The Glass Essay Analysis

The Glass Castle Analysis

In almost every memory Jeannette Walls includes in her book, The Glass Castle, there are signs of extreme emotional detachment coming from each character. At one point she recalls her mother telling her that "suffering is good for you," and goes further by saying that it "immunized your body and soul" (Walls 28). Walls's use of the word "immunized" and the extreme cleansing connotations that come along with it, combined with the concept of suffering make a broader statement about the emotional normalcy of the entire family. This specific word shows how her mother sees suffering as a condition, a comparison to a disease, and that exposure is necessary when you're young so that you won't be affected when you're older. The passage goes on

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The Glass Castle Analysis

People love books. They love how immersive a good novel can be, how it can allow you to escape into another world, another life, see the human journey through a different person's experience. People love movies for largely the same reasons. Inherent in both mediums, and largely any form of art, our need for escapism cannot be understated.

Oftentimes what works in one realm, fails in another. AndThe Glass Castle suffers considerably in the leap from the small page to the big screen.

Co–written and directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, who made the exceptional 2013 drama Short Term 12, a movie which helped launch Brie Larson into the spotlight, The Glass Castle documents the story of Jeannette Walls, whose memoirs provided the framework for a book which sold nearly three million copies and stayed on the New York Times Bestsellers List for 261 weeks.

People love this book, in particular, and Walls gives a forthright, honest, and heartwrenching portrayal of a family torn apart by poverty. The author, and her three siblings, were moved from location to location and raised by a mother, Rose Mary (Naomi Watts) who seemed more consumed by painting and art then parenting, and a father, Rex (Woody Harrelson), whose alcoholism, depression, and abusive behavior, left everyone reeling. Eventually the family reside in their father's hometown, in West Virginia, a place lacking plumbing, heat, and basic accouterments.

Cretton clearly sees inspiration and power in Walls' words and sees

Alexander Popes famous saying goes "To err is human, to forgive is divine" (Line 525). Everyone makes a mistake every once in a while, everybody sins on way or another, and in the end almost all of them seek forgiveness. The very nature of people is to get upset and feel resentful towards those who have done some harm to them in any way. Humans tend to remember the undesirable actions that others inflict upon them. Forgiveness is overcoming the feeling of resentment towards the person who has done wrong to us. In the novel "The Glass Castle" by Jeanette Walls, Jeanette is constantly forgiving her parents for their unsuitable choices; choices that often leave them impoverished, emaciated, and in abhorrent conditions. Jeanette proves that even...show more content...

Jeanette's mother, though she's always trying to have a positive, loving outlook on their life, is a selfish woman. The starvation was getting to her head, at which point she began to hide from the family and indulge herself in what little they have. "She told us we should forgive her the same way we always forgave Dad for his drinking. None of us said a thing. Brian snatched up the chocolate bar and divided it into four pieces. While mom watched, we wolfed them down" (Jeannette 174). This is one of the many moments in the novel where forgiveness is vital in the family. In order to get through their life of willingly living in poverty, they need to have trust in one another, as well as forgive each other for their mistakes. Sometimes times are difficult, and we start to lose sight and control of what's important. In this case, Jeanette's mother, though she insists their life is perfectly fine, is breaking down. She is so deprived of her own needs that she forgot of her own families needs, to the point where she hid herself from them to eat a single candy

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Analysis Of The Glass Roses

2.The short story "The Glass Roses", is a coming of age story that's thematic topic revolves around a search for identity. Stephen, who is only a boy of 15 years struggles to understand what attaining manhood really is when he meets Leka, a man who juxtaposes Stephen's father's identity. Through his struggle, Nowlan leads us to the understanding of the influence of family and community on identity, the different versions of what makes a man, and a youth's development of identity as a man. Nowlan suggests that youths are very impressionable during their coming of age, and what they have grown up with is who they are likely to become. For example, Stephen's father is a hard man who expects much the same Stephen. Though through Leka, he sees

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The Glass Castle Analysis

"I was on fire" is one out of many memorable phrases used in The Glass Castle. The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls about the trials and tribulations she and her siblings had to deal with while growing up. Though not all of her childhood was a struggle, she did experience some joyous moments too. Walls later on grew up to be an author and a journalist. Her memoir,The Glass Castle, should be required as summer reading for the Class of 2019 because Walls's life is very interesting and the memoir is relatable to different aspects of our lives. When you are reading a biography or a memoir, you don't want to read about a life so boring that it puts you to sleep. If you're going to read about someone's life, you want that person's life to be interesting. Especially if the life you live at the time is not interesting in your opinion. Moments in her life such as when she and her brother made an "arsenal of rocks" fly and hit Ernie are just some of many things that made her life interesting. This event is interesting because it shows how she fought against her bully. She did not take all of her bully's nonsense. She fought back. In this memoir, Walls makes sure that even the boring parts of her life still captivate the reader....show more content... Such as when Walls and Dinitia stopped trying "to be close friends." There are a lot of teens who can relate to this moment when at some point of time they start to become distant from some of their close friends. People who you were close with before start to become a distant memory. Another relatable moment in the memoir is when Walls couldn't "think of a comeback to" Ernie's comeback. Teens can probably recall a time where they were in a similar situation where they could not come up with a comeback after being made fun, whether it was as a joke or

