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When living a nomadic lifestyle, many hardships will be face which can teach one the ability to persevere through them.

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Early in the book when the family lived in the trailer park Jeannette had to cook on her own. She was cooking hot dogs by herself while the parents were not paying attention to her. Then a tragic event took place. "I felt a blaze of heat on my right side. I turned to see where it was coming from and realized my dress was on fire"(Walls 9).
Significance: This foreshadows what happen to Jeannette later in the book where she becomes attracted to fire.
Reflection: Jeannette included this in her book to show the readers the hardship she faced when she was young. This scared her for the rest of her life and sparked and interest in playing with fire.

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The Walls family is doing the skedaddle when Jeannette falls out of their clunker car.  She is left behind for a couple of minutes when she begins to wonder about her true meaning to her family.  She later states, "I thought  you were going to leave me" (Walls 31) when her father returned to get her.
Significance:  Jeannette begins to feel that her family doesn't love her as much as she once thought.  She is also beginning to see the faults of her family due to the abnormal movements they partake in.
Reflection:  I think that Jeannette included this part in the memoir to show the readers the hardships she faced.  She was forgotten about often as can be seen.  I think that she finally found out that she isn't the most important thing on her parents minds.  The fact that she still admired her father even though he continued down the road without knowing that she fell out, is something to think about too. It shows that the father is oblivious to things that don't involve him.

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The Walls family decided to take a trip to the Hot Pot it was a natural Sulfur spring in the desert.  When they arrived everyone jumped in except Jeannette who clanged to the side of the spring.  She never learned how to swim.  After that her dad made her hold on to him as they swam across on the way back though he let her go in the middle she almost drowned, but Rex grabbed her and pulled her back up they got out and then he grabbed Jeannette and threw her back into the middle time after time until she learned.  Rex called out to her, "Sink or Swim"(Walls 66).
Significance:  After Rex throws her in she starts to lose faith in her father.  This is significant because Jeannette is the only one who still has any faith in her father and if she loses faith no one will believe in or want to have Rex around.
Reflection:  I think that as Rex threw her in Jeannette actually thought that he was injuring her.  Also she didn't think anybody loved her because the rest of the family watched as Rex would throw her in the Hot Pot.

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Awhile back, Rex had taken Brian out for his birthday and Rex bought Brian a comic book.  After that they went to the Owl Club and Rex, Ginger, and Brian had dinner.  After dinner they went up stairs into a hotel room where Rex cheated on Rosemary with a whore from the Green Lantern.  After Rex cheated the whore from the Green Lantern asked to see Brian's comic book, they read through it once and Brian's dad said that he should give it to her.  Brian said, "It was mine! And she kept asking me to read the bigger words.  She's a grown-up, and she can't even read a comic book"(Walls 79).
Significance:  Brian figured out what they do at the Green Lantern and never actually tells Jeannette what they do because he doesn't want to show Jeannette the dark side in her father.  She is the only one of the family who still believes in her father.
Reflection:  I think that as Brian started to understand what his father was doing he matured.  He understood how not to be a father and he wanted to let Jeannette not go through this experience like he did.

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Battle Mountain was where the Wall family stayed for the longest time when Jeannette was a child.  Jeannette began to think of it as a home even more than the other places they have lived due to this.  Jeannette stated, " I was happy in Battle Mountain.  We'd been there for nearly a year, and I considered it home-the first real home I could remember" (Walls 81).
Significance:  Despite most people not taking a liking to Battle Mountain, Jeannette liked it due to the fact that it was the only home she could think of.  This goes to show how much the Walls family moved around, and how tough it was on the children.  Furthermore, Jeannette learned to cherish the time that the family spent in Battle Mountain.
Reflection:  I think that it's depressing that Jeannette just had a sense of what having a "home" was like when she was 8 years old.  The thought of not having a home was a hardship for her. Despite the fact that she didn't have a so called home prior to Battle Mountain Jeannette still made the most out of what she had. She had to see the positive side of her situations most of her life, which is sad.

