Category: The Glass Castle

Annotating (Glass Castle).
Annotating (Glass Castle) Glass Castle Did you notice anything unusual about Jeannette Walls portrayal of poverty, or homelessness? Even though they had bad times with food and other necessities, they still were happy as a family * When she was young, she viewed life as an adventure and when she got older and in West Virginia she started to see reality of her life and she didn’t want to be seen as the girl who lives in the beat up house and the family that didn’t always have food * She doesn’t let her situation of poverty be an excuse or a burden for not being successful and she knew she was going to push past it * It shows that the Walls’ lifestyle was a choice, when her she figures out her mom has had land worth a million dollars and she just wanted to live the way she was living When did Jeannette figure out that her life was not normal? * When film makers came to Welch and were making a documentary and she saw films about life in New York, she saw there was life outside the way they were living * When her dad was prostituting her out, her view of her father was changed * When she went over to a friend’s house they had a thermostat and she had never experience one before and this she realized there was much more like that and the way she was living wasn’t normal Do you think her parents were mentally ill?
Her mom would stay in bed for days at a time and she would not even take care of her own kids and do nothing, she was probably in depression The dad was an alcoholic (when he tried to quit in Arizona he had withdrawal) and this was a mental illness He might have been molested by his mother, Erma-When Erma was molesting Brian and the children told their father he denied it and became very angry, probably trying to cover up what happened to him He also never wanted to go to West Virginia, he said it was because of pride but he was probably scared of going back to Erma Being molested by his would explain his alcoholism, his anger Annotating How do you know what is important enough to take notes on when you are reading? 1. Reveals some important detail about plot a. Exposition i. Time and Place of Setting, Setting Changes 1. Setting changes frequently in Glass Castle 2. Sometimes time is very difficult to figure out, in Glass Castle they were watching Water Gate which was in 70s, they lived in Lyndon B Johnson apartment building and he was president in late 60s ii. Introduces us to Main Characters iii. Hints at, or Suggests, the Conflict 3.
When Jeannette went to hospital and her dad does the Skedaddle we know the problem is going to involve her dad or parents iv. Gives us necessary background info, Anything we need to Know what is Happening 4. We need to know these things for the story to make sense b. High-Point v. Every high point is like a mini climax in a story vi. The climax is the high point at the end c. Climax vii. The point where the Main Character, or Protagonist, Can win or lose, live or die, succeed or fail. d. Denouement (Resolution) viii. Happens the second we know which way the climax is going to go-win or lose, live or die, etc. ix.

The Climax and Denouement happen in almost the exact same moment e. Conflict x. Conflict is most important element of plot xi. Internal 5. Glass Castle had a lot of internal conflict going on in Jeannette’s head xii. External – Most Movies or stories 6. Ex: Batman and Bane 2. When you come across special literary devices f. Foreshadowing xiii. Something earlier in the story that gives a hint to something that happens later in the story g. Symbol xiv. In Glass Castle the Glass Castle is a symbol of hope in the beginning but later it becomes disappointment and failure because they realize their dad was never going to build h. Irony xv.
When something happens that is the exact opposite of what you expect i. Flashback xvi. The whole Glass Castle is a flashback because she is telling the story of her childhood 7. A memoir is one long series of flashbacks j. Juxtaposition xvii. Where you put two opposite scenes next to each other 8. Happens a lot in books 9. Ex: When Jeannette is living in a very high end apartment and her parents are living the streets and dumpster diving 3. When it reveals the importance of the title k. Sometimes it is obvious but others it is not xviii. Ex: In Glass Castle the first half of the book it was literally the house Rex was going to build and it represented hope and the future.
Towards the end it represents disappointment in her father 4. Unfamiliar vocab words l. Circle and Look up and write definition by it xix. Ex: Hirsute-means harry or shaggy 5. When it reveals something important about a character m. New Character-Character List, Do every character and just put a little description on them with something specific what they said or did xx. Ex: Brian coming up with the idea of the catapult instead of saying Jeannette’s brother n. Mark when a character does or says something that is out-of-character, or not typical of them xxi. Ex: When Jeannette steals a watch from Mr. Becker (Eventually she brings it back) 6.
Theme o. One of the main ideas or lessons that the writer is trying to teach us in a book xxii. Usually more than one them, even in short stories p. Made up of two parts xxiii. Subject matter xxiv. Author’s opinion 10. Ex: Glass Castle is about poverty and homelessness and Jeannette is trying to show us that poverty can be a choice 7. Highlight any phrases or sentences that you just like q. For whatever reason, funny, cool, just something you really like 8. Take note of anything that reflects your own personal experience, or some idea you’ve had or something you strongly believe Things Mr. Danforth Tests On Level 1 Questions
Literal questions that you can find in the text; concrete details you should be able to point to in the book. They are basic facts from the story (Where she worked for her first job in New York. Level 2 Questions Questions that require us to “read between the lines”-us making deductions on details or facts that are in the story and we are deducing a fact that is not written in the story. Means we come up with a fact, that is not written in the story, based up on one of two other facts in the story. Never printed in the book. Ex. : Why doesn’t Cinderella’s stepmother love her? Ex: Rex is sexually abused by his mother. He would never go back to West Virginia and also his mother, Erma molested her grandson as well.
Ex: Rex is mentally ill based upon that he was molested by his mother and all the times he refused going back to West Virginia. She makes her clean all the time and gets all the really disgusting jobs and the other sisters don’t do any chores. She treats her differently because she is not her real daughter, she is her step daughter. She is jealous of Cinderella and her beauty and her daughters are ugly and fat, or maybe she’s jealous just for herself because she is old and not as pretty as Cinderella. Level 3 Reasoning Ideas that connect the story to real life in the present. Deep thinking themes. Ex: Mental illness and homelessness in the Glass Castle

