The Glass Castle

mis en scene anaylsis

analytical essay

Devon Stanaford

English III B

Ms. Wilson

May 21, 2013

The Glass Castle

In Jeannette Walls’ memoir,  The Glass Castle, Jeannette grows up under the circumstances of poverty and not having very good parents. Their family is always traveling place to place, and they never have a stable situation. It is not very difficult to realize that traveling is a major theme of the book. Her father, Rex Walls, is always losing his job or getting into trouble, which causes the family to have to move. Jeannettes experiences and physical journeys while growing up have taught her what it takes to make it in the world, and be successful.

Jeannette living in poverty her entire childhood is what inspired to be a successful person when she grows up. The children of the Walls family are always in a struggle because their parents are always doing the wrong thing. Rex is an alcoholic which puts the family in difficult situations numerous times. Also the mother is a very selfish person, which puts the family through difficult times as well. It seems that every time Rex is able to get a decent job and that family has some stability, he finds a way to get fired and the family has to move once again. Along the Walls’ journey they find themselves out in the desert, and Jeannette says something that sums up her childhood very well. She said, “I never believed in Santa Claus. None of us kids did. Mom and Dad refused to let us. They couldn't afford expensive presents”(39). Jeannette not being able to believe in Santa expresses how different her childhood was from the normal. Her childhood being so different from most peoples’, gives her a reason to want to be successful as an adult and not have to continue living that lifestyle.

It seems that either Rex or Mary always mess something up which causes the family to have to move or else they could get into some serious trouble. At some of the Walls’ locations Mary is able to get hired for teaching positions which provide a decent amount of money for the family. Every time her selfish ways show through and she ends up quitting or not showing up for work. Her reasoning for quitting is that her mother wanted her to be a teacher and not be an artist. This shows how selfish of a person Mary can be. She won’t keep a teaching job and help out her family just because of her selfish needs. Mary’s selfishness is a major reason why the Walls have to live in severe poverty, and can’t have a stable lifestyle. Each chapter, Mary Walls does terrible things, especially when Jeannette says, “Mom told us we would have to go shoplifting”(111). This shows how terrible of a parent Mary can be. She is a very selfish person who puts herself before everyone else, also she is teaching her children to break the law by shoplifting, and making her children think that stealing is okay. Luckily, Mary’s selfishness didn’t rub off on her children and he actions in fact teach her children how not to act when they are older.

The Walls are always changing locations and are moving from city to city. At one point of the Walls’ journey they find themselves living in Las Vegas. The Walls live in a small hotel for the time being. They find themselves very cramped for most of the time, and neither Rex nor Mary are employed while living there. They struggle to make money, so Rex comes up with his own method to making money. He comes up with a gambling method that he uses at the Las Vegas casinos to make a profit. His method is actually successful for some time, until the casinos figure out what he is doing. While Rex is able to make money he treats his family to nice dinners, along with other random gifts. This shows how once again, Rex and Mary are not very good parents. Instead of conserving the money he was making, and making the money last for a long time, he put the money towards random things and actually wasted it. He also spent a lot of the money towards alcohol to fulfill his addiction, which shows how selfish of a parent Rex can be, although he is less selfish than Mary. Since Rex has been figured out with his method of making money, the Walls family is forced to move once again, and the family is back to the journey where the family decides to move out to San Francisco. The only reason they decided to go to San Franciso was because Mary thought it would be a great place to live. This once again proves her selfishness because she has to get her way all the time. While Jeanette is on this physical journey from city to city, she is able to learn that you need a stable job and can’t rely on random schemes to make money.

While reading The Glass Castle you are able to really see all of the struggles of the Walls family. There are two awful parents, Rex and Mary, who always put themselves ahead of their children. They are always showing examples of how their kids should never act through their actions. When the kids finally leave home, Mary can’t even be supportive for them, or even happy for them. She is upset because she feels as if her kids abandoned her and cannot accept them moving on with their lives. Jeannette is able to learn many valuable life lessons throughout all of the physical journeys of her life. She learns that she needs to work hard and not come up with non-genuine ways of making money. She is also able to learn that she needs to do things the right way with the shoplifting incident. Her lessons that she learned while living through her childhood is what lead her to being a very successful person, with a great job, and ends up marrying a very successful person as well. 

Letter to reader

Dear reader,

Ever heard the phrase “Life is a highway”? Life was definitely a highway for Jeannette Walls. As she went on her journey of life, you could say she hit some potholes on her ride. Her emotions went up and down like a car going through the rolling hills. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls tells you about the physical journey she went through in her youth. While reading this book, you would think that her childhood would define her future, but in reality, it made her into the Pulitzer Prize winner she is today.

