The Glass Castle “I’m sorry, Maureen. Sorry for everything.” (276, Walls) And when that sentence was whispered, a family was left broken and unwhole. In a family of five children, even a more conventional one, sometimes the youngest feels left out. But because of the Walls unconventional parenting, Maureen didn’t sometimes feel left out, she always felt left out. Since she was the youngest of the Walls children, she was fortunate enough not to have to move all the time but that might not have been the most beneficial thing for her. Throughout the novel the family lived in many different places, each more dangerous and disgusting than the last. However, I think for most readers Welch was the most upsetting place. Maureen grew up in that toxic …show more content…
In fact, Jeannette said that she spent so much time with friends that she almost didn’t feel like a member of their family (206, Walls). At first Maureen spent the night at friends houses because she didn’t feel safe at her house. The big incident that made her sleep somewhere else was that a rat was in their house and she swore that that rat was near her and when she turned on the light she was proven right (156, Walls). And after a while, Maureen wouldn’t just go over to sleepover at friends houses, she’d go there earlier and eat dinner with her friend’s family (173, Walls). It was no secret that the Walls didn’t have food often, and when Maureen saw an opportunity to eat a hot meal she took it. Because she spent so little time with her family, she didn’t grow up like her siblings did. In each person you have a fight or flight reflex, and while her siblings took the fight reflex for a while, Maureen chose the flight reflex. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I think because she didn’t stay and fight she doesn’t know how to deal with her parents in New York like her brothers and sisters …show more content…
If she stayed in New York, she would always be a part of the Walls family and she couldn’t handle that. Maureen needed space to figure out who Maureen was, not who Maureen Walls was. She needed to get away and she always dreamed of going to California (276, Walls). She lived in California for a short period of time when she was a baby and when Jeannette, Brian, and Lori talked about what it was like to live in the Valley of the Sun, Maureen knew she wanted to go back there someday. I think it was very important for Maureen to go to California and figure out what she wanted to do with her life and also to get away from her family. She needed some time to be alone and this was probably the perfect thing for her to do at the time. However, when Maureen announces that she’s moving to California, Jeannette feels it’s her fault that Maureen wanted to leave them. Jeannette promised Maureen when she was just a day old that she would always protect and on the day she left, she felt she let Maureen down (46, 276, Walls). It wasn’t just Jeannette who was sad that Maureen was leaving, the entire family was. The youngest of the Walls family was leaving, and it was hard on everyone. “Something in all of us broke that day, and afterward, we no longer had the spirit for family gatherings.” (277, Walls) However sad it was that Maureen left, I will always think she did the best thing for herself. She couldn’t handle her parents or the
Jeannette and her siblings were all forced into completing tasks and taking on roles for themselves and their other siblings that are heartbreaking to read about and uncommon for most children to experience and tackle themselves. Much of this had to do with the lack of responsibility on their parents’ part and the ways they decided to live. As I have read the book, I have been amazed over and over again at the ways Jeannette handled the parental roles—both mother and father. She was very tough and never gave up, but you could tell there were other times she was just plain discouraged. One example we can see her using the roles to benefit her siblings was when her mom left to Charleston to “renew her teaching certificate” for 8 weeks and put Jeannette in charge of the money. She budgeted out $25 a week to provide the groceries and pay all of the bills that would need to be taken care of. Even though Jeannette gave her father (Rex) money when he asked, she
Jeannette and her sister Lori always talked about growing up and escaping to New York City (Walls 222). They dreamt of making it big, unlike their parents. Lori began to see New York as “this glowing, bustling place at the end of a long road where she could become the person she was meant to be” (Walls 222). This idea began to rub off on Jeannette, and she too felt the same way.
This is a simile to make a picture in the reader's mind of what her early childhood was like and the struggles the Jeannette went through as she was growing up in the Walls family.
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.
