Premium Essay

The Glass Castle Character Analysis

Submitted By
Words 987
Pages 4
Although Rex is a brilliant father who can hold on to his ideals and support the family, his biggest shortcoming is his constant fall to alcoholism, which causes him to conduct poor decisions and dishonesty to his children. When his children need him, he simply drinks to wash away his problems. In the memoir, The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls recounts a story that begins with a young girl and her dysfunctional family traveling throughout the United States resettling from town to town. Rex’s alcoholism and selfish decisions put the family in constant lamentable poverty. Even though the family experience an occasional boost of inspiration or kindness, his actions often times do more harm than good for the family. Although Rex may appear to …show more content…
In the past, Rex promised his daughter Jeannette that he will stop drinking as his birthday gift to her. With certainty, he pledges to his daughter to get the gift she wants even if he dies trying in the process. Despite the pledge he has made, Rex’s breaks his promise to Jeannette when she comes home from work only to find Oz “slashed apart with a knife and stolen all the money” (228). His actions show that even with the promise of not drinking anymore, in a short amount of time, Rex is back to his old habits. The action of his drinking habits causes him to be destructive to his own family. In this scene, Rex’s greed causes him to choose alcohol over his own daughter. The money meant for Lori’s move to New York now becomes a dream instead of reality as a result of his drinking habit. The wreckage of Oz demonstrates Rex’s true personality. Like the cheetah in the zoo, if given the chance, would also run away, except Rex’s way of escape is in the form of drinking. This quotation also reinforces the idea of his selfish personality of caring more about oneself problems more, rather than what the family may be dealing with. His selfishness provides more problems for the family, which makes him a terrible father. Though there are many instances where Rex may be a despicable father, there are moments where he shows that he …show more content…
Like other alcoholics, Rex drinking prevents him from becoming the better father, he inspires to be and be honest with his family. Even though it is tough for Rex to quit being an alcoholic, seeking help from his family more to cope with his alcoholism would have made him a much more understanding father to them. It shows that he truly cares about his problems and is willing to face it, but he instead continues to drink into a downward spiral, which negatively affects the family. His selfishness to care more about his own problems and choosing to drink it away shows that he is not a competent

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Character Analysis: The Glass Castle

...The Walls family throughout The Glass Castle faced a wide variety of problems that helped establish the ominous, problematic, and somber tone of the story. First, the family faced many economic hardships which made it difficult for them to establish a stable life. Also, the two parents, Rex and Rose-Mary Walls had many unacceptable and unbreakable habits which did not help the family progress with their poverty. Finally, Jeannette Walls had many personal struggles and development in her life that helped contribute to the emotion evoked in the memoir, especially in the latter parts. As a result of the family’s poverty, the parent’s habitual issues, and Jeannette’s growth as a person overall establish the darker and depressing tone of the story....

Words: 809 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Character Analysis Of The Parent In The Glass Castle

...Rex and rosemary were the parents in the Glass Castle. These parents were not like require parents. They were very poor. They didn’t even have money for food or even a house for their 3 children. “We packed up in the middle of the night and took off driving until mom and dad found another small town “pg. 19. They have 2 girls and one boy. They all are around each other’s age. Rex is the dad he is an alcohol that when he drinks he’s very rude to anyone and everyone just like any alcohol. Rex is somebody that thinks he’s going to find gold. “One of his important invention was complicated confrontation he called the prospector” pg. 23. Rosemary is the mom of the three kids. She is someone that really only cares about herself. I don’t believe they really like the way they live. They are always out of money and it’s not getting easier Rex and rosemary both share a car and the car they have doesn’t run good and not really big enough to fit all them and everything they own to take with them everywhere. They would go from city to city to state to state all in one car and everything they own. I don’t think anyone would be okay with living the life like this family does it just seem like way too much. “Dad brings how a few groceries and two days the family has food. When mom catches Lori and Jeanette eating the last of the Maureen mixed with sugar, she yells at...

Words: 562 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls Character Analysis

...Throughout the novel, The Glass Castle, we see many aspects of Mrs. Walls’s personality through her actions and her speech. Jeannette Walls - the second daughter of Rex and Rose Walls and the author of this memoir - recalled how her mother was artistic - in her own way - how she encouraged learning by experience instead of discipline, how she believed in independence from a young age, and how she believed in her own way of thinking, rather than the thinking of the professionals. We start seeing parts of her artistic side very early on. In her novel, Jeannette remembers that, while her family was living in Midland, her “Mom painted dozens of variations… of the Joshua tree” (38). Also, later in the novel, she devoted the whole front of one of her mother’s houses into an art studio and gallery (97). She used her inheritance “to make regular shopping expeditions to the [art] store, bringing home rolls of canvas… oil paints, watercolors, acrylics, gesso, a silk-screening fram, india ink, paint brushes and pen nibs, charcoal pencils, pastels, fancy rag paper for pastel drawings, and even wooden mannequin with movable joints… who, Mom said, would pose for her when we kids were off at school” (97). Through her actions, Jeannette’s mom proves that she is - and can be - artistic...