After being on the road all the time, Walls learned that it was okay to be independent; you just have to follow the road wherever it takes you. For the visual display, I made a map of all the places she travelled throughout her childhood. After Welch, WV, Jeannette grew up and decided to take her own path and moved to New York City. For the informational part of this project, I wrote up directions from Welch to NYC. This represents the turning point of the book. Walls turned her life around and matured. I can’t believe she actually lived hoping for the glass castle. It’s weird to think that would be her dream. So I made a fake invitation to the glass castle for the visual with words part of the project. Jeannette endured many roadblocks in her journey. Moving over ten times, to having an alcoholic father, nothing stopped Walls from growing up to be the successful woman she is today.

Sincerely,

Devon

Found Poem

Our New House 

Found Poem

North third street

Dark Spanish dining room table

Eight matching chairs

Hand carved piano

Antique silver serving set

Glass fronted Cabinets

Bone china

Finest quality

Front yard had palm trees

Orange trees

Grew real oranges

We’ve never lived in a house with trees

Loved the palm tree

Arrived at some kind of oasis

Hollyhocks and oleander bushes

Pink and white flowers

Shed as big as most houses

Big parking space

Big enough for two cars

Moving up in the world

Informational- directions from Welch to NYC

Directions from Welch to New York City

Total distance: 576.6 mi

Total Time: 8 hrs 48 min

1	Depart US-52 ALT / WV-16 toward US-52 ALT / WV-16	0.1 mi	11 secs
2	Turn right onto US-52 E ALT / WV-16 N / Elkhorn St Exxon on the corner	0.1 mi	25 secs
3	Turn left onto WV-16 N / Wyoming St	0.2 mi	1 min
4	Bear right onto WV-16	0.4 mi	56 secs
5	Turn right to stay on WV-16 Pass Exxon in 1.0 mi	17.3 mi	23 min
6	Turn left onto WV-10 / River Rd	0.8 mi	2 min
7	Bear right onto WV-10 / WV-97 / Appalachian Hwy	0.3 mi	45 secs
8	Bear right onto WV-97 / Bearhole Rd	6.7 mi	8 min
9	Turn left to stay on WV-97 / Saulsville Mtn Rd	5.4 mi	6 min
10	Turn left onto WV-54 / WV-97 / Mountaineer Hwy Pass 7-Eleven in 0.8 mi	5.8 mi	6 min
11	Bear right onto Slab Fork Rd / CR-34	2.2 mi	5 min
12	Turn left onto WV-121 N / Coalfields Expy	4.2 mi	4 min
13	Bear right onto WV-121 / Coalfields Expy	0.2 mi	15 secs
14	Keep straight onto WV-16 / WV-97 / Robert C Byrd Dr	2.9 mi	3 min
15	Keep straight onto WV-16 / Robert C Byrd Dr	0.1 mi	9 secs
16	Bear right onto WV-16 N / Robert C Byrd Dr	0.1 mi	8 secs
17	Take ramp right for I-77 South / I-64 East toward Bluefield / Lewisburg	2.1 mi	3 min
18	Keep left onto I-64 E	122.4 mi	1 hrs 42 min
19	Bear left onto I-64 E / I-81 N	29.8 mi	25 min
20	Keep straight onto I-81 N	229.6 mi	3 hrs 16 min
21	At exit 89, take ramp right for I-78 East toward Allentown	135.5 mi	1 hrs 57 min
22	At exit 58B, take ramp right and follow signs for US-1 North / US-9 North	6.0 mi	7 min
23	Keep straight onto RT-139 E	1.5 mi	1 min
24	Road name changes to 12th St	0.3 mi	39 secs
25	Keep straight onto Boyle Plaza	0.1 mi	10 secs
26	Road name changes to Holland Tunnel	2.0 mi	3 min
27	At exit 3, take ramp right for Beach St / Ericsson St toward Brooklyn	0.1 mi	31 secs
28	Keep right to stay on Beach St	0.0 mi	8 secs
29	Turn right onto W Broadway	0.1 mi	27 secs
30	Turn left onto Franklin St	0.2 mi	1 min
31	Turn right onto Broadway	0.3 mi	57 secs
32	Turn right onto Chambers St	0.0 mi	21 secs
33	Arrive at Chambers St The last intersection is Broadway	0.0 mi	0 secs

Visual Display- map