The Glass Castle: Memoir Connections

The earliest memory I have is when I was about four. It was summer and my family and a bunch of our family friends were at Minot beach in Scituate, MA. The other families had kids older than me. My older sister was 6 and there were other kids 7 or 8. I would always try to keep up with them. That day all the big kids were playing on giant rock that I wasnt allowed to go on. All I got to do was play in the little tide pool next to it. Anyways I guess someone fell and got a big gash on his leg after he slipped and fell on a crack in the rock. The lifeguard and parents were rushing to help him. I obviously was intrigued, so I ran over to the side of the huge forbidden rock and, like any other curious four year old, I started to climb up the side. Eveyone was preoccupied worried about the boy's bleeding cut that at first nobody noticed me. I was pretty high off the ground and I felt unstoppable. But my adventure was cut short when my mom's friend Martha grabbed me off the rock and started firmly telling me not to do that ever again. I was furiously embarrassed, she wasn't my mother and she had no right telling me what to do. Now the crowd was looking at me as u got yelled at. My pale irish skin on my face soon turned bright red. I wiggled my way out of Martha's arms and ran to my momther who was waiting to do her share of scolding. That night, as I was getting ready for a bath, I started crying because I wasn't a big kid and I was being held back because of it. 

When I asked to think about my first memory I can remember how I felt about it then but also look at in a new light and a new understanding. Looking back on that day I realize that Martha and my mom were only looking out for me. I have a lot of young cousins and when I'm with them I'm always watching them making sure they aren't doing anything dangerous. At age four I don't think I was thinking about the danger of what I was doing rather than the adventure and the thrill. I have always been a Curious George but back then I didn't know when I should and shouldn't poke my nose into things. 

 

The Glass Castle: Lost Hope & Perseverance

When the Walls first reached Welch, West Virginia its poverty and run down look didn't effect them because they were used to a poor lifestyle. But one thing about welch was different. The whole town seemed lost, everything and everyone was old and worn and stuck in their ways. This is referring to the racial tensions between the black and white communities in the town. Erma (Rex's mother) specifically was extremely racist which was a change for the Walls children because all their life they were taught to accept all people. Along with this racism and the physical state of the town which caused loss of hope for Jeanette, one could argue that Jeanette's hope was lost before she ever got to Welch. In the beginning of the chapter she talks about the trip to West Virginia unlike she did any other trip or "adventure". Jeanette told the story of the move almost in a aggravated way. This aggravation shows that Jeanette started to think differently of the life she was living. She was losing hope of her family settling down and being a regular family. Once she actually reached Welch, the town reflected her own personal feelings of being run down and tired, tired of going with the flow and rising to the occasion. 

In third grade I started playing lacrosse. In fifth grade I started playing at a higher level, on a club team called mass elite. They are one of the best youth club lacrosse teams on the east coast. I had made the team 2 years in a row. But during tryouts in seventh grade I was cut from the program. A couple of days after I got cut, the head coach called me explaining why they made this decision. I didn't want to hear it. Lacrosse meant so much to me, and it was a big part of my social life. I was worried about how others would see me because now I'm not as good as everyone else. I no longer had the identity of being one of the top teams in the country. This really effected my confidence and for a while I didn't want to have anything to do with the sport. Over time I began to realize how much I missed it, that I can't let one person tell me what I can or cannot do. That fall I tried out for a different club team and made it, and am still part of this team. Ever since I decided to persevere and continue doing what I love, I've regained some of that confidence. Lack of confidence and the ability to have it in yourself is something I always will need to work on. But one thing I've learned is that you can't let one person stop you from doing the things that make you happy and make you a better version of yourself. Lacrosse and my athleticism is one part of me and I learned how to persevere even when this part of me became a little broken or lost along the way. 

The Glass Castle: Forced Outside comfort zone

1) As Jeannette is growing up and learning new things about herself and the environment around her things start to appear different to her. For example, Billy Deel was Jeanette's neighbor in Battle Mountain. He was three years older than her. Jeannette talked about how early into their "friendship" or aqua intense Billy forced his company on Jeannette as he started referring to them as boyfriend and girlfriend. Jeanette repeatedly told him that this was not true nor did she want it to be. It was all playful until Billy started to pursue Jeanette more forcefully. He kissed Jeanette and when she tried to pull away he kept forcing himself upon her. She ran away and denied the situation. Jeannette became uncomfortable being in Billy's presence due to the fact that he pushed so far out of her comfort zone that she saw it as affecting her safety even though she didn't quite understand what was going on. Jeanette was only 7 years old. This experience, I think, taught Jeanette that it is okay to do "No" and sometimes you  have too. This also may have changed Jeanette's whole view of men in general as she realized that they aren't all innocent and worthy of forgiveness. 