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Analysis

Written in 1944, Tennessee Williams wrote a play during World War II when people were barely making ends meet. Centering on the Wingfield family, the story consisted of five characters: Amanda Wingfield (the mother), Laura Wingfield (the daughter), Tom Wingfield (son, narrator, Laura's older brother), Jim Connor (Tom and Laura's old acquaintance from high school) and Mr. Wingfield (father to Tom and Laura, and Amanda's husband)– who abandoned the family long before the start of the play. The title, "The Glass Menagerie", represented a collection of glass animals on display in the Wingfields' home. At one point or another, these animals then represented each character when they couldn't accept reality. The theme of this play were about the...show more content...

It also showed that her character had the hardest time accepting reality because her shyness sheltered and kept her from exploring the world outside of her home. This was emphasized by Amanda's lack of concern for her children as she was blinded by her own needs. As a mother, Amanda Wingfield had always encouraged her children to be all they could be. When Laura asked about clearing the table, Amanda's responded by telling her to "...go in front and study your typewriter chart. Or practice your shorthand a little. Stay fresh and pretty! It's almost time for our gentlemen callers to start arriving" (Williams, Scene 1, 976). This quote showed two aspects of the nature versus nurture debate. Amanda intended to nurture Laura's success by encouraging and pushing her to study hard, to practice her writing, and look pretty while naturally, Amanda was concerned about taking care of herself and making sure her children make the right decision so that they may provide for her all the things she never had. For example, when Amanda was going through the finances, she asked Laura what her plans were for the future, while she joked about how they might had an opportunity in business if it wasn't for Laura's nervousness (Scene 1, 980). When Laura mentioned to her mother that she was 'crippled', Amanda stopped her and told Laura to never speak negatively

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Clay Sheko

Mrs. Parks

11 AP English

1 September 2015

The Glass Castle Analysis

"Mom frowned at me... that gives it its beauty." (p. 38) When Jeannette devises a plan to uproot the Joshua tree, which has grown sideways in the direction of the constant wind that passes over it, her mother quickly dismisses the idea. Rose Mary claims that the tree is beautiful not because it grows straight like the other trees, but rather because its struggle defines it and makes it unique. Rose Mary is typically unwilling to tamper with nature and she is particularly drawn to the unique form of the Joshua Tree. Through the figure of the tree a young Jeannette learns an important lesson about non–conformity.

"Dad kept telling me that he loved me... what other

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Not having a place to call home or a job to go to everyday to provide for your family can put a tremendous amount of stress on an entire family. However, there are many ways to succeed in life illustrated in two texts: The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck and The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls. The Grapes of Wrath, anovel of the Joad family moving westward during the Dust Bowl, and The Glass Castle, a novel of the Walls family and their struggles with modern day poverty, both show the reader the struggles they face and how hard it was for them to get through just one day at a time. The Walls and Joad families pushed through the hardships life threw at them because they never lost sight of their goal and what was important to them and they kept hope that they would find a permanent home.

Rex Walls, the father of the narrator in The Glass Castle, always dreamed of becoming rich off of his superb skills as an entrepreneur...show more content...

The Joad family previously lived on the farm they owned which was taken away from them. This forced the entire family onto the streets and eventually heading to California for a better life. The Walls family lived like nomads all through their lives, and chose to live out of garbage cans and on the streets. That is the clear difference between these two families and their styles of living.

