For many people, the childhood house they grew up in has countless memories, both good and bad. However, the concept of home is not confined to a single house or location-- instead, home is mostly made by the people in it. Although this can sometimes be forgotten, the home matters far more than the house. The experiences someone goes through in their home serve as lessons that over time begin to shape their view of the world and themselves. In Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle, the children of a lazy mother and a lying alcoholic are forced to fend for themselves and ultimately use their ambition and determination to succeed in New York City on their own. Similarly, in Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, a Native …show more content…
When Arnold’s father goes on a drinking binge before Christmas and leaves the family with no money to celebrate (150-151), Alexie is showing that from a young age Arnold is surrounded by the negative effects of alcohol. His characterization of Arnold’s father as an alcoholic, as well as several other of his friends, shows the prevalence of alcoholism on the reservation. Although Arnold is surrounded by people who abuse alcohol in his home, the negative experiences he associates with alcohol shape his beliefs around the topic and lead him to reject the pattern of alcoholism. After Arnold’s grandmother, dad’s best friend, and sister, die due to alcohol, he makes a pledge that he will never drink in his life, “… I knew that I was never going to drink … and ... I was going to have a better life out there in the white world,” (Alexie 217). Alexie uses this characterization to show that home is essential in shaping one’s identity. If Arnold had not been affected so negatively and had not felt such tremendous pain due to the effects of alcohol, he might not have put such a large emphasis on sobriety. His home gives Arnold the experience and perspective needed to decide how he wants to live his own life. Additionally, Alexie mentions “in the white world,” to imply that Arnold …show more content…
When Jeanette’s father makes up excuses for not working and her mother refuses to go to work (145, 207), Walls characterizes them as lazy. From a young age, the primary message Jeanette gets from her parents is that working for something better that what one has is just too hard. Instead of following the example that is set for her in her home, this experience leads her to work hard. Given her miserable life due to the lack of motivation displayed by her parents, she realizes that she never wants to be the same way, “… I swore to myself that it [my life] would never be like Mom’s, that I would not be crying my eyes out in an unheated shack in some godforsaken holler,” (Walls 208). Through this declaration, Walls is able to show that Jeannette does not agree with the apathy and laziness that is taught in her home. Rather, she has higher expectations for herself that she hopes she can and will achieve. In order to further emphasize the contrast between the work ethic of Jeanette’s parents and her own, Walls characterizes Jeanette as hard working, “‘You never had much going for you except that you always worked hard,’” (270). This trait reiterates the concept that what’s taught in one’s home shapes who they are. In this case, Jeanette rejects the cycle of laziness in a similar way to Arnold’s
Overall, Wallace’s quote about conformity being cowardly can be acknowledged by Jeanette Walls in The Glass Castle. To a partial degree of agreement, Jeanette’s writing style depicts her opinion on Wallace’s quote using many types of literary devices to convey that her parents had an enormous role in establishing her beliefs. Throughout the book, Jeanette desires to challenge her parents morals while still respecting them, as she believes them to be valiant. With regards of the aspects of supporting this, including imagery from her earliest days explaining how lost she was, symbolism revealing her true emotions, and role reversal to display how much she has matured, Walls and Wallace have overlapping ideas. These perspectives on morality make
The Walls family consists of Rex (father), Rose Mary (Mother), Lori, Brian, Jeannette, and Maureen (Children). Jeanette starts of her memoir in new york where she has made a living for herself, a good home in park avenue a nice husband and yet her parents are living out on the streets of the “Big Apple”. Not that she hasn't tried to help them, she has but her father insists they don't need anything and her mother asks for something silly like “perfume atomizer or membership in a health club”. Jeanette recalls her memories of when she was three, her parents are carefree and don't believe in rules or discipline.