Words: 1649 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Reflection On The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

...The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls. The book illustrates her struggle through life and how her hardships shaped her into the person she is now. Jeanette is the second out of four children, she has an older sister, Lori, a younger brother, Brian, and a younger sister Maureen. The family is very dysfunctional, they are always doing the skedaddle and living in very poor conditions. They move all around Western America running from their father's mistakes. The way Jeanette's parents raised her, it took her a while to realize that the way she was living was not right, eventually her and Lori came up with a plan to get away from their toxic living conditions. The Glass Castle has three pages in the beginning reserved for praise...

Words: 1545 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Beauty and the Beast Character

...1.) Analysis of all characters Belle: A bookish young woman who falls in love with the Beast and finds the kind-hearted human inside him. She is beautiful, deep, intelligent and loves to read. Belle at times can also be stubborn but she is not afraid to speak her mind. She usually wears a blue outfit along with a blue ribbon in her hair. She is"unaware" of her own beauty and made her "a little odd”. Beast: A cold-hearted prince transformed into a beast as punishment for his selfishness, but later warms, with the help of Belle, and ends up being transformed back into a handsome prince as a reward. He was once a selfish, greedy prince because a poor young beggar asked him for shelter for the night, and he refused. The beggar was actually an enchantress and turning him into a monster. After, Beast fell in love with belle and became a good man for he refused to kill Gaston and didn't want to stoop to his level. Gaston: A highly egotistical hunter who vies for Belle's hand in marriage and is determined not to let anyone else win her heart, even if it means killing her true love. He is a big line-ups of good-looking men with deep voices". Gaston is the main villain in the “Beauty and the Beast” movie. He is a sexist, chauvinistic hunter who wants to marry Belle just so he can brag about it and to give him sons that he can mold at his will. Belle sees him as nothing more than a rude, selfish, chauvinist, barbarian-brained lunkhead and sexist man who is unworthy of her time. Lumiere:...

Words: 3384 - Pages: 14

Premium Essay

The Masque Of The Red Death Mood Essay

...an eerie feeling to the story. In the book, it mentions that the seven rooms all have “…windows…of stained glass whose color varied in accordance with the prevailing hue of the decorations in the chamber,” except for the last room, which is black with red windows. This builds suspense, as the reader can infer that there is something special about the room, especially because its windows are red, and that is the color of the “Red Death”. There is a sense of eerie unearthliness throughout the story because of this room as well; all the guests at the party are avoiding it. In conclusion, the setting lends a sense of expectation and bizarreness to the story. Character Analysis Prince Prospero is likely a stubborn person who is used to having his way. In the story, he is resisting accepting the reality of “The Red Death” by hiding away in his castle with his guests. In addition, he chases the uninvited guest with the intention of killing him. This shows that Prince Prospero is stubborn because he’s unwilling to allow things to vary from how he planned them. This can also be inferred because Prospero is the ruler of the...

Words: 678 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

My Psychoanalytic Views of Two Short Stories

...Death by Edgar Allen Poe. Sylvia, a shy girl, who is rather naive and innocent. For most of her life has been sheltered from the atrocities of life. Being shielded from the outside world she hasn’t come to the conclusion that people can be bad. However this changes when a handsome and mysterious stranger wanders in her area. At first she intimidated by the man but is very eager to assist the man and wants to make a good impression. When finding the heron true changes begin to form in Sylvia. In sparing the heron she is more confident in her decision and assertive, she is willing ignore a person’s approval in order to preserve a beautiful part of nature. The white heron can represent Sylvia’s purity or innocence. According to psychosexual analysis the tree in which Sylvia climbs can be a phallic symbol for the ornithologist. While going through the forest with the ornithologist, he takes the lead although Sylvia is familiar with the terrain,...

