“The road to success is not easy to navigate, but with hard work, drive and passion, it’s possible to achieve the American dream”(Tommy Hilfiger). In the story The Glass Castle, the protagonist Jeannette Walls demonstrates that anyone can live their American dream; sometimes hardships,in order to live up to their dreams. The Glass Castle is not much different from the present world, some want wealth and fortune, while others want peace and happiness. The society of The Glass Castle views the American dream in many ways, but two views are mainly shown in the story. The story supports the dream of having freedom and success, along with the dream of having peace and happiness. The poem “Dream Variations” by Langston Hughes depicts a theme and dream of getting out of segregation and violence. …show more content…
Walls does not live the life she wants, she lives under an alcoholic father and a selfish mother. She and her family experience hardships everyday including the poverty abuse, and molestation Jeannette endorsed. Throughout the story, Walls is trying to find a way to give herself and her family a better life. Walls tries to use the good sides of her father and her mother. Some points include her father’s great creativity and intelligence, while others include her mother's ambitious thoughts. The main theme of The Glass Castle is forgiveness, Jeannette works hard with her family to achieve her American dream, she holds no grudges or bad feelings towards any of her family members. Jeannette shows
The Glass Castle is a 2005 memoir. It was written by Jeannette Walls, an American writer and journalist widely known as a former gossip columnist for MSNBC.The Glass Castle is about the story of Jeannette Walls and her family, who is often short on cash and food. It sets place on many different places since the family skedaddles around the country constantly. Some of those places include West Virginia, NYC and Arizona.
The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls, it portrays her life story and shows her hardships. It begins in the Arizona desert with little Jeannette boiling some hot dogs, did I mention that she was only three. So it didn't come as a surprise when her dress caught on fire and caused her whole right side to be burnt to a crisp. When she was taken to the hospital she seemed to enjoy it there more than her home because she wouldn't mind being in a lot of pain. The most common theme in this book is mobility, this is because they move around almost every month due to the "FBI" chasing the Walls' father Rex and when her father came to the hospital and scooped up Jeanette before she was cleared again it did not come as a surprise.
After reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, I realized that some bad things that have happened to me aren’t really that bad. Jeannette Walls had been through a lot throughout her childhood, and that has made her a very strong person now days. For example, when Jeannette was very young she had dealt with adversity with when she burned herself and went to the hospital for 6 weeks. She also went through some tough times when her father was drinking and wandered off and she was all alone by herself.
During her 10th birthday, Jeannette asks her father to stop drinking to make her, as well as the family, happier. This caused Walls to have a mental breakdown and ties himself to his bed preventing himself to drink alcohol. While this process did take weeks, it wasn’t long until Walls returned into his drinking habits again. This incident showed Jeannette that her father wasn’t capable of thinking for his children let alone taking care of himself.
The book, The Glass Castle, written by the world renowned author Jeannette Walls, is a memoir of an epic life journey of a small town girl and her family of six. The book starts off with Jeanette's first memory, catching herself on fire at the age of three while cooking unsupervised. This sparks the topic of neglect within her family, which is thoroughly present throughout the book. Although the movie content may be difficult for some audiences to watch, Jeannette Walls demonstrates the importance of addressing the pain or neglect even if it makes the audience uncomfortable.
On the other hand, Jeannette Walls explains how she was raped at a young age which you would think that many people wouldn’t be able to talk or write about that. She described her rape explicitly from how everything had started from the beginning to where she ended getting raped and what she did after it had happened to her. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls had encountered racism at the hands of her very own family. When her and her family relocated to Welch where her father’s mother lived, her grandmother was a racist, she said that black people were the reason the city of Welch had gone downhill and that she would never leave the house because she never wanted to see a black person whatsoever. The memoir allows teens to see real-life situations that Jeannette Walls herself had to go through very young and didn’t fully understand everything yet.
The Glass Castle and the American Dream I think Jeannette Walls life is in amazing example of the American Dream. “The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, the set of ideals (democracy, rights, liberty, opportunity and equality) in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, as well as an upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers.” (cited https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Dream). One of the reasons why I think that the Glass Castle is a great example of the American Dream is because Jeannette Walls very poor and things were hard for her and her family like her mom was digging around the trash can and jeannette was very embarrassed
The Glass Castle shows Jeannette’ living in poverty, and the way Jeannette and her siblings came through and accomplished their successful lives when they were on their own and had no support from their parents. The Glass Castle provides the family’s poor living conditions, and the children’s achievements that
However, he spirals into alcoholism; recklessly spending money on liquor rather than on provisions that would help sustain his family. His compulsive spending on alcohol is, unfortunately, a major factor keeping the Walls family in a continuous cycle of impoverishment. As a result, Jeannette Walls is forced into a life of responsibility; having to be the one who looks after her siblings, as well as being the one to regulate what little money the Walls family had; this eventually drives her to head to New
“Believe in miracles…. Hope is never lost” (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland). Believing that the worst is behind them and that they will come upon a better life is the only way that Jeanette Wall’s family is able to stay afloat. In Jeannette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle, the symbol of hope is portrayed through a Glass Castle: a real home in which everyone is important and loved.
Jeanette’s childhood was shameful due to her parents careless way of living. Throughout The Glass Castle Jeannette hides her childhood just like she from her mother because she is ashamed of what people might think. Jeannette Walls lived a tough childhood because of her parents. They were always moving around trying to find a place to build a glass castle. They never gave any of their children a set home while they were growing up.
Jeannette’s father described life’s plan as easy as 1,2,3. First: find gold; Second, get rich; Third: Build the Glass Castle and live happily ever after. Reality was quite different though. In the book memoir The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls shares her memories of her dysfunctional family life’s sorrows and pains. Walls describes undergoing through hunger, instability, homelessness, abuse, molestation, and being told she was a replacement child.
One of the books that was read this summer was The Glass Castle. This book is about Jeannette Walls’s life as a kid growing up. Jeannette lived with her mom, dad, two sisters, and brother. As Jeannette grows up, she looks for support from her siblings to help run the family. Jeannette’s mother, Rosemary, is a painter and school teacher.
As a child, Jeannette Walls moves around constantly with her family. The Walls family would move to different desert towns and settle as long as Mr. Walls can hold a job. When sober, Mr. Walls represents a charismatic father who loves his children and teaches them important life skills. He encourages imagination inside of the Walls kids and often captures their dream and creativity. Together, the family had planned to build a glass castle that contains all of the family’s hope and inspiration.
The Glass Castle is the life story of a girl, Jeannette Walls, and her siblings who grew up in poverty unnecessarily because of their parents’ irresponsibility. One of its themes is that strength and perseverance can significantly improve your chance at success and your future. The Walls children did not allow their childhood struggles prevent them from creating better and brighter futures for themselves. They all grew up impressively sane considering their living conditions.