“Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more.” (Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle) This remarkable quote, that I live by, comes from The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls, which was published in 2005. This book is about the lives of Walls family that is constantly up and down. There are days where they go without eating and are thrown multiple complications as they struggle to become stable. Although this does not necessarily happen due to the fact that the family is always moving from place to place, sometimes leaving everything behind. This memoir should be the recommended book for summer reading due to that fact that it gives an exclusive view of the flawed life of the author providing the reader with an idea of how living in a dysfunctional family does not have to hold you back from success, it also acts as a huge reminder to the audience that the life they are living should not be taken for granted and should be embraced to the greatest extent. …show more content…
There are moments where she is practically forced to learn survival skills from her delusional mother and alcoholic father that are constantly on the move. For example, in the very beginning of the book, three-year-old Jeannette is cooking hot dogs where she then extremely burns herself on accident. Her mother’s response to the situation is to remain calm and act as if what just happened wasn't anything big. Another moment is when Walls’ parents get into a huge argument to the point where they begin knife fighting and nearly kill each other, and at the end of the argument, they laugh about the situation like nothing happened. These constant up and down moments in the author’s life created major setbacks, but they did not keep her from becoming a #1 New York Times Best Selling
It is well known that most people would consider a billionaire to be successful. On the other hand, a person impoverished would not be considered successful by most. In the memoir The Glass Castle, author Jeannette Walls tells her story of growing up with her parents Rose Mary and Rex Walls. Rose Mary and Rex Walls are not successful parents because they can’t support their children. Both parents are unsuccessful because they have trouble providing food for their children every day.
The Glass Castle Book Review By: Stephanie The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls. This book spent a total of 261 weeks on The New York Times Best Selling list. It has won countless awards and 2.7 million copies of the book has been sold. Being a memoir, this story was told extremely well.
There are times in summer in which a student wonder’s around doing nothing. Giving a rising senior a book such as The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls will give them an academic activity during their summer break. The vocabulary in The Glass Castle, presents an opportunity for rising seniors to be actively learning in the summer. The words in the book will make the reader engage to new vocabulary. Together with a great plot of rags to riches, Jeannette Walls will captivate any reader not only rising seniors.
The Invisible Chapter It is hard to believe that a girl whose background is rooted in poverty has been able to become a successful writer after graduating from not just a college but from one of the Ivy League colleges. Living with an erratic and alcoholic dad and a distant and irresponsible mom - both of whom, even into her adulthood, have not changed for the better – compounded this girl’s difficulty of living in poverty. This scenario may sound alien in nature to the common middle class person, but was a reality for Jeannette Walls. Based on this description, it is easy and reasonable to believe that Walls is ashamed of her parents, Rex and Rose Mary, as well as her past when initially reading her memoir The Glass Castle.
The Glass Castle is a best selling memoir about author Jeannette Walls childhood and what it was like growing up in a poverty struck family of six. It is not the happiest book out there, with all the sad moments you read about Jeannette having to experience, but it is an inspirational one. Jeanette's childhood is not the happiest one. When you read about what she had to go through, you can not help but think about how you could help other children going through what she did. It also makes you think about how lucky the majority of us are to have not only loving parents that would do anything for us, but parents that are going to do anything to provide for us.
Walls also shows us that even though families fight and are abusive, at the end of the day they are still a family. Shortly after Jeannette got out
The Glass Castle is the best selling memoir written by Jeannette Walls. The memoir recounts Walls’ childhood and the life she lived with her siblings, selfish mother, and drunken father. In the popular opinion, the novel was a riveting look inside the sad and dysfunctional childhood of a successful author. Twelve years after the book was written Director Destin Daniel Cretton decided to take the plunge and create a movie to bring Walls’ story to life. Although it had an all-star cast many believed it “lacked edge” or, “ left out details that made Walls’ memoir so raw and pure”.
The Glass Castle Essay Wesley Murray A3 8/28/16 In Jeannette Walls’s book The Glass Castle, there are many examples of what is called human resilience. No better quote describes human resilience better than, “No matter how much falls on us, we keep plowing ahead.
Success: An Escape from Privation Inevitably, the conflicts people face at multiple points in their life is a determining factor in shaping individuals into the person they will eventually become. Namely, these conflicts direct people 's behavior over the course of time; contributing to a person’s ability to achieve success. In particular, Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle is an honest depiction of her life and the conflicts that arise throughout her state of impoverishment, as well as the success that stems from her hardships.
Max Lerner an American Journalist stated “the turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt.” Throughout The Glass Castle a memoir by Jeannette Walls, Jeannette and her siblings, Lori, Brian and Maureen are faced with an unpleasant upbringing that they are put through by their parents Rex and Rose Mary Walls. Due to the terrible living conditions and bad parenting they had to endure for many years, they had to teach themselves and each other to be strong and survive on the very little food and necessities that they were given. Throughout the memoir, it is seen that Jeannette has a special connection with her father unlike any of the other siblings, but despite Jeannette believing in him Rex struggles to raise her and the kids in the normal life that they deserve due to his battle with mental illness. Bipolar disorder “is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks” (National).
In The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls faces harsh stuff through her childhood because of her parents. In the beginning of the book she finds her mother digging through trash. She feels embarrassed, so she turns around and goes home without saying hello. Jeanette then calls her mother and asks to have dinner with her. She offers her mother help because she feels guilty, but her mother rejects her help.
It’s one of the main key issues addressed in this memoir. The Walls family were very poor and sometimes ‘stable’ in the basic needs of life. Unfortunately, Walls children had to grow and suffer in a wretched and miserable home, enduring poverty and hunger. Jeannette and her family always make do with the situation they are in, from sleeping in their car to overdrawing their accounts at the bank by having Mary and Rex (Jeannette’s parents) withdraw money simultaneously. And Jeannette and her siblings always picked their lunches from the cafeteria trash at school.
Parents are in our lives as tools of wisdom and compassion as we grow up. Trusting parents grows over time through observation of actions and words. In Jeannette Wall’s memoir, she had to grow up very quickly. Her mother was a wayward teacher who did not commit to one job for very long. Her father was a drunk who has shown he is not the most trustworthy.
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.
The Walls family lived a very out of the ordinary life compared to most families. They lived all over the West side of America from Phoenix to San Francisco. Yet, one of the most important areas they lived in was Battle Mountain. Jeannette spent a huge chunck of her childhood here. Battle Mountain was where she started to grow up, experiencing learning to swim to kissing a boy.