Annotating (Glass Castle)

Glass Castle.
ESL 400Koffi Dibi 02/26/2013 Learning how to value life. The glass castle is a memoir of Jeannette Walls (author and narrator). In this memoir, she is relating the neglectful way that her and siblings (Maureen, Brian and Lori) have been raised by their parents Rex and Rose Mary Walls. For this reason, the CPS (Child Protective Service) decided to make an investigation to know rather or not they should remove the custody of the Walls children to their parent. For me good parenting is being able to lead your children toward the real difficulty of life and I hink Rex and Mary Rose are doing it. In my opinion this will be a hard decision to take. The Walls family shouldn’t be separated because, even though they are neglected by their parent They are learning about life values which are living fearlessly and being responsible. Also we have admit the fact that the parents are educating them. So, although the parents are irresponsible they are not bad as some people think. The walls children are constantly exposed to a dangerous situation where they are always capable of Handling it.
On their house on North Third Street (in Phoenix), Jeannette was about to get sexually abused during the night by one the guy of their neighborhood because Mary Rose and Rex decided to let the doors and the windows open. Instead of being afraid, they run after the pervert to give him a correction while their parents were sleeping (103). Well common children with a lot of affection wouldn’t react that way. Because of the neglect hatitude of their parent they learned how to defend themselve. Years old Jeannette burned herself when she was cooking hot dogs. She spent weeks at the hopistal. Back home, she started to cook again because she was hungry and no one would do it for her(10- 15). Her carefree mother told her “You’ve got to get right back in the saddle. You can’t live in fear of something as basic as fire” It is probably an horrible thing to say to your child that just got a burning accident, but it true that you cannot be afraid of fire since it’s used to do a lot of things as it happens to cook.
Some other kids would be traumatized for life but Jeannette faced it. As you can see the Walls parent are pushing their kids to get over their fear which is a good thing to do. When the Walls were in Welch, the elders of the children (Brian, Jeannette and Lori) knew that they should take responsibility by contribute money for the household. So they are bringing extra money to help (196). I guess when you have irresponsible parent like they do have, you just have to learn how to be in charge.

This kids have the ability to think that “mom and dad won’t do it so let’s do it”. The parent are teaching the children not to wait for someone to do thing for them. That point shouldn’t be ignored. While they were moving around, Rose Mary and Rex took the time to educate their children, teaching them mathematic, physics, geology and how to read. The Walls children are smart at the point where they could help their mother with her work as a teacher.
In Welch, when Lori and Jeannette decided to save money to go to in New York, Jeannette could do others kids of her school homework and asignments in math, science and book report and get paid for it(224). Even though she is neglect, she get enough skill from her parents that made her good at school. The Glass Castle is a memoir of Jeannette Walls relating her childhood story with her dysfunctional parents. She is talking about the neglectful way that her and her siblings (Maureen, Brian and Lori) are raised.
Through examples we were able to see that even though Rose Mary and Rex are irresponsible, they aren’t as faulty as some people think. Because they learned to their children how to be fearless, responsible and they also educated them. So I suggest the CPS to let the walls family together because separating them can cause an emotional trauma which can negatively affect their personality . The society need strong people like them. The CPS should oblige Rose Mary and Rex to accept welfare to the government and make sure that the children live in a decent environment.

Glass Castle