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 …show more content…
Through Ginnie Sue’s actions in the novel, she is characterized as a compassionate women. When Jeannette and her younger sister first enter the Pastor household, Ginnie Sue is polite and greets them with a smile and handshake and, “[...] she offered (them) seats at the table,” (Walls 161). Ginnie Sue continues to be polite throughout the meal and Jeannette soon finds out the similarities that her and Ginnie Sue’s family share. After the dinner Jeannette realizes that despite her job and what other people in the neighborhood may think of her, Ginnie Sue is just like anyone else. By the author having Jeannette discover that Ginnie Sue is similar to herself and others it helps to change her perspective of the family and her original judgements of her being vulgar and ill mannered. This new characterization of Ginnie being good-hearted, redefines her original “label” proving the fact that you cannot base your judgements of a person solely on what others say about
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a memoir told in 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.
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.
Jeannette is a hero because both are represented as being forgiving, caring, and believing in people. By having theses qualities, Jeannette is able to persevere through her life. Jeannette is forgiving because she is able to rise above her bully, Dinitia, and befriends her (Walls 142). She is able to accept Dinitia’s “apology” and move on. Jeannette is also caring. She is caring because she also helps Dinitia with schoolwork (Walls 142). She does not invited Dinitia over because “Erma had made it clear how she felt about black people” (Walls 142). By keeping Dinitia from Erma, Jeannette is protecting her from Erma’s racism. By protecting her former bully, Jeannette shows just how caring she really is. Jeannette also believes in people and chooses to see the good in them. When Brian accuses their father of spending all of his money on booze, Jeannette defends him (Walls 78). Her father says “I swear, honey, there are times when I think you're the only one around who still has faith in me” (Walls 78). Jeannette then tells herself that she will never lose faith in him (Walls 78). Because she is able to keep faith in her alcoholic dad, she believes in him and that one day he will move on. By being forgiving, caring, and seeing the good in others, Jeannette is a the character archetype of a hero and uses her qualities to help her persevere in
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 novel The Glass Castle, written by Jeannette Walls, brings to the surface many of the the struggles and darker aspects of American life through the perspective of a growing girl who is raised in a family with difficulties financially and otherwise. This book is written as a memoir. Jeannette begins as what she remembers as her first memory and fills in important details of her life up to around the present time. She tells stories about her family life that at times can seem to be exaggerated but seemed normal enough to her at the time. Her parents are portrayed to have raised Jeannette and her three siblings in an unconventional manner. She touches on aspects of poverty, family dynamics, alcoholism, mental illness, and sexual abuse from
...d to share their deepest and most private moments with their audience members, and this in turn will create a genuine, quality story. When asked if Jeannette Walls has fulfilled the duty given to her by William Faulkner, one should not even come close to hesitating with their response. In The Glass Castle, Walls shares some of the most personal and emotion-evoking moments of her life, and they clearly include the essential characteristics of writing as defined by Faulkner. With the expert use of Walls rhetorical strategy, she makes the reader see, hear, feel, and sense the emotion as if it is occurring firsthand. So, to conclude, Jeannette Walls has most definitely fulfilled Faulkner’s expectations of a writer by crafting a memoir stuffed with superb rhetorical strategies that thoroughly translates the events in Walls’ life to the readers in a very detailed manner.
What is the source of your success? My own definition of success is about overcoming my obstacles and hardships. If I can’t overcome the obstacles and hardships along the way, then I will try again so that I am more prepared and have the right knowledge. I want to meet obstacles and hardships because I want to feel the pleasure of success when I overcome them. In order for me to overcome and embrace hardships, I need to find the missing link, have the right knowledge, and practice effective time management.
The story in 1 Kings 19:1-21 is the conclusion of Elijah’s ministry. Because of this, the author introduced the characters in previous chapters. In order to gain an understanding of the characters in the context of the narrative, prior chapters must be consulted. The main characters of the story are Elijah and Yahweh, surrounded by other lesser characters in this specific narrative.
Throughout the Glass Castle there is a constant shift in Jeanettes tone through her use of diction. Her memoir is centered around her memories with her family, but mainly her father Rex Walls. Although it is obvious through the eyes of the reader that Rex is an unfit parent and takes no responsibility for his children, in her childhood years Jeanette continually portrays Rex as an intelligent and loving father, describing her younger memories with admiration in her tone. The capitalization of “Dad” reflects Jeannette’s overall admiration for her father and his exemplary valor. “Dad always fought harder, flew faster, and gambled smarter than everyone else in his stories”(Walls 24). Jeanette also uses simple diction to describe her father, by starting sentences with, “Dad said,” over and over. By choosing to use basic language instead of stronger verbs, she captures her experience in a pure and honest tone.
Jeanette Walls is the picture-perfect illustration of an individual who finds righteousness for herself. She is the protagonist in the book “The Glass Castle”, who has an unfair miserable childhood due to how her parents were. Walls stands out for her determination as she goes out to the real world to seek her own justice, with the ultimate goal of being stable for once, and take responsibility for herself, not for the whole family.
I’ve never heard of any childhood quite like yours. I was shocked by the personality and character of your parents and how they raised you and your sibilings, “The Glass Castle”. I understand why people call your parents monsters. I will admit that the thought crossed my own mind on multiple occasions. However, I have also never read a book or a memoir that required so much thinking . With every page I read I was able to learn about the struggles & hardships you dealt with as a child and I tried to see a deeper meaning. When I did that, I saw your parent’s intentions behind everything they did. I began to understand what you saw and still see in your parents.
Wall’s memoir The Glass Castle accurately portrays her horrifying life of growing up in extreme poverty. The memoir unravels a true story about Jeannette Walls’ brutal childhood as she grew up homeless and often lacked even basic necessities such as food, clothing, and shelter. Walls’ father Rex raised his children irresponsibly, leaving them with many mental and physical scars while compromising their safety. Similar to the way Walls was raised, human cruelty remains evident in the Mac Davis song “In The Ghetto,” where the lyrics describe an endless cycle of poverty and crime. However, the movie Les Miserables depicts the
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
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
I currently have 90 sixth grade students. By communicating with them on a daily basis, I have gotten to know them on a personal level and learned more about their backgrounds. After reading the book, Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, I could see parallels between my own childhood and Jeanette’s. I too grew up in a lower income family, as did my parents before me. Ruby Payne points out throughout her book, A Framework for Understanding Poverty, that the cycle of poverty often repeats itself, however my parents worked hard to break the cycle. For those students who live in poverty I can show compassion and try to make things a little better for them at school. One way I do that is to have extra supplies for those students whose family is unable