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The Walls kids are playing a game of hide and seek with their neighbors. Jeannette is hiding in a abandoned shed when a new kid named Billy Deel comes into it with her.  He begins to ask her questions about the Green Lantern, and Jeannette becomes very uncomfortable with him.  He later kisses her and gives her a ring.  Later, Jeannette goes to return the ring and Billy becomes frustrated with her.  He told her, " Guess what?  I raped you!" (Walls 87).
Significance:   Jeannette chose to put this information in the memoir to show how innocent she was. She even said in the book that she needed to look it up, and she still didn't understand what the word meant.  This was the fist time that Jeannette had an event to this degree happen to her.
Reflection:   I feel that Jeannette put this in the memoir for the readers to decide what really happened to her. During the incident, the way she describes what happened to her doesn't truly sound like rape.  But she may have left out parts for Billy to call it rape, parts that she didn't want us, the readers, to find out about.

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When the Walls kids were in the house at Battle Mountain playing cards Billy Deel came in and started to shoot them with his bb gun. The Walls family quickly took action in protecting themselves hiding behind the table. Billy didn't stop shooting until Lori came downstairs with their dad's gun. "Its real, all right! Its my dads gun"(Walls 88). Then Lori shoot at Billy but misses, soon after Billy hightails it down the tracks but then stopped and started to shoot again. This time Lori hands the gun to Jeannette who is a better shooter and she shoots at Billy but misses.
Significance: This leads the family to move to another place. Moving to another place means they have to start all over again.  This is important because they made this place their first real home.
Reflection: I would consider this event a hardship because of the place they were living in.

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One night when Jeannette was almost ten, she was awakened by someone running his hands over her private parts.  At first it was confusing.  Lori and her slept in the same bed, and I thought maybe she was moving in her sleep.  I groggily pushed the hand away.  She yelled and kicked the man's hand. Brian came in with a hatchet and the man ran out of the room.  "I just want to play a game with you" , a man's voice said (Walls 103).
Significance:  This event shows the parents careless action saying that they didn't need to lock doors or close windows.  This is endangering the kids because anyone can just come and go as they please.  In the night Jeannette, Lori, and Brian are all at a great risk of becoming injured.
Reflection:  I feel that the unsafe conditions the parents are putting them through are hardships.  The parents think that the best way to learn is to go through these experiences in this case that is the worst idea.  This act is giving people free rein to violate, injure,  or even kill the kids.

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Children: Young shirtless boy with a toy hatchet

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Young shirtless boy with a toy hatchet. Children picture by Creatista. You may easily purchase this image I1895442 as Guest without opening an account.

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After Rosemary's mother died, the Walls family moved into one of the houses she owned. While living there Rex had a job, but lost it due to petting animals at the zoo. He claims that because of the mob owning the electrical union, he was unable to get another job. He said, "In order to get another job, he had to run the mob out of town, which required a lot of undercover work. And the best place to get information was the bars that the mobsters owned" (Walls 112). As a result of the extravagant amount of time Rex spends at the bars, he often comes home drunk, and he makes time worse in the house.
Significance: When Rex spends time in the bar getting drunk he is away from his kids.  After the kids start to realize that the dad really isn't providing for anyone they don't believe in him. Then the kids even Rosemary start to get injured as Rex comes home looking to beat Rosemary.
Reflection:  I think that as he started coming home drunk the kids felt the need to protect each as well as their mom. All the kids start to feel nervous as the father comes home looking to injure someone. This was a hardship for all of them because they need to protect themselves as well as everyone else.

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When the Walls to go to church as a family, Rex ends up getting threw out of the church. Rex was angry after this event happened. When they got home Rosemary gave a brass cigarette lighter to Rex as a gift. Then Rex lit it up and studied it for awhile. Then he came up with an idea: "Let's really light up this Christmas"(Walls 115). Then Rex lights up the Christmas tree and watches it burn.
Significance: After Rex lit up the Christmas tree all the presents were destroyed. This would have been the first real Christmas the Walls family would have had.
Reflection:  When reading this book this was a surprise to me because why would Rex ruin their kid's first Christmas. This shows the kind of father Rex is. He cares enough to have Christmas with his kids, but ends up running it for them because of his anger.