traumatic events, explicitly the death of her loved ones and the loss of her innocence. Over the course of one week, there have been three deaths, two funerals and two burials in the Piper family. “Frances was crying so hard now that Mercedes got worried. ‘I want my Mumma to come ba-a-a-a-ack.’”( McDonald 174). As a young child, there is nothing more upsetting than losing a mother. A family is meant to comfort each other to fulfill the loss of a loved one; however, this is not the case in the Piper family. Mercedes, only a year older than Frances, tries to console her even though she herself is worried. The loss of motherly love and affection has a tremendous impact on her future since now her sole guardian, James, expresses no responsibility towards her. Instead, he molests Frances on the night of Kathleen’s funeral to lessen the grief of his lost daughter. As a result “These disturbing experiences plague Frances with overwhelming feelings of low self worth and guilt that haunt h...
My family isn 't like the Walls family because my parents would never treat my sister and I like their parents treated them, my family and I have a decent living situation, and we would never hurt any animal. From the beginning, Rex and Rose Mary treated their kids wrong and didn 't take responsibility as parents. Every child deserves a loving home and should never have to worry if they are going to eat that night. West Virginia also seemed a lot different then because the laws are more strict now. The way the Walls are, they would get in trouble for the way they treated their kids, animals, and even their living space. "Mom always said people worry too much about their children. Suffering when you 're young is good for you, she said. It immunized
In The Glass Castle, Jeannette faced many problems, in which she have to use logics to weight the pros and cons of it and give comprehensive solutions. One problem Jeannette encounter is when her dad steal the money she and Lori been saving for almost nine months to pay their trip to New York. This led them to start all over again, but the money didn’t come rapidly. Jeannette was given the opportunity of spending the summer with Mrs. Sanders in Iowa and being able to earn two hundred dollars by the end of the summer and a bus ticket back to Welch. Instead of taking the opportunity for herself, she let Lori go and ask Mrs. Sander for a bus ticket to New York. In this difficult situation, she weight the pros and cons while anticipating the
"And remember it's also very funny because side by side with grief lies joy" (Drescher). A notable Swiss psychiatrist by the name of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross developed the model for the five stages of grief. She theorized the model in her 1969 book Of Death and Dying. The model begins with denial, and progresses to anger, bargaining, depression, and finally, acceptance. During Jeannette Walls's memoir, The Glass Castle Jeannette exhibits these five stages. Jeannette's relationship with her father parallels the five stages of grief throughout her life.
Even though it’s hard to mend broken pieces, it is possible for parents to build strong children despite the problems they face. Jeannette becomes an independent girl inspire of her parents lack of attention which makes her fend for herself.
In the book, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls is trying to tell us that her parents are taking her happiness away. In this section, young Jeannette is witnessing how her parents get into argument about money and disrespect people who are trying to help their condition. Walls says, “I thought Grandma Smith was great. But after a few weeks, she and Dad would always get into some nasty hollering match. It might start with Mom mentioning how short we were on cash” (Walls 20).
“: You hungry, Gabe? I was just fixing to cook Troy his breakfast,” (Wilson, 14). Rose understands her role in society as a woman. Rose also have another special talent as a woman, that many don’t have which is being powerful. Rose understands that some things she can’t change so she just maneuver herself to where she is comfortable so she won’t have to change her lifestyle. Many women today do not know how to be strong sp they just move on or stay in a place where they are stuck and unable to live their own life. “: I done tried to be everything a wife should be. Everything a wife could be. Been married eighteen years and I got to live to see the day you tell me you been seeing another woman and done fathered a child by her,”(Wilson, 33). The author wants us to understand the many things women at the time had to deal with whether it was racial or it was personal issues. Rose portrays the powerful women who won’t just stand for the
In “The Glass Castle”, the author Jeanette Walls describes her childhood and what motivated her to chase her education and move out to New York City with her siblings and leave their parents behind in West Virginia. The main struggle Jeanette and her siblings had was the conflicting point of view that they had with their mother on parenting. Despite their father Rex Walls being an alcoholic, constantly facing unemployment, and being a source of hope for his children, Rose Mary Walls had her list of attributes that shaped her children’s life. Rose Mary had a very interesting view on parenting in Jeanette Wall’s memoir and this perspective of parenting influenced her children both positively and negatively.
Ever since she was a young girl. Jeannette had set high goals for herself. Since she was so advanced in school and genuinely enjoyed learning, it made sense that she would want to do big things with her life. Whether it was being a veterinarian or a geologist, her dreams extended far beyond her homes in little desert towns or Welch, West Virginia. However, because of her poverty-stricken home life, many people believed it didn’t seem likely that she would be so successful. One day, while living in Welch, Jeannette goes to the bar to drag her drunk father back home. A neighborhood man offers them a ride back to their house, and on the ride up he and Jeannette start a conversation about school. When Jeannette tells the man that she works so hard in school because of her dream careers, the man laughs saying, “for the daughter of the town drunk, you sure got big plans” (Walls 183). Immediately, Jeannette tells the man to stop the car and gets out, taking her father with her. This seems to be a defining moment in which Jeannette is first exposed to the idea that she is inferior to others. Although this man said what he did not mean to offend her, Jeannette is clearly very hurt by his comment. To the reader, it seems as if she had never thought that her family’s situation made her subordinate to those
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a harrowing and heartbreaking yet an inspiring memoir of a young girl named Jeannette who was deprived of her childhood by her dysfunctional and unorthodox parents, Rex and Rose Mary Walls. Forced to grow up, Walls stumbled upon coping with of her impractical “free-spirited” mother and her intellectual but alcoholic father, which became her asylum from the real world, spinning her uncontrollably. Walls uses pathos, imagery, and narrative coherence to illustrate that sometimes one needs to go through the hardships of life in order to find the determination to become a better individual.