Staying hopeful that these families will be able to stay in the same location for a longer period of time than the place before helped them to get through these long periods of struggle. For the Walls family, this meant hope for a permanent place to live and steady jobs for Rex and Rose Mary. They did not care where their home was and traveled all over the country to find their perfect home. The Joad family aimed for traveling as a family to California and also find a permanent home there with steady jobs. It was this attitude that kept these families hopeful for their Get more content

Rhetorical Analysis: The Glass Castle

A memoir is our modern version of a fairy–tale, it is a biography written from personal knowledge or special account. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls recalls her childhood memories with her family. From Rex Walls, her father, allowing her into the cheetah den to his last moments with her before she moved to New York.The Glass Castle was truly effective from the beginning to the very end of the book. Jeanette writes The Glass Castle to show to older teens that no matter how bad your childhood is or was, it doesn't mean that your future will be bad also, since you can grow out of it if you can really try. A common rhetorical technique that was found throughout The Glass Castle was imagery. Jeanette uses imagery to develop vivid settings

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The Glass Castle is an interesting book following the story of the young author Jeanette Walls. This book follows her during the time she spends with her dysfunctional family growing up. This books tittle is symbolic of the overall book in its whole, and takes up a large amount of the authors life in the process. The many different characters represent and really show why The Glass Castle was chosen as for the title of the book. With the many events and characters in the book it can be easily seen why she would choose the title for this book. This book has many reasons for explain both the meaning of the tittle and the reason which she choose the title that she did. The Glass Castle in the book represents much more than just a plan that...show more content...

When Rex instructs them to dig out the foundation for the home, when he later tells them to start to fill the foundations with garbage because they don't want to have to pay for the garbage taken away. It really displays the whole book with how it goes along the dream of having that great life and home are slowly filled with garbage or disappearing from them with no way to really get back what has happened with the family. This book has really displays why it is titled this for this reason it is one of the core reasons in this book behind why it's named in such a way. One of the last things having to do with why the book is named this way is because it changes from Rex wanting the family to have a better life to just the family staying and being together. Later in the book Jeanette's sister leaves to go to New York and tears a large gap into the family where she used to be, but because of this it influences the other children of the family especially Jeanette who wants to follow her sister exactly and head to New York. This really tears the huge gaping hole in the family that really makes it fall apart. It is even seen in the book were Rex is trying to stop her from leaving to head to New York he brings up the Glass Castle, which hadn't been mentioned in quite a while for the book, this is one of the last times that it is even brought up in the book

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The Glass Castle Analysis

Jeanette Walls memoir, the Glass Castle, illustrates Jeanette's unusual childhood caused by constant poverty and chaos of her dysfunctional parents. This memoir teaches you to be thankful for what you have and to never give up no matter how hard things get. The Glass Castle tells a childhood story full of growing up with irresponsible parents, moving non–stop, and living in poverty. Jeannette and her siblings had to deal with situations that no one should have to go through. Her parents– the artistic but selfish Rose Mary and the intelligent but alcoholic Rex– neglect their kids and fail to provide for them. Jeanette and her siblings had to learn to provide for themselves, and are forced to mature at an early age to survive. One of the many themes for the Glass Castle is forgiveness. Jeanette and her siblings always forgave their dad and mom for their mistakes and always welcomed them back into their hearts. Forgiveness for Jeanette decreased her anger and made her more positive since things weren't always good for her. She first starts to forgive her mom and dad when she is three years old, and she burns herself because her mom let her cook hotdogs. She ended up getting burned severely and had to be hospitalized for 6 days. As soon as she gets back home from the hospital, her mom is letting her cook again on the very thing that burned her and saying, "good for you, you have to get right back on the saddle" (The Glass Castle, pg.15). She also forgave her father when he

Analysis Of The Glass Of The Glass

When all the knowledge in the world fails to bring you happiness in life, where do you turn? In the case of the Glass Siblings, the answer to this question is spiritual enlightenment. Specifically, they are interested in Eastern religious philosophies. References to these philosophies– such as Taoism, Buddhism, and Hinduism– are found throughout the Glass novellas. The beliefs of the various members of the Glass family are frequently revealed through the children they encounter or observe. Throughout the Glass stories, small children are portrayed as spiritually advanced, with much to teach adults. The novella, "Zooey," begins with the youngest male of the Glass family reading a letter that was written to him by Buddy, his elder brother. Buddy tells Zooey of a chance encounter that he had with a little girl at the butcher shop. In his conversation with the girl, Buddy discovers she has two boyfriends. He asks her for their names, to which she replies, "Bobby and Dorothy" (64). Her reply is what motivates Buddy to write his letter to Zooey. He reminds his younger brother, "that all legitimate religious study must lead to unlearning the differences, the illusory differences, between boys and girls, animals and stones, day and night, heat and cold" (67–68). In Buddy's eyes, the little girl's reply represents this ideology. She doesn't recognize that there is a difference between Bobby and Dorothy; she just knows that they are her "boyfriends." The butcher shop anecdote is Get more content