2) Up until my freshman year of high school I attended catholic schools, located outside of my town. Each grade had a population of only about 25 or less students. I was comfortable in small groups, I had gotten used to it. In 9th grade there was about 200 students in the grade. I hadn't ever gone to public school, but knew some kids from youth sports. Going into the first day I was nervous and scared that I was going to be seen as the weird new girl. But I found that I rose to the occasion and discovered that I don't have to be shy and I don't have to hide in the crowd. I began making friends, speaking out on class, and embrassing my true personality. I was happy. By stepping out of my shell I found a person that I liked way more than the person I thought I had to be in order to fit in. High school isn't always easy but I've found that being yourself, your true self, can really make  a difference. That sounds cliche but it's true. Those first couple days I held myself back because I was nervous about people's opinions. But what I found was that being yourself and expressing yourself is much more rewarding than pretending to be, for me, quiet and shy because most of the time I am neither of these things. I'm happy that the people who care about me and are my friends have accepted me after I let myself out of my comfort zone. 

Sacrifice and Hardship in The Glass Castle

1.) Jeanette Walls tells her life story in a way that people can relate to and feel for what she is going through. In this section of the book her family is still going from town to town running from there past mistakes and future hardships. Jeanette is young, trying to find herself and her own identity. She starts to show her audience how she feels about her parents and their actions. She discusses  one incident of how she was whipped out of the family car while during one episode of the "skedaddle". Jeanette was scared and hurt yet her initial reaction was that her parents were not going to come back for her, that they saw her as a burden now, taking up their time. She was wrong, they did come back. As her reader I find that this section of the book is very intriguing because although her family has their problems they always find a way to unite together again. Later on Jeanette talks about how she was jumped by four Mexican girls who were in her class in first grade. They saw her as a goody goody and a teachers pet, something obviously unacceptable to the other girls. But again it seems that that experience was also brushed off. I think that both the events of falling out of the car and getting in the fight and her reaction to them were what young Jeanette thought was the accepable reaction. Her father had always told them stories of himself in similar situations, but it seems he never told them how it's okay to be hurt. He never said "don't run away from your problems, accept them and be hurt be them, otherwise you are just hiding them away until they come right back again", probably because all he ever was doing was running away and hiding. 

2.) Scituate and its neighboring towns create a community were wealth and money is common and necessary to what seems like the majority. Keeping up with all these people and their events and other aspects of their lives is ureachable and unnecessary to the more common lower-middle class person. Me and my family were sucked into this lifestyle the moment my parents moved to this town. The friends they made and liked had already been associated with this stereotype by default. And without knowing it they had been too. Growing up I went to a private school. I made friends whos families had more money than mine. And even at such young ages, were fascinated by brand names and "the next best thing"; never satisfied. When my dad lost his job I was seven or eight years old. I didn't understand why all these things that my friends had were now unreachable for me. I could no longer hide myself under all the things and clothes that helped me fit in with the trends. I now had to rely on my personality. Why is it that I didn't rely on what I had inside my heart all along? Looking back all of it seems pathetic. I live my life now in the realization that life isn't about how much money or things you have but the person you are. My family is not poor but my parents struggled and still do struggle with money as do most people do in this day-in-age. Everyone tries to keep up with everyone else. People may seem one way on the outside but that DOES NOT define who they are or what they have going on personally and privately. I have learned to be myself and live life through my own perspective and create my own identity instead of one that was given to me because of my possessions. 

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Spider Web Discussion

The Act 2: Scene 2 Spider Web Discussion that we had in class today was very interesting and allowed me to think about Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, in a whole new way. Overall as a class we really delved into the true meaning of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's lines. We touched upon, not only Act 2, but the book as a whole. Although we did do a good job in discussing several different topics, I do think that at times we were all over the place. For example when someone would ask a question, that specific question never really was answered, rather than just agreed with or questioned further. We do have room to grow as a class, and so do I as an individual. I definetly could have contributed to the conversation more. I find it hard to know when it is the right time to throw out my ideas. Once I have an idea by the time there is a pause in the conversation the idea that I had had would no longer relate to the new topic. Again, this is what I need to work on as an individual, but as a class maybe focusing on one clear idea might help the discussion flow better. Once again, I think we all did well and am excited to see how we improve during our discussion on Things Fall Apart in April. 

Macbeth 2.1

How do Macbeth's words contrast to his true feelings in this scene? Support your answer with a specific detail from the text. 

The character of Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, is a confused man who speaks of things that his body and future supposed fortune does not agree with. For example, during Macbeth's soliloquy in Act 1: Scene 2 he says, "Mine eyes are made the fools o' th' other senses." (2.1.56). This quote demonstrates how Macbeth is seeing things or hallucinating images that he cannot touch or smell or hear. His mind is trying to tell him of the things that shouldn't be done, but Macbeth and his body dismiss these messages. Another example of this is when he states that, "And, on thy blade and dudgeon, gouts of blood, Which was not so before. There's no such thing." Macbeth simply puts away the slightest chance that these things that he is seeing are real or may mean something. Is this because he knows what he is doing is unjust or because he does not understand who's blood he was seeing, blood of the King or of himself? Macbeth may disagree with the words that he speaks, but these words do not contrast from his true feelings because they are the truth in which he understands. Everything Macbeth says and sees is real but whether or not he believes in and acts upon these things ultimately decides his fate, therefore foreshadowing Macbeth's future.