First, When Martha and Mrs. Peters arrive at the scene of the crime, they see that it is a very lonely place off the road. The house is in a hollow, with lone-some looking trees around it(1).Mr. Hale thinks that having a phone to communicate with rest of the world in such place will reduce loneliness although Mr. Wright does not want communication(2). Minnie lives a miserable life in this place. Martha cannot believe that this is what Minnie foster has turned into. She describes her rocker, and says: “ that rocker don’t look in the least like Minnie foster. The Minnie foster of twenty years before”(3). The rocker is a very old rocker with a faded color and few parts of it are missing. Also, Mrs. Hale thinks it is a torture for Minnie to wrestle with the stove year after year because that stove is in a very poor condition(8). These are some few examples that show how miserable Minnie is in such a lonely place.
The thought of her brothers still being in her former home environment in Maine hurt her. She tried to think of a way to get at least one of her brothers, the sickly one, to come and be with her. She knew that her extended family was financially able to take in another child, and if she showed responsibility, there would be no problem (Wilson, 40). She found a vacant store, furnished it, and turned it into a school for children (Thinkquest, 5). At the age of seventeen, her grandmother sent her a correspondence, and requested her to come back to Boston with her brother (Thinkquest, 6).
...e on her part. Throughout the story, the Mother is portrayed as the dominant figure, which resembled the amount of say that the father and children had on matters. Together, the Father, James, and David strived to maintain equality by helping with the chickens and taking care of Scott; however, despite the effort that they had put in, the Mother refused to be persuaded that Scott was of any value and therefore she felt that selling him would be most beneficial. The Mother’s persona is unsympathetic as she lacks respect and a heart towards her family members. Since the Mother never showed equality, her character had unraveled into the creation of a negative atmosphere in which her family is now cemented in. For the Father, David and James, it is only now the memories of Scott that will hold their bond together.
In the beginning, all she tries to do is switch the family’s vacation spot to a spot she wanted to go, in order to see some of her friends. The next day, she takes the cat with them in the car, even though Bailey doesn’t like to take the cat with them on vacation, just because the grandmother didn’t want to leave the cat alone for three days. Then, in the car, she convinced the children to yell and scream to go visit a random plantation house by lying about hidden treasures because the grandmother just wanted to see the house and the arbors once again. Finally, after all her family had been killed by the Misfit, and she was the only one left, she was still trying to have the Misfit spare her by saying things such as, “you ought not to shoot a lady,” and how she would “give him all the money she had (365).” These examples show the extent of the grandmother’s selfishness, and her dedication to saving and helping herself before even her only son’s family. The Misfit can’t be blamed for the death of her family, as she single-handedly killed her family. She was the one who brought the cat, and she let the cat go, which made the car crash. She was the one who even convinced the kids to convince their father to go visit a house that none of them even knew existed. Finally, she was the one who blurted out the Misfit’s name once she recognized him, instead of keeping her mouth
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.
Her Mom was ashamed of her for acting like this but Jeannette really wanted her Mom to change her ways and stop being homeless. She really loved her mother and wanted her to have a good life.
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).
Jeannette Walls has lived a life that many of us probably never will, the life of a migrant. The majority of her developmental years were spent moving to new places, sometimes just picking up and skipping town overnight. Frugality was simply a way of life for the Walls. Their homes were not always in perfect condition but they continued with their lives. With a brazen alcoholic and chain-smoker of a father and a mother who is narcissistic and wishes her children were not born so that she could have been a successful artist, Jeannette did a better job of raising herself semi-autonomously than her parents did if they had tried. One thing that did not change through all that time was the love she had for her mother, father, brother and sisters. The message that I received from reading this memoir is that family has a strong bond that will stay strong in the face of adversity.
Her family stayed three years at the camp. Jeanne did not enjoy living in these camps. The memories of the past still haunted her as she grew older. “Writing it has been a way of coming to terms with the impact these years have had on my entire life” (pg
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.
Her family life is depicted with contradictions of order and chaos, love and animosity, conventionality and avant-garde. Although the underlying story of her father’s dark secret was troubling, it lends itself to a better understanding of the family dynamics and what was normal for her family. The author doesn’t seem to suggest that her father’s behavior was acceptable or even tolerable. However, the ending of this excerpt leaves the reader with an undeniable sense that the author felt a connection to her father even if it wasn’t one that was desirable. This is best understood with her reaction to his suicide when she states, “But his absence resonated retroactively, echoing back through all the time I knew him. Maybe it was the converse of the way amputees feel pain in a missing limb.” (pg. 399)