The Glass Menagerie is a memory play narrated by the main character and son, Tom Wingfield. It takes place in their apartment in St Louis, 1937. The father left them years ago leaving Tom to support the family. He works in a shoe warehouse, a job in which he hates and wants to leave, but can't because he has a duty to support the family. His mother, Amanda is loving and caring but nags too much, annoying Tom. She expresses the desire for her daughter, Laura, who is crippling shy, to have "gentlemen callers". Amanda finds out that Laura dropped out of college because of her shyness and she demanded Tom to choose a gentleman caller for her. He chooses Jim O'Connor, a boy who she liked in high school, but was too shy to talk to him before. Tom invites him for dinner and Jim talks to her and gets her to open up a little. He leads her on by kissing her then after tells her he is engaged. He then leaves and Laura gets sad. Amanda yells at Tom, blaming him for it. Tom reveals to the audience that he abandons his family later that night and has been haunted by Laura ever since. Characters: Laura Wingfield: A shy and fragile cripple unable to face the world. Collects tiny glass animals and spends most of her time polishing them. Tom Wingfield: An aspiring poet who works in a shoe warehouse, a job which he hates and wants to leave. He is left to support the family when his father left them. Amanda Wingfield: An abandoned wife and single mother. She chooses to live in the past,

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Forgiveness, is one of the highlighting themes of The Glass Castle. Jeanette forgiving her parents for their actions allowed her to thrive. In a person's life, they are most likely going to come across a point in time where they have to forgive someone. Throughout my life, I have been presented with several opportunities to forgive someone. Some of those times, I didn't forgive. One of the times I had to forgive someone was last year. My two best friends got into an argument. At first, I thought they would work it out since it didn't seem that problematic. However, I came to find out that the argument was worse than I thought and one of my friends kept accusing of my other friend for things she didn't do. This led my friend to go through a

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Adversity and the struggles that we go through day to day are the moments that build us into the people that we become. Nobel Laureate Dennis Gabor wrote, "Humans are wonderful in adversity, weak in comfort, affluence and security." Being weak in comfort, affluence, and security clearly points to people's ability to remain stable. However, Gabor notes that the strength humans have is due to the ability to handle adversity. A well–used strength allows for these weaknesses to not be the downfall of the race. Adversity can be confused with neglect in rough family situations. Jeannette Walls is an author that can represent adversity and explains them through her memoir The Glass Castle in several passages and even references the boundaries of...show more content...

Of the many situations that Jeannette would constantly relocate and have issues from instability within her family. It was assumed that while the Walls children were young both Rex and Rosemary saw no problem with involuntary uprooting. They would make it like a game for the children. Among the effects of moving that didn't come to consideration or the lack of emotional growth, poor education, and by far a stable environment. Many of the locations that the Walls would live in would be spoiled by an incident that would essentially give Jeannette and her siblings the ticket to leave. The Glass Castle opens with an incident where Jeannette gets burned trying to make her own food. Following the trip to the hospital Rex sneaks Jeannette out of the building to skip town and the medical bill. Adversity even follows Jeannette to New York after she leaves the family and deals with the discovery that her parents had followed. Not only was the road to make it to New York difficult, but now dealing with her mangled family continued to weigh on her. Reluctantly, Jeannette learns from these experiences. The incident with the burn is inferring the resilience of Jeannette and how she would be able to contain the madness. Adversity in New York near the end of the story shows us that despite the problems in the past Jeannette is a compassionate being and strong enough to go help the people that could have ruined her

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The Glass Castle Analysis

On Writing Well by William Zinsser is an informative guide to writing nonfiction. Zinsser clearly explains every aspect that makes the nonfiction writing strong and impressive. After reading the book, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, I saw that many of the ideas and themes mentioned in the guide were displayed in Wallswriting very effectively. Not only Walls develop those ideas in the book but also uses many rhetorical strategies to get her points across through the reader. The Glass Castle is a memoir about the hardships faced by a young girl, Jeannette and her tangible indigent family and how she overcame them by becoming a successful writer she is today.This memoir is an example for today's younger generation that you shouldn't let...show more content... "I stared at the loot" (Walls 264). In this line she uses the word "loot" to describe the the pile of money her father brings to her. Further, "He looked at her life he was about to say What the hell did I tell you" (135). Her use of words like "looked" and "hell" keeps her diction very informal and help relate the readers very easily. By keeping informal diction in her writing, she is following Zinsser suggestions. As Zinsser said" The answer is to clear our heads of clutter. Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can't exist without the other" (8). Walls clearly follows the instructions very well by using simplistic and informal diction which makes her writing very clear to the readers without any

"After a traumatic experience, the human system of self preservation seems to go into permanent alert, as if the danger might return at any moment" (Judith Lewis Herman). The psychoanalyst Lewis Herman describes how encountering agonizing pain causes individuals to become more cautious as a result. The psychoanalytic lens is based on Freudian theories and asserts that " people's behavior is affected by their unconscious:...the notion that human beings are motivated, even driven, by desire, fears, needs, and conflicts of which they are unaware..."

