Discuss any interesting or confusing aspects of the novel with your classmates.
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In the book, The Glass Castle, you can tell things are off with Jeannette's family from the very beginning. The first memory for Jeannette was catching herself on fire. First off, I have no understanding why a three year old is allowed to cook hotdogs by herself. I was many years older than three when I was even aloud to assist my parents in cooking. This first scene that Jeannette paints is only one of many instances that her parents are irresponsible or reckless. "They asked what I was doing cooking hot dogs by myself at the age of three...."Mom says I'm mature for my age," I told them," and she lets me cook for myself a lot."" I believe that this was the first domino to fall in a long line of unfortunate events Jeannette experienced throughout her life with her parents. What do you think of Rose Mary's parenting in this instance? Do you think it was reckless or do you think she was just teaching Jeannette responsibility?
ReplyDeleteIt may be difficult for us to understand why she was cooking at such a young age because we probably grew up in a much different household where instances such as this would not be acceptable. There are better ways to teach one's child responsibility, perhaps with less fire. This was very reckless.
ReplyDeleteIn the book, The Glass Castle, one of the most prominent aspects of the early chapters is the constant moving from place to place that the Walls Family does. Fondly refered to as "The Skedaddle" by Rex Walls (the father) and his children, moving to another location, most times in a completely different state, comes very easy to the Walls family. Evidently it has been occuring their whole life, and on page 29, when Lori and Jeannette are disussing their constant relocating, Jeannette even says that she enjoys the constant movement. To most of us, this would be a very foreign, and im most cases unwelcome, concept. For the most part, people that live around here have lived here or somewhere around here their whole life, and haven't experienced much relocation at all, if any. To us it seems completely strange to actually want to move around all the time, due to our ties already built with out current home. However, when put into perspective, the Walls family have only ever known short term living, and to them it is just as normal as having one home is to us. On a side note, I would find it highly interesting to know exactly how long "the skedaddle" has been occuring for the walls family. All of the children seem to be completely familiar with the concept of no permanent home, which raises the question of exactly how long they have lived this way. While we have no definite answer, at least in the book, it is very likely that "the skedaddle" predates all of the children, and has been going on since years before they were born.
ReplyDeleteI found it unbelievable that Jeanette's parents would tell her to suck it up when she told them her uncle had tried to grope her, as well as her father taking her to a bar and letting her almost get raped let again and not even being the slightest bit concerned. I understand that they are living through hard times and all, but any parent should be concerned for their child's safety, especially in matters that they can help prevent.
ReplyDeleteThere are many things about thus novel that appear as sick and twiated: Being forced to get up and go at any given moment, having four children sleep in one bed with no heat or winter clothes, having to cook for yourself at age three because your mother belives you should learn to be " self sufficient". However, for a long time, all of these things were the norm for Jeanette ad her sibblings. Also, the fact that " everyone has their addictions" is a commonly accepted notion in the house, which allows for both adults to have an excuse as to why there is no money at any time and why they eat yet the children are stick thin is absolutely disgusting. I understand that while they were in Welch, and the man for child services came to check on the children, that Jeanette did not want her family split up, she later realizes that this is what would have been best all along. The children decide together that they will eventually end up as a family in New York, without their parents. However, that plan is momentarily interrupted by Rex Walls feeding his addiction with their escape money. All in all I think that this is,by far, one of the best books I have read in a long time because of quite a few relatable senarios.
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