Words: 1454 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

The Masque of the Red Death

...In Aesop’s fable, “The Wolf and the Lamb,” the moral of the story asks the reader to examine the desire for an object—and how we justify our behavior if we cannot obtain that object. This moral is graphically presented through the repeated use of key words to describe the fox’s repeated failure to get what he wants. The fox’s first attempt is foiled as he “just missed” the grapes (35). He attempts “again and again”, running and jumping repeatedly, but has “no greater success” (35). He then becomes disgusted and walks away. These successive descriptions of his failure build to his disdainful comment that the grapes are probably sour (35). The repeated demonstration of fox’s failures and his self-rationalization of why is he walking away—not that he has failed but because he has decided that the grapes are sour and he does not want them anyway—cleverly portrays the moral of the fable: if you can’t get it, blame something else, not yourself. It therefore asks the readers to Aesop’s Fables 3 of 93 The Wolf and the Lamb Once upon a time a Wolf was lapping at a spring on a hillside, when, looking up, what should he see but a Lamb just beginning to drink a little lower down. ‘There’s my supper,’ thought he, ‘if only I can find some excuse to seize it.’ Then he called out to the Lamb, ‘How dare you muddle the water from which I am drinking?’ ‘Nay, master, nay,’ said Lambikin; ‘if the water be muddy up there, I cannot be the cause of it, for it runs down from you to me.’ ‘Well...

Words: 2065 - Pages: 9

Free Essay

Analysis of Voltaire's Candide; a Non-Satirical Composition of the Most Satirical Piece of Literature

...Analysis of Voltaire’s Candide: A non-satirical composition of the most satirical piece of literature By: Westley (A.K.A Nicky Flash) Allen Westley Allen AP Literature Miss Gwaltney April 29, 2013 Through literary devices such as persuasion, sarcasm, and elegant rhetorics, Voltaire successfully composes possibly the most well-known satirical pieces of literature. Mad magazine, The Simpsons, and Saturday Night Live, examples of some of the comical staples that satiate our desire for humor. In our society, satire is among the most prevalent of comedic forms. This was not always true. Before the 18th century, satire was not a fully developed form. Satire, however, rose out of necessity; writers and artists needed a way to ambiguously criticize their governments, their churches, and their aristocrats. By the 18th century, satire was hugely popular. “Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own”. (Swift) Satire as an art form has its roots in the classics, especially in the writings of Voltaire. Satire as it was originally proposed was a form of literature using sarcasm, irony, and wit, to bring about a change in society, but in the eighteenth century Voltaire, Jonathan Swift and William Hogarth expanded satire to include politics, as well as art. The political climate of the time was one of tension. Any criticism of government would bring harsh punishments, sometimes exile or death. In order to voice opinions without...

Words: 1326 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Hamlet

...Plot Overview A ghost resembling the recently deceased King of Denmark stalks the ramparts of Elsinore, the royal castle. Terrified guardsmen convince a skeptical nobleman, Horatio, to watch with them. When he sees the ghost, he decides they should tell Hamlet, the dead King's son. Hamlet is also the nephew of the present King, Claudius, who not only assumed his dead brother's crown but also married his widow, Gertrude. Claudius seems an able King, easily handling the threat of the Norwegian Prince Fortinbras. But Hamlet is furious about Gertrude's marriage to Claudius. Hamlet meets the ghost, which claims to be the spirit of his father, murdered by Claudius. Hamlet quickly accepts the ghost's command to seek revenge. Yet Hamlet is uncertain if what the ghost said is true. He delays his revenge and begins to act half-mad, contemplate suicide, and becomes furious at all women. The Lord Chamberlain, Polonius, concludes that Hamlet's behavior comes from lovesickness for Ophelia, Polonius's daughter. Claudius and Gertrude summon two of Hamlet's old friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to find out what's wrong with him. As Polonius develops a plot to spy on a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia, Hamlet develops a plot of his own: to have a recently arrived troupe of actors put on a play that resembles Claudius's alleged murder of Old Hamlet, and watch Claudius's reaction. Polonius and Claudius spy on the meeting between Ophelia and Hamlet, during which Hamlet flies into a rage against...

Words: 10550 - Pages: 43

Free Essay

Gothicism in the Hound of the Baskerville

...go to the teachers who has given me suggestions, which benefit me a lot when I make the original plan, in the opening defence. With their help, I get to know where I should go next. Last but not the least, I extend my thanks to my classmates and my dearest parents for their encouragement and support. Wheneve I feel frustrated with my work, they are always there. Gothicism in Detective Fiction The Hound of the Baskervilles Abstract: As one of the most influential people who are never alive, Sherlock Holmes, written by Arthur Conan Doyle, attracts researches. The Hound of the Baskervilles is one of series detective fictions about him. This paper is an attempt to give a specific analysis on how gothic features perform in the depict of the characters, scenes and plot and to reveal the influence made by gothicism on appreciation of the book in part of the readers Gothic novel as one genre of the English literature leads habitually with darkness and horror including...