(Tyson 14–15) High schools a place where tragedy are brought upon people, but their voices aren't heard. Melinda, a high school freshman, is the protagonist in Laurie Halse Anderson's book, Speak....show more content...

The tree in Speak symbolizes Melinda's emotional state when at first she finds no meaning in drawing the tree then she finds the courage to speak up about her rape experience. As Melinda is starting her artistic path, Mr. Freeman says his opinion on her artwork and she develops an understanding that her art work could compare to her life.

I see a girl caught in the remains of a holiday gone bad, with her flesh picked off day after day as the carcass dries out. The knife and fork are obviously middle–class sensibilities. The palm tree is a nice touch. A broken dream, perhaps? Plastic honeymoon, deserted island? Oh, if you put it in a slice of pumpkin pie, it could be a deserted island! This has meaning. Pain. (64)

As Mr. Freeman says his reaction to her artwork, Melinda stays quiet and in shock because she expected more of a positive comment then a serious negative input. When Freeman says his last words about the artwork, "this has meaning. Pain"(65) Melinda leaves before he can comment on anything else. She acts in this manner because Melinda 's art project shows how she is trapped inside herself. While Freeman is giving his input Melinda sees how all the objects she just used to make a picture actually are painful pieces in her life that shows that she is in a place of need. Melinda is calling for help through art without realizing it. Acknowledging, Freemans negativity Melinda still

Brimming with excitement, Jeanette decides to follow her sister, Lori, to New York. Her brother, Brian, shares Jeanette's excitement and helps her count down the days until Jeanette leaves. On page 238 of The Glass Castle, Jeanette mentions that one night before her departure, her father, Rex Wells, visits her room. Her father carries the blueprints ofthe Glass Castle under his arm. Rex unrolls the blueprints and tries to convince Jeanette to stay by promising to build the Glass Castle. Jeanette refuses to be enamored by her father's empty promise. Jeanette has realized that her family has become a hindrance to her. The dialogue between Jeanette and Rex shows the separation that has grown between Jeanette and her family. Rex's tone is pleading

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A Peek Into The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls's life growing up was rough. It wasn't this great adventure that her parents tried to make themselves and their kids believe it was, yet it also had many advantages for the kids growing up independent, smart,well rounded and educated in many areas that children might usually be sheltered from. The Glass Castle a memoir written by Jeannette Wallsabout her childhood growing up with parents that lived unconventional lives, chasing their freedom. This book spent 261 weeks on New York Times Bestseller list which does not surprise me in the least; it was a great read. I am usually not a fan of memoirs, but I enjoyed reading this one immensely. The style of writing is very descriptive, which helps the reader create an imagine in their head and feel as if they are there with the characters. What I really appreciate is the fact that J. Walls stays objective throughout the book, she doesn't add in her opinion about what she feels was right or wrong about her childhood. The tone of the book makes me feel more like she is trying to make sense of it herself, to simply write it down, knowing that her life was quite unusual. The conflicting emotions I experienced in admist on reading this book is what made it a good read. I could not help but empathise with all of the characters. The children were clearly not at fault for any of the scary and disgusting things that happened to them, yet I could not completely hate the parents either.

Analysis Of The Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie is a play written by Tennessee Williams. It is mainly about three characters: Tom Wingfield, the narrator; Amanda Wingfield, Tom's mother; and Laura Wingfield, Tom's sister. The family is supported by both Tom and Amanda, working at a shoemaking warehouse and selling magazine subscriptions respectively. However, with some things unable to work, Amanda wants Laura to have a man to support both of them, but there are some things that are restraining her from doing so, such as Laura's disposition. Tom brings a man named Jim O'Connor to satisfy Amanda's wants, but this, too, does not work out. The Wingfields are all stuck in their own illusions in some way, and Jim is the only escape, coming from the real world. The Glass Menagerie explores many things in the aspects of a dysfunctional family, using contrasts between fantasy and reality. The entire play itself is a mixture of reality and illusions due to the fact that it is a memory play. Tom says in his opening monologue, "I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion... it is sentimental, it is not realistic" (Williams 1707–08; scene 1). The play is based on true and accurate events, but it is from Tom's memory, so some things are exaggerated more than they should be. Some of the things Tom has experienced may be exaggerated to the point of illusion, such as Amanda's outbursts throughout the play. The audience does not know the scenario from an outside point of view, but this is Tom's memory, so Get more content