Analysis Of Jeanette Walls The Glass Castle

Great Essays
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 …show more content…
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

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Jeanette’s parents Rosemary and Rex Walls did not welcome any help that was given to them or their children, even if it would benefit their deficient lifestyle. When Jeanette was three, she wrote about the time she was cooking…

    • 2034 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Her Father was dead at the time, but her Mother was still homeless and struggling to get by. Although Jeannette has offered to help her Mother she refuses and explains how happy she is with her current lifestyle. Jeannette is afraid of what others will think of her and she’s afraid they won’t accept her anymore. Walls writes, “It had been months since I laid eyes on Mom, and when she looked up, I was overcome with panic that she’d see me and call out my name, and that someone on the way to the same party would spot us together and Mom would introduce herself and my secret would be out.…

    • 1427 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Although Rose Mary, Jeannette’s mom, came from a very different social status than her husband, Rex, they were very much alike. Rose Mary came from a rich family where her mother was a school teacher and provided for her very well. Rex came from a family who worked with what they had and although they had food on the table, his living conditions weren’t always the best. Jeannette’s mother coming from Phoenix and her dad coming from Welch, Virginia you would think their way of living would differ greatly. This was not the case when it came to those two together.…

    • 1153 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Individual vs. Society In our society today, what is considered good parenting includes showing love and compassion to children, making sure to provide for their needs and to teach them good moral standards to live by. On the contrary, not loving a child, making choices that lead to not being capable to provide, and not teaching them socially acceptable behavior is considered irresponsible parenting and even neglect. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls retells the story of her childhood growing up with nonconformist parents who, according to society, were irresponsible. Her parents create their own society that justifies their way of living, ignoring how it might affect their children.…

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The memoir, The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls brings the reader back in time to when she was very young and recalls her life experiences that deal with poverty, dysfunctional parents, and the choice between family first or herself. The Glass Castle reveals that Wall lived a large portion of her life on the run due to her adventurous, yet troublesome parents. Overtime, Walls discovers that life has more to offer if she gives herself a chance to experience the real world. Because of her parents’ influence, Walls grew up assuming that her parents’ views on society and the way life should go was inspiring, but now that she is grown and she makes choices for her own good. The memoir gives off a deep, meaningful feel to the reader.…

    • 1173 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Glass Castle The Glass Castle, written by author Jeannette Walls refllects a beautiful memoir of her childhood. The focus of the story includes Jeannette 's struggles as a child and having to grow up in a dysfunctional family. The protagonist of the novel being Jeannette Walls herself , describes the brutal yet honest truth behind growing up within the circumstances of an unstable home of her alcholic father and her mothers rather rustic lifestyle. With the use of theme, symbolism and irony, Jeannette Walls has illustrated and captured the essence of a true story through The Glass Castle.…

    • 1026 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “If you don’t want to sink, you better figure out how to swim.” Jeannette Walls and Liz Murray learned this throughout the struggles in their life. In the book ‘The Glass Castle’ Jeannette Walls learned that you have to see the better things in life. For example, when she was burned by scalding hot water at the age of 3 and had to go to the hospital, she used it to her advantage by getting delicious food and gum. Similarly, in the movie ‘Homeless to Harvard,’ Liz Murray did this by taking extra classes to stay after school and learn when she was homeless and lived on the streets.…

    • 853 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Being able to leave Welch on her own and immediately be able to get a job, go to school and be successful in New York City. Although being self-independent was not ideal at a young age for Jeanette but later on it paid off. The value of self-independent had helped Jeanette become…

    • 1015 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The movie Precious describes the life of a 16-year-old girl who is illiterate, lives in an abusive home, was raped by her father, and thus has one disabled child and is pregnant with her second. Although Precious was in a horrible situation, with the help of her social worker and her alternative school teacher, Precious escaped from her house and started a new life of her own. As a social work student, I can learn from Precious’s situation by comparing how the social worker in the movie helped Precious versus how I would have, had I been her social worker. By identifying the primary systems that affect Precious, some of her greatest strengths that helped her in overcoming her situation, and four interventions I would have implemented, I can…

    • 1287 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    but majority of the rest results in temporary happiness. Jeannette’s parents have demonstrated to the children that any obstacle can be undertaken. An example of this is when Rose-Mary had gotten a job as…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    On the other hand, Jeannette’s mom and dad managed to move out of Welch into New York but…

    • 1215 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Elements Of Resilience

    • 1054 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Mental health and resilience are paramount factors in overcoming obstacles and adversity. While it is often thought that resilience is merely one’s ability to overcome adversity, resilience is composed of several individual components that determine whether a person will conquer the obstacles that arise in life, and to what extent these obstacles will impact the person. In her article, Harrington (2012) lists several “key elements” of resilience which include emotional, spiritual, and family health (pp. 2-3). In this essay, I will examine my strengths and weaknesses in these areas of mental health and resilience and apply them to a difficult challenge that I have faced in my own life. A person’s individual level of strength in each of these…

    • 1054 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In Social Work 220 we are learning about resiliency. “Resiliency is the ability to overcome challenges of all kinds–trauma, tragedy, personal crises, plain ‘ole’ life problems–and bounce back stronger, wiser, and more personally powerful. ”(Statz, 2016) I took the resiliency quiz online and my score was 80. The score of 80 is categorized as being “very resilient”.…

    • 476 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This paper discusses the protective factors and resiliency that the writer portray at this point in her life. While promoting the way to build resiliency among her co-workers at the Chester County Bank, during her term as an intern. Keywords: resiliency, social workers, strength Resiliency Reflective “When we tackle obstacles, we finds hidden reserves courses and resilience we did not know we had.…

    • 861 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Adversity is a factor in every person’s life, but not everyone is lucky enough to possess resilience. Resilience is the ability to prevail when faced obstacles in life. There are many methods people use to gain resilience, and there are many reasons why people cannot, but one reason why people never become resilient is because they live a life with unsupportive or detrimental parents. Elizabeth from the short story “Jericho” by Margaret Price and the boy from “Untitled” by Anonymous are key examples of this idea. This principle is also supported through the opposite scenario:…

    • 1112 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays