Argumentative Essay On The Glass Castle

The title of the book, The Glass Castle, is repeated throughout the book as a dream that her father had. The family knew that he would never actually build the castle, but her father still talked about it like he would actually do it, and Jeanette would believe him. Jeanette's father made her many promises, but he did not follow through with the promises. Whenever she questioned him about the promises he made to her he justs says, “Have I ever let you down?” Jeanette knows that he had let her down but she does not say it, and she had “heard that question at least two hundred times” (Walls 210). For example, for her birthday Jeanette asks her father to stop drinking. He promises her that he would do anything for her “if it’s humanly

Parenting has always been an issue since the brick of dawn and recently been recognized as a problem for our society: remarkably people have finally decided to try to do something about it. In the Glass Castle, Rex and Rose Mary Walls went through many struggles raising their children but ultimately the struggles made the children stronger individuals; despite the alcoholism, sickness, and domestic abuse. Jeanette and her siblings have been through many

With parents like these, succumbing to anger and revenge proves understandable, but instead the author bypasses all of this. Although her childhood is surrounded by less than inspiring figures her optimism allows her to make something of her life. Wall's even ends up maintaining excellent grades and

In this response to The Glass castle by Jeannette Walls, I am going to talk about the selfishness and the neglect Rose Mary & Rex Walls put upon these poor children.

In the memoir, “The Glass Castle”, there were characters that desired freedom from the rules of society while the others however, wished for a normal life that had the happiness and security that they wanted. A normal life would be having a decent home, going to school everyday, parents with stable jobs, bills paid and at least three meals a day. The Walls Family didn’t have a normal life, in fact they always traveled from place to place because they couldn’t pay their bills, the children were home tutored by their parents (although later on they go to school) and worst of all, the Walls would starve going many days without food. For every child, it’s important that they have a sense of freedom by being able to do what they want while they’re still young. Then again, children should also feel like they’re secured, protected and safe from everything. Although if I were to choose which is more important for children, I would say security is more important .

How many times have you heard this quote, “don’t judge a book by its cover?” I am sure that you probably heard the quote way too many times, even I lost track in counting. But yet, it still doesn’t stop people from judging the book’s cover. So therefore, to say that when people talk about it, it becomes a bit hypocritical when they are the ones who are judging. For instance, many people were judging the book, The Glass Castle. The book was published in March 2005. The reason why the book is being judged is because the book is under the challenged/banned list. The book has a lot of offensive language, sexually explicit content, alcohol, and abuse. The author, Jeannette Walls, is also the main character in the story.

In the book “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls poverty goes deeper than just low income. Even while Jeannette’s parents had money coming in, they struggled to support their family properly. They went hungry, had no electricity, or even indoor plumbing, so this proposes the question can poverty be caused by more than just low income? Do people actually want to live in poverty? For Jeannette’s parents it sure seems that way.

Children do not always need loving and supportive parents in order to grow up successful. In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, not every child needs loving and supportive parents. Although they do love their children, Rex and Mary use very basic parental decisions; the children are very independent and raise themselves for the most part. With the right mindset, motivation and knowledge this can lead to success in life even through the hardest of times.

Perhaps the most prominent theme of the novel, The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls is the idea of self-sufficiency. Starting from the early beginnings of their childhood, the Walls children were left to survive by their parents in almost every legal (and, in some cases, illegal) circumstance. Even as times grew tough along the way, the Walls parents still believed that the idea of being self-sufficient was more valuable than any other characteristic in facing the real world, and this philosophy played a major role in determining the outcome of the novel.

Other than the three major issues mentioned above, there are various other problems existed in the Walls’ family and their living environment. Unemployment is one of the problems. Due to the alcoholism, the father cannot get a stable job; he can only take some odd jobs and earn some money by gambling. The mother in the family is the one who is not willing to take the job. Her dream is to be an artist, there is nothing wrong with pursuing her artist dream, but under the no income situation, the mother doesn’t want to

In the book Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls she describes the many hardships that she faced as a young child. Jeanette struggled with things like an alcoholic father, a mentally ill mother, poverty, and sexual abuse. Throughout the memoir, Walls is describing her life as she remembers it. Their family was always doing the “skedaddle” when things were not going as planned. The book started with Jeanette's first memory when she was burned very badly at a young age. The book progresses throughout Jeanette’s life and she realizes just how wrong her family treats her. From her Not-So-Parent parents to her sexually abusive uncle, she faced many hardships growing up. Her father was an alcoholic who could never hold a job. He always promised Jeanette

In the novel, The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls, the Wall family encounters many hardships through the course of their lives. Many of the hardships they face pertain to poverty. The Wall children face many days of starvation and dehydration. Is all of this necessary? Or does it just take a simple choice to make it all better? The parents made many decisions through the course of their lives that forced the family to live in such awful conditions. St. John of the Cross reminds us, “Where there is no love, put love-- and you will find love.” Even in a situation where it seems there is no love present, we need to act out of love and we will find love in the end. Throughout the novel, it seems as though the parents do not love or care about their children with all the poor choices they make. As a result, Jeanette feels it is her obligation to make her siblings feel

In her memoir The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls composes her main theme targeting the influence of the past on the present, comparing her childhood to her current life situation. Walls childhood was filled with poverty and unstable living conditions which impacted her emotional and motivated her to be successful as an adult. As a child Walls never had a stable home. Her father Rex believed bad men were after him which caused him to relocate and move the whole family frequently. He called it the “skedaddle” and they would leave the house they were in and most of their belongings behind.

Social issues such as poverty and mental illness heavily prevent individuals from pursuing the American Dream. These challenges prevent disadvantaged individuals from moving up in social status. In The Glass Castle, The Wall’s family is constantly living in poverty due to Rex and Rose Mary Walls’ poor budgeting issues. Every time they ran out of money, the family would skip town and move somewhere new, and the cycle would repeat. Jeannette Walls recounted one instance when her mother got a job, but wasted all her paychecks on unnecessary comfort items, “So even though she had a steady job, [they] were living pretty much like [they] had before” (Walls 198). Even in this time era, climbing economic status next to impossible, and anytime the Walls

The youngest member of the Walls family, Maureen, had many problems in her life and did not end up as successful as the other Walls children. While it is true that Maureen did not live up to the success the other Walls children had, no family is perfect and as we can obviously see, the Walls family is no exception. The Walls treated Maureen with as much love and care as they did for the other 3 children, but since the beginning she was always an outcast, escaping the family to enjoy time with her friends instead of strengthening family bonds. She never became close to any of the Walls children, even though they took it on themselves to care for her. Perhaps Maureen’s problems were genetic and came from her parent’s poor lifestyles and choices,