Finding Yourself What would happen if someone lost their identity? In “The Glass Castle” the author of the story, Jeannette Walls, talks about how this happens to her and her family. The book “The Glass Castle” is about Jeannette Walls and how she goes through tough times growing up with her parents. She tells the readers about her and her family’s problems and how they solve it or how they try to make the best of the problem. Most times it just gets worse, but sometimes they find a solution about all those problems or the problem. Jeannette Walls develops the theme of staying true to oneself is the key by using setting, imagery, and figurative language. To begin, Jeannette Walls uses setting to develop the theme of the story. Setting is where and when the story takes place. For example, on page 154, it says “Are we ever going home?” I asked Dad one day. “Home?” “Phoenix.” This is own home now.” This quote is explaining how Jeannette finally found a place she could call home. She like living a normal childhood in the big house at Phoenix, but when her dad told them they were never going back to live in Phoenix, she lost all her faith to exactly have a real home where she can be herself and live how she wants to live. …show more content…
Imagery is a vivid illustration in the mind of the audience. For example on page 3, it says “...Her long hair was streaked with gray, tangled and matted, and her eyes had sunk deep into her sockets, but still reminded me of the mom she’d been when I was a kid, swan-driving off cliffs and painting in the desert and reading Shakespeare aloud.” This quote is explaining how even though her mother is much different then other people’s mothers, Jeannette still sees her as herself. The mother that couldn’t drive very good, the one that like to pant all the time, and the one that love to read Shakespeare
It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities. This is evident in Jeannette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle, which reiterates the story of Jeannette who is raised within a family that is both deeply dysfunctional and distinctively vibrant. Jeannette is faced with numerous barriers throughout her life. Despite the many obstacles set forth by her parents during her childhood, Jeannette develops into a successful adult later in life. One of these obstacles is the lack of a stable home base moulds her into the woman she grows up to be. Throughout her life, Jeannette must cope with the carelessness of her
Imagine living in a life where everything around you is different from reality. Imagine running from the police, living wherever one can find, and still taking care of one's family just at the age of 16. Jeannette Walls had to deal with all of this and more in her early childhood. In the book “The Glass Castle”, the author uses the characters, Jeannette and Rex Walls, to emphasize the importance of family bonds.
American journalist, writer, and magazine editor David Remnick once said, “The world is a crazy, beautiful, ugly complicated place, and it keeps moving on from crisis to strangeness to beauty to weirdness to tragedy.” In the memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls the main character and author of the book tells of her crazy and adventurous life she experienced with her not so ordinary family. This quote relates to The Glass Castle, because like it states, life is full of both tragedies and beauty which is exactly what Jeannette experienced growing up with her free spirited and non-conformative parents. Walls is able to express her main purpose of the book that life is a mix of good and bad times through imagery, tone, and pathos.
Adversity, unfavorable fortune or fate; a condition marked by misfortune, calamity, or distress. Adversity is something everyone encounters at some juncture in their life. Many people concede in the face of adversity, while many people persevere through the struggles they face daily. Jennette Walls wrote The Glass Castle, a memoir that unmasked the dark mysteries of The Walls Family’s onerous life. She continuously proves that no one’s background they can make it through the adversity in their lives. Jeannette captivates the readers by using rhetorical devices. She utilizes symbolism so she can express the importance of certain objects in her life, imagery to include emotion and enthusiasm, and irony to add a little humor to the book.
Colson Whitehead once said, “Let the broken glass be broken glass, let it splinter into smaller pieces and dust and scatter. Let the cracks between things widen until they are no longer cracks but the new places for things”. In the memoir “The Glass Castle,” author Jeannette Walls faces despair and turmoil as a result of her impoverished and dysfunctional upbringing. As Jeannette grows up, she watches her father Rex fail to reach his full potential and his dream to build a Glass Castle shatter as his alcoholism takes control. Aware of the devastation her father was causing, she begins to slowly lose faith in him but doesn’t fail to escape her destructive household and pursue her dreams of becoming a journalist. Due to her parent’s lack of parenting and being forced to fend for herself, Jeannette developed a sense of responsibility to care for others and make amends to improve the family’s lifestyle. Despite the turbulence and destruction her parents had caused over the years, unlike her father, Jeannette was able to find the strength to overcome obstacles, developing characteristics that ultimately lead her to achieving her dream, thus illustrating that adversity has the power to shape one’s identity.
