In the world we live in today, an estimated 100 million people find themselves homeless and over 1.6 billion people lack adequate housing. For most, being homeless and in poverty is not the desired lifestyle and people work hard to have a constant roof over their heads, and food on the table. However, for a select few, living in poverty and being homeless is a life decision that they desire and enjoy. Both families in the memoirs Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls and Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt find themselves in extreme poverty. Neither Rex and Rose Marie Walls nor Angela and Malachy McCourt have the ability to feed, clothe, or house themselves and their families. Although both sets of parents are able to face the reality of their situation, …show more content…
Rex and Rose Mary Wall chose the lifestyle of living in the lower class and they greatly enjoy it, even if there kids are unhappy. When Jeannette tells her mother that they can not continue to live their lives this way, Rose Marie says " ‘Why not? Being homeless is an adventure’"(Walls 255). Although the lifestyle that Rex and Rose Marie have chosen for themselves and their family has left them homeless and hungry, this is exactly how they want to be living. They get a thrill from moving from place to place, having to search for food, and shoplifting clothes. All of this gives their lifestyle excitement and makes it feel like an adventure along with making them happy. This contentment and happiness does not stop for the Walls even as their children grow up and have successful lives. After Jeanette has moved to New York and earned money she offers to help her mother and father who are still homeless on the streets of New York. Rose Mary responds “"You want to help me change my life? I'm fine. You're the one who needs help. Your values are all confused" (Walls 5). Even as Rex and Rose Mary watch their children grow up and escape their impoverished childhood, they still do not wish to change their lifestyle. They deny money from Jeannette because they are happy and content with searching for food and shelter each day in the streets of New York. Contrastly, Angela and Malachy McCourt are miserable and unhappy with their lives in poverty because they were thrown into that life and had no choice in it. This leaves to misery, and self pity from both Angela and Malachy. In the beginning of the memoir Frank talks about his childhood and says, “People everywhere brag and whimper about the woes of their early years, but nothing can compare with the Irish version: the poverty; the shiftless loquacious alcoholic father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire” (McCourt 11). The poverty that the McCourts find themselves in, leaves the parents to
Frank McCourt 's childhood was very difficult, mostly because of his family 's extremely low income. The memoir called Angela 's Ashes begins in Brooklyn in the early 1930 's. When Frank turned four his family and him moved back to Ireland, where his parents were originally from. Throughout the memoir the author focuses on how Frank was able to overcome poverty and ultimately make something of himself. Mr. McCourt explores personal, political, and economic issues throughout the story.
The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, tells a story about a dysfunctional family and the hardships they faced in what we call the journey of life. Throughout the book, Jeannette Walls re-encounters her favorite childhood memories spent with her father, Rex Walls, in spite of Rex's recklessness and destruction onto different parts of her life. Rex is a skilled electrician whose alcoholism often gets to the best of him and his decisions. His profusion of alcohol led his family to poverty because instead of paying off bills and buying necessities for survival, he spends most of their income on liquor. Therefore, his children lacked the simplest things such as food and clothing.
This book is by Jeanette walls it is called The Glass Castle and has a total number of 288 pages. The main point in this book is that money isn't the key to happiness and that is what The Glass Castle showcased. The book is showing that you can dream bigger even though you might not achieve those dreams. The beginning of the book was a part where the author introduced the characters which were Jeannette Walls, Rex Walls, Rose Mary Walls, Lori Walls, Maureen Walls , and Brian Walls. The main setting in the beginning was them in a little house that was very run down.
Introduction: The glass castle by Jeannette Walls is the book I chose to read for our summer reading assignment. The glass castle is about 3, eventually 4 kids who have always been told to chase their dreams no matter what happens or where it takes them. The parents which consists of a selfish mom who does stuff to benefit her own needs and a dad who’s a drunk, live by this quote and unfortunately chasing their dream leads them to live their life in poverty, filled with lies, misery, and struggle but with a little hard work, and perseverance the walls children flourish. Summary: The story starts off with little Jeannette walls at the age of three making herself a hotdog.
The Glass Castle is a nonfiction book that was later turned into a movie. The book was written by Jeannette Walls, and the book is about her life. This story is about family dynamics. The Walls family moved around often and each member had their own set of difficulties. I think the book was turned into a movie for two reasons: the book is not appropriate for younger readers and not everyone wants to or has the time to read a book.
