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An essay on perseverance
The importance and influence of perseverance
Essay on perseverance
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An archetype, as defined by Literary Terms, is an idea, symbol, pattern, or character type that appears repeatedly in stories from cultures worldwide, symbolizing something universal in the human experience. There are three types of archetypes: symbolic, character, and situational. In her memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls employs each archetype to capture her difficult life growing up due to her father's alcoholism and inability to hold a job. These archetypes also play a crucial role in developing the novel's theme of perseverance. The central theme of the novel is perseverance, as Jeannette and her siblings worked hard and never gave up, managing to build a better life for themselves. Walls uses fire as the symbolic archetype, Jeannette as the hero for the character archetype, and a quest as the situational archetype to develop the theme that perseverance can make anything possible. Fire is a symbolic archetype in the memoir that develops into a lesson about perseverance. For Jeannette, fire can represent destruction.
She refrains from inviting Dinitia over because "Erma had made it clear how she felt about black people" (Walls 142). By keeping Dinitia away from Erma, Jeannette protects her from Erma's racism. By protecting her former bully, Jeannette shows how caring she is. Additionally, Jeannette believes in people and chooses to see the good in them. When Brian accuses their father of spending all 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). By keeping faith in her alcoholic dad, she believes in him and that one day he will move on. Jeannette's forgiving, caring, and optimistic nature makes her a character archetype of a hero, and she uses these qualities to persevere in life. The situational archetype in the memoir is the quest. Jeannette embarks on a journey to better herself. 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.
She went off to seek the person she was meant to be. She had a purpose now, and this gave her a quest. She never gave up because she wrote the memoir from New York City and even saw her homeless mother as she passed by in a taxi on her way to her city apartment (Walls 9). Jeannette was determined on her quest and persevered through it all to become the person she is today. By utilizing symbolic, character, and situational archetypes such as fire, a hero, and a quest, Walls effectively conveys her theme of perseverance in her memoir, The Glass Castle. The archetype of fire is used to represent destruction, while Jeannette embodies the qualities of a thoughtful hero. Additionally, Jeannette's goal of reaching New York serves as a quest throughout the memoir. Despite facing numerous challenges such as being bullied and enduring a difficult childhood, Jeannette perseveres and ultimately achieves her dream of becoming a writer in New York City. Through the skillful use of these archetypes, Walls effectively conveys the theme of perseverance.
Le Morte d’Arthur and many other stories have many wonderful archetypes in them. The definition of an archetype is a typical character action or situation that seems to represent universal patterns of human nature. This means that things represent things that naturally happen and will still happen. Archetypes play into Le Morte d'Arthur by showing how the character act and react with other characters and objects. In Thomas Malory´s Le Morte d´Arthur he illustrates the three types of archetypes they include character, situational, and symbolic.
...astounding about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the courage and acumen to escape her lifestyle, but that she describes her parents with such affection and kindness. By having such a dysfunctional family and childhood, Jeannette was thrown into a situation where she could either sink or swim, and she chose to swim. She rose above the hand that was dealt to her, and that in itself is truly inspiring. Reading this novel instilled me with a sense of extreme gratitude for what a healthy family really is. Her story reminded me to be appreciative and thankful for my family and my upbringing. The Glass Castle is a true story of victory against all odds, and at the same time a touching, emotional novel of genuine love in a family that, despite its extensive flaws, gave her the determination and perseverance that was required to achieve a successful life on her own.
“We meet ourselves time and time again in a thousand disguises on the path of life” (Jung). Writer’s usually have archetypes in their stories to engage the reader's understanding. Throughout the book Wild by Cheryl Strayed, she encounters several archetypes both positive and negative. She was impacted by the people, which made her accomplish her journey hiking the Pacific Crest Trail alone and getting herself back together. There are various archetypes that play a big role in Cheryl's physical and emotional journey. The archetypes make her who she is today and without them she wouldn't be able to transform.
Archetypes are designed to be universal and original models after which similar ideas are patterned. They include, but are not limited to images, recurring themes, symbols, ideas, character types and plot patterns. Archetypes can be expressed in myths, dreams, literature, religion, fantasies and folklore. They are an effective means utilized to evoke strong associations, emotional or physical, to the reader or audience. Carl Jung, a psychiatrist and analytical psychologist, created the term ‘archetype’ and claimed that they could also be applied to literature. Jung recognized that there were recurring and universal patterns in many stories regardless of their cultural or historical period. As a result, he hypothesized that the human conscious contained a collective unconscious relatable to most people. In literature, it is important to recognize archetypal patterns because they hold special symbolic meanings that are representative of universal ideas similar to how the image of a mother represents love and sacrifice and how the color white represents purity and innocence.