The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls, giving the public a look at her rough upbringing and her nomadic childhood. The memoir, however is written in a way of which the author is not seeking sympathy from the reader. She also wrote in such a way as to not induce anger in the reader, as that is not what she was searching for. Jeannette wrote in order to inform and inspire, and to tell a tale as crazy as it is. Jeannette grew up, one of four siblings. Her parents had alternate methods of parenting and different ideas of how children should be raised. They taught them to have similar morals to them, and similar values. Although, as the children age, they begin to realize how wrong their parents are, and how
In this passage of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the reader obtains a very in depth description of what the Walls Family home in Welch is like once they move in. The author is this text is conveying how poor of a state their new home is. Walls uses the literary element figurative language to reveal the state of their home to the reader.
In writing, an author should be mindful of what they are trying to accomplish with what they are describing. Stockett is able to accomplish this when she uses imagery thoughtfully. “In the lounge, the air seems to still. Husbands drinking their whiskeys stop in mid-sip, spotting this pink thing at the door. It takes a second for the image to register. They stare, but don’t see, not yet. But as it turns real—real skin, real cleavage, perhaps not-so-real blond hair—their faces slowly light up. They all seem to be thinking the same thing—Finally... But then, feeling the fingernails of their wives, also starring, digging into their arms, their foreheads wrinkle. Their eyes hint remorse, as marriages are scorned (she never lets me do anything fun), youth is remembered (why didn’t I go to California that summer?), first loves are recalled (Roxanne . . .). All of this happens in a span of about five seconds and then it is over and they are left just staring” (321). Imagery provides a way for a character and conflict to develop. Also, since imagery provides a way for the reader to immerse themselves in a story, it is considered a defining part of what makes a good
The human experience of an outcast is illustrated by Jeannette Walls in The Glass Castle by the element of chaos expressed throughout the book, the parents’ refusal to conform to social standards, and the poverty that shaped her childhood.
Another example of imagery in the story is when the author used it to describe Emily when she ask for poison to the druggist.“still a slight woman, though thinner than usual, with cold, haughty black eyes in a face the flesh of which was strained across the temples and about the eyes ockets as you imagine a lighthouse-keepers face ought to look”. The author makes emphasis in Emily’s face and eyes meaning that she is lost in her own world and foreshadows that Emily would use the poison for something wrong.
Individuals can be seen responding to the circumstances they endure in many different ways. The way they choose to respond to issues can determine whether the effect of their exposure will end up to be a positive strengthen to their character. In the memoir The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls, we see the effects of past experiences on Jeannette and we see how she uses those situations to shape the person that she becomes. Jeannette is a focal point to the life of success that a person can live even after growing up in an unorthodox family. She goes to prove that even with the strangest life she lives, she had the passion to pursue her goals is significant and her desire achieves the life she wants while her dreams were being
The author uses imagery to interest the reader in her story that may seem mundane without the imagery. An example of this happening is when Jeannette is going to her new school in Welch it was her first day and the teacher picks on her because she did not have to give the school her records to her not having them as that is happening a tall girl stabs her out of nowhere“I felt something sharp and painful between my shoulder blades and turned around. The tall black girl with the almond eyes was sitting at the desk behind me.
In the autobiography, “The Glass Castle” written by Jeannette Walls many different paradigms are present when it comes to Jeannette’s parents. However the uninvolved parent paradigm is most consistently exhibited by both Rex and Rose Mary Walls. The easiest way to identify an uninvolved parent according to (Cherry, “The Four Styles of Parenting”) is low or lack thereof communication. In a scene where the walls family is driving to Phoenix to move in with the children’s grandmother once again (on Rose Mary’s side), Jeanette discovers that the grandmother had been dead for months and she had not been informed by either of her parents. She asks, “Why didn’t you tell us?”; “There didn’t seem any point” responded her mother (92). This quote
The big move from one place to another helped tie the whole story together. It made me realize just how difficult Jeannette’s life was, not only for her but also for her siblings. I cannot imagine having parents that didn’t care whether there was food on the table or not, or whether they are bullied in school. The move to West Virginia helped to give us an understanding of how she has become so ashamed and estranged from her
For example, in line 2 it says “ her tangled hair” Gabriel describes her hair as a sense of beauty to let us know how she her appearance is. Another example being in line 24 which states “ crying and blowing her nose,” this tells the reader that she finally accepted the fact that about her husband and how he never truly loved her. As a result, imagery impacts this short essay and assists the readers to have a more understanding how the motions between Gabriel and the wife are going