Words: 4863 - Pages: 20

Premium Essay

Walt Disney Case

...Statement of Authorship “I confirm that this work is my own. Additionally, I confirm that no part of this coursework, except where clearly quoted and referenced, has been copied from material belonging to any other person e.g. from a book, a handout, or another student. I am aware that it is a breach of LRG regulations to copy the work of another without clear acknowledgement and that attempting to do so renders me liable to disciplinary procedures. To this effect, I have uploaded my work onto Turnitin and have ensured that I have made any relevant corrections to my work prior to submission”. NB: I also understand that under no circumstances should any part of this assignment be published, including on the Internet, or publicity displayed without receiving written permission from the school. Signature: Giuseppe Napoli Date: 16.11.2015 Executive Summary The Walt Disney is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment company, founded in Burbank, California in 1923 by two brothers Walt and Roy O. Disney. The companies success can be attributed to the ability exceed customer’s expectation and deliver magical moments to the audience. The main core value of the company can be identified in the cast members, who are considered the main bridge to deliver the company’s core values. As well to support cast members the company equipped the park with new technologies, the process not only reduce waiting time but...

Words: 3137 - Pages: 13

Free Essay

Business

...property that they identify as having heritage value or heritage character. A key piece of each record on a community heritage register is the Statement of Significance. This is the part that satisfies the Local Government Act requirement to indicate the reasons why property included in a community heritage register is considered to have heritage value or heritage character. A Statement of Significance (SoS):  summarizes the description, heritage value and character-defining elements of each historic place  reflects modern values concerning history and historic places  identifies what part of history a historic place represents, and how and why that is of value and importance today Writing a Statement of Significance about a historic place does not establish its heritage value. The SoS simply records the heritage values that community members already associate with the place. It shows how a particular historic place represents broader community heritage values that, ideally, have been identified in advance through extensive research and community consultation as part of the local government’s heritage conservation program. The heritage values identified within a Statement of Significance extend beyond the physical aspects of the historic place. A community’s historic places are the physical manifestation of the aesthetic, historic, scientific, cultural, social or spiritual heritage values which form the heritage character of the community. The SoS...

Words: 5441 - Pages: 22

Premium Essay

Service Operation of Restaurants-Fastfood Joints

...FASTFOOD / RESTAURANT INDUSTRY Introduction Indian QSR (quick service restaurants) Industry is growing very rapidly. It is a reflection of the change in the lifestyle, food habits and consumption pattern of the population. The incidence of Dining out, ordering from home as well as takeaways is rising creating an opportunity to cater to a wide mass of population. What was the domain of upper class, singles or forced bachelors, has percolated to all echelons of society. The incidence and value differ substantially, but penetration of such consumption habits is wide spread and is on the increase. Although largely an urban phenomenon, the pattern is also emerging in rural areas with better road connectivity, increased vehicle ownership and rise in income levels. In a country with more than a billion people, opportunities in India are abound. This has led to a rapid growth of the QSR industry. However, simultaneously, it has also created a canvass that has many failures and carcass. Several outlets have been closed, a large number are struggling, still a large number are just about surviving and lot many of them have not been able to find their feet. There are a lot who are successful, but, more importantly, there is almost a complete absence of national chains. This indicates to the fact that just having a lot of opportunities is not enough. These opportunities need to be harnessed and converted into profitable enterprises. This paper is an attempt to understand the industry, its...

Words: 6779 - Pages: 28

Premium Essay

4p's in a Restaurant

...Lesson 4 Assessment Tool: Marketing Plan Framework This Assessment Tool contains real world examples, guiding principles, practical worksheets, and information that can help you complete a 4E-based marketing plan for your business. This Tool can serve as companion activities for Lesson 4. 4.1. Executive summary: This is a summary of the marketing plan, so it is usually prepared after the plan has been completed. It should summarize: Situation analysis results Marketing goals and objectives Proposed marketing actions (strategies and tactics) to meet goals and objectives Proposed marketing budget and key resources that are necessary to implement the marketing actions Expected outcomes of the proposed marketing actions 4.2. Mission Statement: This statement summarizes the guiding principles for your business. Some example mission statements are shown below with the type of information to be included. The three examples are presented in the way that you can see one from a well-established government organization and two from small businesses like yours. Try one on your own after examining the examples. A. Federal Food and Drug Administration (http://www.fda.gov/opacom/morechoices/mission.html): “The FDA is responsible for protecting the public health by assuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices, our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation. The FDA is also responsible for advancing the...

Words: 3623 - Pages: 15