The Glass Castle was overall very strange. Written by Jeannette Walls in her point of view, this book is her memoir that she wrote to share her story with the rest of the world. It won the 2005 Elle Readers’ Prize and the 2006 American Library Association Alex Award. The title comes from an unkempt promise from Jeannette’s father, but rather than seeing it as a letdown, Jeannette remembers it as a hope that things will get better, a trait she must have received from her mother. While The Glass Castle focuses mainly on her immediate family, she later wrote another book, Half Broke Horses, about her grandmother, Lily Casey Smith.
Jeannette Walls had a horrific childhood that truly brought out the survivor in her. Jeannette had troubles with her family, friends and siblings but she was not hindered by the difficult situations and the choices that she had to make. In order to survive she to had be resourceful and use what she had to her advantage and also learn to adapt to any situation. Through it all she had the drive and purpose of a true survivor. Her survival tools of Ingenuity, Adaptability and Purpose helped her to grow into the person she is today.
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.
Jeanne Marie makes fun of Jacques because he is so small and Simon, which is Jeanne’s true lover gets killed by Jacques. After all of this happens Jeanne and Jacques continue to be married and carry on with their lives. The theme in this story compares nothing to the film. Jeanne only wanted Jacques for his money, which is extremely selfish. The whole story is about
The definition of an archetype is a character, a setting, or theme used commonly in stories to symbolize a specific meaning. In William’s Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, and the Biblical story of Lucifer, used the ideal situational archetype of a downfall as a recurring symbol. Firstly, the introduction and positive view of the main characters begin their journey to their ultimate downfall. The desire for power triggers the upcoming events within the story. Lastly, the defeat, along with the consequence ultimately shows the ending of the collapse of power. The author use of the downfall archetype helps the reader gain knowledge through the recurring symbol.
Jeannette spends several days in the quiet hospital where she experiences sleeping in a clean bed and receiving three meals a day. The staff is concerned about her home environment, even though Jeannette is happy with her parents' laissez-faire parenting style. When her parents and her siblings, Brian and older sister Lori,
An archetype in literature is defined as a typical example of a certain type of person. A character in a poem or play can be placed into many different archetype categories. Archetypes help a reader to gain a better understanding of who a character in the work is on the inside. This deeper insight into the character allows the reader to follow the flow of the story easier and more effectively. There are many different archetypes that can help to advance the story. One of the most useful in advancing this story is the typical powerful character. Whether it be supernatural or cunningness this character always comes out on top in the situation and holds the most control over others and their actions. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”,
The famous French playwright Moliere once said, “The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.” Throughout our lives, we often are faced with hardships that cause us to change ourselves, the people around us, and the situation itself. Because of this, it may reveal our true characteristics to show who we truly are. In the memoirs “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls and “Warriors Don't Cry” by Melba Patillo, they vividly illustrate the story of how they faced their struggles. They both prevailed because of their tenacious mind sets, but handled the situations in both different and similar ways. The characteristics of the characters Jeannette and Melba show the similarities and differences between the characters.
...ndurance of poverty, as we witness how Walls has turned her life around and told her inspiring story with the use of pathos, imagery, and narrative coherence to inspire others around her (that if she can do it, so can others). Jeannette made a huge impact to her life once she took matters into her own hands and left her parents to find out what life has in store for her and to prove to herself that she is a better individual and that anything is possible. Despite the harsh words and wrongful actions of Walls’ appalling parents who engage her through arduous experiences, she remained optimistic and made it through the most roughest and traumatic obstacles of her life at the age of three. Walls had always kept her head held high and survived the hardships God put upon her to get to where she is today; an author with a best selling novel to tell her bittersweet story.
Jeanette's parents taught her the importance of knowledge from a very young age which also shaped her to become the person she became after her childhood. THroughout the story Jeannette is always learning, always reading, and educating herself to become more knowledgeable. She even at one point in the book begins a rock collection on different types of rocks which she sells to make money. Jeanette's parents instilled a large amount of positive traits and characteristics through their life of poverty to craft the amazing women Jeannette grew up to
Jeanne decided, that she would go along with society for once, if they wanted her to be the problem child who didn’t go along with everything they said, she wouldn’t be. Jeanne decided that she shouldn’t have to listen to the same words every day “Why can’t you be a normal child?”, “Why do say such horrible things?”, “Why don't you follow along like everyone else?”, and “Why do you keep bullying your classmates?”. Jeanne had enough of the lectures, of the accusations, and she had especially had enough of everyone telling her she wasn’t