These references include Walls describing her new house that she brought being surrounded by “woods and villages”, “marsh ponds where swans floated on mirrorlike water”, and “thickets of bare trees” with fallen leaves around their roots as well as how Rose Mary commented on her and her husband’s self-sufficiency after seeing the garden that the both of them worked on (Walls 286; 287). The description of where her home is located is very naturistic and serene much like the western deserts she spent a majority of her childhood in (Walls 130). Her mom’s comment on their self-sufficiency is reminiscent of a time in her childhood when she had to provide food for herself because of the family’s food shortages (Walls 172). Her decision to include both the self-sufficiency comment and the naturistic description could be an homage to her childhood and could also hint - perhaps for the sake of not painstakingly and explicitly explaining everything - to the reader why she decided to move out into a more rural area away from the city. Clearly she cannot be ashamed of where she came from if she made an homage to her childhood as well as based a big decision of buying a house on her childhood
The difficult circumstances in Ireland during the great depression and WW2 not only affected the lives of adults but also shaped the lives of children. Frank McCourt displays this in his memoir, Angela’s Ashes, where young Frank experiences hardships such as not possessing a stable father figure and living in poverty which cause Frank to grow up ahead of time. Through his memoir Frank McCourt proves that when children are brought up in tough circumstances, they are forced into positions of responsibility at an early age. Alcoholism and pride prevents Frank's father to provide essential necessities for his family and be a proper father figure to his children. This drives Frank to act as the man of the house on several occasions.
Glass Castle Essay “I’d broken one of our unspoken rules: we were always supposed to pretend our life was one long and incredibly fun adventure.” (Walls 69) In novel The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the Walls family is supposed to “pretend.” Even though Rex and Rose Mary walls, the parent of the children don’t have a lot of money they tried to give their kids the most fun life possible.
Many people who read Jeannette Wall’s autobiography The Glass Castle were shook at the Rags-to-Riches story and the stories her childhood in poverty provided. Growing up with neglectful parents, however had the result of three out of four successful adults who once slept in cardboard box beds and used a yellow bucket for a toilet, causing a controversy of how independent should kids really be. The Glass Castle overflows with symbolism, emotion, and tone. However, the tone of her father is particularly peculiar and as the book progresses, the word choice describing her father changes from one of hope and heroism-like traits to slowly seeing Rex Wall’s calamitous characteristics while loving him the entire time. All of Rex’s children looks
The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls New York Abstract Jeannette Walls was a daughter of a father that was an alcoholic, and parents that did not want to work for what they had. They were always jumping around from home to home, and the siblings were tired of it. At a young age, Jeannette had to learn ow to fend for herself by making food, washing her clothes, etc. It was hard for Jeannette growing up, but as soon as Jeannette and Lori get a chance to move they take it. Jeannette then moves to New York City with Lori where she acquires a reporting job.
A hardship that many people have to endure is poverty. The characters in the short stories, Angela’s Ashes, by Frank Mccourt and The Street, by Ann Petry, both experience living in impoverished conditions. In the story The Street, Petry shows the life of a single mother who lives through the struggles of being poor. In another story portraying poverty, Angela’s Ashes, the author uses kids to paint the image of indigence. These kids are burdened with the task of caring for themselves.
Rose Mary had a teaching degree which allowed her to obtain a job, this kept her family more financially stable, without lacking basic necessities. " But Mom," I said. "that ring could get us a lot of food…" (186) “We haven't had anything to eat but popcorn for three days," I said.” (187) “But at least we had money… Now Mom got paid about seven hundred dollars a month” (196) “Mom also bought some electric heaters…
Jeanette grows up not allowing herself to call one house a home. The Walls family are always on a run, moving houses consistently. As Jeanette also has to move
She effectively describes the problems of being homeless accurately and was able to use her story to account their struggles and how those struggles made her who is. Homelessness is a widespread problem throughout the world. A lot of individuals fall into homelessness and become helpless. But Jeanette’s circumstance fueled her desire to explore opportunities that would afford her a future better than her current situation. Although her family was poor and lacked essential necessities, her parents were able to instill values like the importance of literature and education; that eventually lead to Jeanette’s love for journalism and her career than bettered her
Although the family’s intelligence is above average, jobs never seem to work out for them and they always have to move again to a place of worse conditions. Walls’ mother, Rosemary, is still homeless and living on the streets of New York after countless offers by her children to live with them. Homeless people become homeless for numerous reasons. Most undergo a few different big changes in their life conditions before they become homeless. According to the Homelessness Resource Center, “Personal histories and individual