In the memoir of Jeanette Walls’ “The Glass Castle”, there are many themes to explore. Jeanette tells the tales of growing up in continued poverty with dysfunctional parents who find pleasure moving frequently in the dead of night. The Walls family was extremely poor and often there was no food, electricity or indoor plumbing in the multitude of places that the children called home. Jeanette grew up as the second oldest daughter in a family of six. Her father, Rex Walls, was a glorified entrepreneur who was rather bright, but always seemed down on his luck with a bottle of booze in his hand. Jeanette’s mother, Rose Mary, had her teaching degree, but decided to live the wild and free life of an artist and didn’t succumb to redundant motherly
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Our text focuses on resiliency and being able to overcome adversity faced in everyday life. Anderson (2010) states that “the strengths perspective is a practice orientation that helps clients to recognize the individual and environmental resources that are available to help them heal and make positive changes in their lives”. Jeanette shows multiple time through her life that she is able identify her own individual strengths within herself and build upon them a better life. A specific example of Jeanette’s strength is shown when she begins her job at the local school paper, The Maroon Wave. Jeanette is able to shine at The Wave by first doing a low key job such as finding typos in the paper when she was in the seventh grade, to being promoted to Editor of the paper during her sophomore year of high school. Through hard work and determination, Jeannette discover her true passion in life, which results in her decision to leave the small town of Welch and follow her sister to New York …show more content…
Her story helps to tell the tale of overcoming obstacles and the desire for a better life. As social workers, we can learn from this memoir to see our clients as a whole and help them to identify their own personal strengths. Focusing on past mistakes or problems only helps to clarify and bring light to the “exceptions of the problem” and what is going right in our client’s life. I think that this memoir shows what true resiliency is and should continue to be shared in the social work profession to better enhance our own skills when working with
Our text focuses on resiliency and being able to overcome adversity faced in everyday life. Anderson (2010) states that “the strengths perspective is a practice orientation that helps clients to recognize the individual and environmental resources that are available to help them heal and make positive changes in their lives”. Jeanette shows multiple time through her life that she is able identify her own individual strengths within herself and build upon them a better life. A specific example of Jeanette’s strength is shown when she begins her job at the local school paper, The Maroon Wave. Jeanette is able to shine at The Wave by first doing a low key job such as finding typos in the paper when she was in the seventh grade, to being promoted to Editor of the paper during her sophomore year of high school. Through hard work and determination, Jeannette discover her true passion in life, which results in her decision to leave the small town of Welch and follow her sister to New York …show more content…
Her story helps to tell the tale of overcoming obstacles and the desire for a better life. As social workers, we can learn from this memoir to see our clients as a whole and help them to identify their own personal strengths. Focusing on past mistakes or problems only helps to clarify and bring light to the “exceptions of the problem” and what is going right in our client’s life. I think that this memoir shows what true resiliency is and should continue to be shared in the social work profession to better enhance our own skills when working with