American Literature Essay Sample: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

The glass castle book is a memoir that was written by Jeannette walls to recount the issues such as poverty that walls and her family went through along the parents. The glass castle indicates the nature of shifting and moving life the family went through by indicating how walls parents engaged in shifting and moving from one place to another irrespective children choice (Walls). The parents were trying to resettle the family around different places around the world. For example, the initial part indicates how the parents moved around the west coast of America mining town.

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The glass castle title of the book is a reflection of Jeannette father who lives to dream of building a house referred to as the glass castle. However, Jeannette walls father Rex was poor and lives an alcoholic life a factor that profoundly influenced the life the family lived. Jeannette walls mother Mary Rose is a teacher and a good painter (Walls). According to the Walls, the family moved to Nevada an American mining town when Jeannette was seven years where Rex the father works in a mining company. In Nevada, the family was stable since the Rex would provide food and shelter in the remaining of a railway station. However, Rex lost his job, and the family ended in poverty with hunger.

Nevertheless, Rose Mary the mother to Jeannette provided from her work as a teacher but Rex her husband siphoned the paycheck. The family eventually relocated to Phoenix after Lori confronted boy that developed a fixation on her little sister Jeannette with a gun (Walls). Lori is seen to confront the boy with her father's pistol in the protection of her little sister. In Phoenix, Rex Family lives in a house that Rose Mary inherited from her mother. The female gender role further continues to dominate since the family relied on the money that was left behind as an inheritance by Jeannette grandmother. Nevertheless, the family ends up in poverty after the inherited money was over and their car breaks down during a trip to the desert.

During the family trip to the desert, a helping woman referred to the family as "poor" while trying to save them from a car breakdown (Walls). The car breakdown and poverty made Rose Mary decide to move to West Virginia. Such decisions to support the family in the time of need during car breakdown and financial support signify the female gender role in supporting the family. The female gender is constructed to be dominating in trying to fix the alcoholic effects on Rex and the courage to pick up from challenges in search of a better life.

Jeannette wall family moved into their paternal grandparent's house in Welch of West Virginia where the children are introduced to the paternal grandparents for the first time (Walls). However, the children suffer a setback after they were enrolled in a class of challenged children because the children had a strange accent to the Welch and their mother Rose Mary had no previous records. This made Rose and Rex's return go back to Phoenix in search of valuable documents and items that were abandoned.

While Jeannette parents were in Phoenix, Jeannette runs in trouble with local girls and her sister Lori is engaged in a disagreement with her grandmother. The altercation between Lori and the grandmother made Lori realize that Rex her father was as well mistreated by the grandparents (Walls). The mistreatment made Jeannette and Lori upset a factor that made Rex admonish them and eventually made the grandparents send the family way. Jeannette walls poor background further continue to be exhibited because after the family was sent away, they moved in a rotting house that was not plumbed. However, the physical and natural nature of Lori and Rose in trying to defend Jeannette and provide for the family interprets the female gender as a dominant and resilience gender in the society and family context.

The glass castle further indicates that the family survives on Rex odd jobs and money that Rose Mary receives from her leased land and property to the oil company. Jeannette is seen to fully trust and depend on her mother after she requested her to leave Rex but Rose refuses. This signifies the undying resilience of Rose as a critical pillar in the family. Moreover, Rose receives a gets a teaching job and raise hope of supporting the family while in working. Nevertheless, Jeannette gets her first job in a jewelry store while she was thirteen after working with her father in the pool where she was abused by men that wanted to rape her (Walls). The male gender is displayed as an unsupportive gender as a result of rape incidences at work.

The theme of unity and female gender power is depicted when Jeannette and Lori developed a plan to see Lori move to New York and with a second plan to see Jeannette follow. Unfortunately, after the Lori, Jeannette and Brian accumulated money for the move to New York, Rex their father stole the money an aspect that discourage Lori and depict male gender as unreliable (Walls). Jeannette resilience spirit made her get some babysitting job and later an internship at the news press. After Jeannette moved to New York, all her siblings followed and moved in with her including Maureen and later hosted her parents Rex and Rose. However, Rex Life ends up being homeless living the glass castle as a dream.

In conclusion, the overall message about the male gender is depicted as weak compared to the female gender. The weakness of the male gender is displayed by Rex acts of alcoholism, poverty, and stealing from his children. Nevertheless, Rex seems to encourage his daughter Jeannette by training her hard in the pool where he states "if you do not want to sink, you better figure out how to swim." The quote is an encouragement to her daughter that she should keep fighting for herself and her rights. Finally, the family poverty situation made the siblings grow strong, empowered the female gender, and encouraged the siblings to keep fighting for their rights in schools, and across the regions, they moved.

Works Cited

Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015. Print.

Walls, Jeannette. Glass Castle. , 2017. Print.