Jeannette Walls’, The Glass Castle, is a nonfiction story about a lower class family that is poor and short on food, solving all their problems by constantly moving around the united states. Written through her voice, Jeannette is able to put humor and objectivity in her memoir despite the very hard life she has lived. She is not judgmental about the constant moving her family did to avoid bill collectors and to find work for father. Jeannette believes that Rex’s fantasies can come true and that the family can overcome their adversity. It is clear that Jeannette is hard working and intelligent, knowing that she wants to be a journalist even when she’s young.
The Permissive Parents The parenting paradigm best exemplified to Rex and Rosemary Walls in The Glass Castle Jeanette Walls is the permissive parenting paradigm. The parents of Jeanette are more reactive than demanding to the children (Cherry, “The Four Styles of Parenting”). Jeanette at one point expressed, “I loved the desert, too… we’d catch scorpions and snakes and horny toads. We’d search for gold, and when we couldn’t find it, we’d collect other valuable rocks…” (21).
To illustrate, Walls begins painting her memoir by describing what was likely her first experience of neglect. After moving from place to place for years, when Walls family finally settles down in Welch, West Virginia she is forced to reconsider her circumstances. As Walls ages she realizes that she is not living a healthy, stable life style, but instead the lifestyle of a child subjective to physical and mental neglect. (“Jeannette Walls
It is crucial to Jeanette’s development that she recognizes the need to be independent and to acknowledge the drive and determination required to succeed in life. Without the ability to persevere and push oneself past their fears, a person will inevitably fail, something Jeanette will not tolerate. In another example, while
In the memoir, Rex Walls’ internal conflict, Jeannette Walls’ conflict with Rose Mary, and Jeannette’s conflict with society push her to become the person she is today. Therefore, Jeannette Walls’ owes her success to the hardships she had as a child. To begin, Rex Walls’ internal conflict comes from his inability to provide for his family. Being a father, Rex Walls has an obligation to look after his family and to make sure everyone is looked after.
“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.
The walls parents consider themselves to be their kids’ friend rather than a concerned parent. “’ Good for you, Mom said when she saw me cooking. You’ve got to get right back on the saddle”’ (15)… Friends tend to encourage you to do stupid things but in this situation Jeannette’s mother is the one encouraging her to do something not so bright. Rex and Rosemary do not expect their kids to become any greater than they are.
It was getting harder. ”(169) Jeannette’s trust and love in her father is getting very small, because of the way he abuses alcohol and lets her down. When Jeanette tells us that she believes she is a fool for believing in Rex, it shows a change in her town to be unbelieving and critical. Throughout The Glass Castle, Jeanette’s tone of Rex Walls goes from very trusting to very disbelieving.
Based on her unconventional upbringing and the dissimilarity of her immediate family, Walls narrates the novel largely in chronological order, creating a layout of the exact moments that she became of age. At age three, Walls claims “‘Mom says I’m mature for my age…’” (Walls, ). Walls’s mother considers her “adult” enough to be responsible for her own meals, implanting a sense of maturity and deporting an aspect of immaturity from Jeanette's understanding. Parental interference with Jeannette’s “inner age” is also compounded upon by her father, Rex.
Who is Jeannette Walls? She’s the author of The Glass Castle, a 2005 memoir about growing up with her family most especially with her parents who could be described as nomads and deadbeats. Notwithstanding the difficult upbringing, her siblings and she had, Jeannette perseveres and becomes a successful Journalist living in New York City. She explains how happy, but conflicted because her parents refuse money from her and live as homeless people. She writes the memoir to work through her feelings and share’s her story.
Hope details how she became a primary housewife quickly and ended up becoming angry not doing what she wanted to do. Throughout, Hope asserts her anger and the situations she was put in that caused her frustration. By the end of
Rex’s method is not that of many fathers, his being “sink or swim”, providing not only the ability to swim but also a strong metaphor for the reader and Jeannette. This is a representation of not only the Walls’ teaching strategy, also for the struggle to succeed in a life the Jeannette has literally been thrown into. Jeannette takes this idea to heart even though she may not realize it, for her not to succumb to the environment in which encapsulates her, such as Welch and life on the road, she must be able to handle these hard situations and be able to stay