Brandon Alecio- The Glass castle by Brandon Alecio-146005718

Personal Reflection

146005718 — 2024-01-23 16:48:43 UTC

I don't share any experiences with the characters, they live a very different life than I do. I guess we both have 2 other siblings, and my family is more caring than the family in the book. Some families tend to try and make their kids learn to be independent and fend for themselves.

Social Issue

146005718 — 2024-01-23 16:48:43 UTC

I feel like social class plays a huge part in the book currently. I feel this because their dad is trying to build a machine to find gold so they don't have to worry about money again. But at the same time they don't have money so they try to get money but when their debts get to large or they can't pay they tend to disappear during the night. They also have a decent education because they are home school but their parents are well knowledge and they get to go to actual school whenever they get the chance

Quote

146005718 — 2024-01-23 16:48:43 UTC

Jeannette is talking to her mother about Digging up a Tree from the desert "I told Mom that I would protect it from the wind and water it every day so that it could grow nice and tall and straight. Mom frowned at me. “You’d be destroying what makes it special,” she said. “It’s the Joshua tree’s struggle that gives it its beauty.” This stood out to me because it was like a representation of their family. How their parents kept running away from the bill collectors but they were okay with living on run.

Formalist Lens

146005718 — 2024-01-23 16:48:43 UTC

A recurring pattern that I could see is that the parents seem carefree. In the glass castle there was a scene where Jeannette was 3 years old boiling hot dogs, and then her dress had caught in fire. Another was that she had fallen out of the car and the parents kept on driving.
A figure of speech that I feel is used often is Hyperbole. Jeannette's father is always telling his kids all these crazy stories that he has been on. Like how they are running from the FBI when in reality they are just running from the bill collectors. Or when they were in San Francisco that supposedly a demon that had been following them for years is under Jeannette's bed but it most likely is a raccoon by the way they described it
10. A gap that i would like the author to fill is why are the parents comfortable with living if they don't have a care in the world. If the mothers parents are wealthy why don't they leave the kids with the grandmother to take care of them and have them live a better life

Self reflection

146005718 — 2024-02-06 21:56:10 UTC

How might readers in different time periods or of different ages interpret the text? I feel like the younger audience won't be able to understand the bad things in the book. For example like the father going to the green lantern and cheating on the mother. Another example that the younger people might not understand is the fathers addiction to alcohol. The older audience would have a better understanding of all the problems that the family is going through.
What was the work’s original intended audience? To what extent are you similar or different from that audience?
I feel like the book wasn't really meant for a specific audience but more like to share her story and what she went through. Maybe it could have been meant for teens which are going through the same thing to tell them that they aren't alone.
How does the meaning of a text change as you reread it? The text for me doesn't really change as I reread because so far of what I have read isn't really giving any for shadowing or nothing is hidden. But sometimes it gives some information like early on in the book we learn that sometimes the father drinks, but later in the story we find out that he is heavy addicted to drinking.

Quote

146005718 — 2024-02-07 17:34:03 UTC

Jeanette was speaking to her mother about Erma saying she hates Her but her Mother says "You should never hate anyone, even your worst enemies. Everyone has something good about them. You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that"(walls,pg?). This could be taken as you shouldn't hate someone right away, rather try and find something that makes them worthy to you. Find something about that person to appeals to you and find a reason to try and like them.

Social Issue

146005718 — 2024-02-07 17:36:41 UTC

So far in this book there are a lot of problems due to social class and money. They have to keep moving to various places to keep on trying to find jobs and ways to make money. The kids have to wear the same clothes multiple times a week, and most of their clothes are dirty, ripping and other things to make the clothes look really used. The mother doesn't and the dad has to get weird jobs to make money for them to survive on. They are also irresponsible with money because the mother keeps buying things to make her paintings better rather should be trying to save in case of emergency

Personal Experience

146005718 — 2024-02-07 17:43:46 UTC

Like I have stated before, I don't really share many personal experiences but the one thing I can relate to are the parents. When we were younger we really couldn't afford much and my father was working long hours but still spent a good amount of money on addictions like alcohol, and my mother was good with money, she would save anything she earned and tried to make sure there was always food at home. My mother and father were both loving parents and tried their best to support 3 kids going to school with clothes,supplies and other things need to live comfortable

Social Class

146005718 — 2024-02-08 17:35:16 UTC

How do economic conditions determine the characters' lives? The economic conditions in Welch aren't the best because there is rarely any job opening and the land if very poor. Welch doesn't have any sewage or plumbing so it all goes to the river and when it rains the river overflows and it gets all over the trees. In the book it stated that During one of John F. Kennedy's visit he saw how poor the town was and decided that they needed help so Welch was the first ever town to receive food stamps.

Quote

146005718 — 2024-02-12 18:14:35 UTC

Jeanette was speaking to herself saying "We were always doing the skedaddle, usually in the middle of the night."(Walls,Pg ?).This can show the constant movement and lack of permanence in the Walls family's life. This gives us a glimpse of their impermanent life style, because often they have to leave to avoid paying their debts or other financial problems. This can emphasizes the struggles of being in a lower class because that means that they aren’t financially stable so they build up debt and leave because they can’t pay it off.

Social issue

146005718 — 2024-02-12 18:15:56 UTC

A Issue about social class I see in the glass castle is in poverty . The book explores how in lower classes people have to face more difficulties due to the fact they can not support themselves and that keeps making it harder to get themselves out of poverty. The walls family fell into poverty because their parents are smart with the money they get and waste it on trying to make it as a painter for the mother and the father struggles to make good financial decisions. They have to deal with limited resources, education, and opportunities that could have helped them break free from the cycle of poverty

Personal experience

146005718 — 2024-02-12 18:22:17 UTC

My family had struggled before when my mother and father had me as their last kid. My mother and father struggled to find housing because nobody wanted to rent a room to them because my mother had “too many kids”(My 2 sisters and I). But at some point my mother had an offer from her friend to rent an apartment but even then she had to feed us and make money for to us to get clothes. My father had it the hardest, he was working long hours just to make due meets and feed us, but he tried his best and did all he could. Maybe if we had a bit more help we also could have had a better time but it was hard for my parents to deal with all that with limited family here too.

Psychological Lens

146005718 — 2024-02-21 18:00:35 UTC

What forces are motivating the characters?

I believe some forces that are motivating the characters could be trying to live a better life. In the book Jeanette is tired of her father coming home and a drunk and disappearing for days on end and spending all of their money. The mother is no better, she left for California trying to live her life while she leaves the 4 children alone. Jeanette realized that they didn't have enough money to live on so she did babysitting and other side hustles to try and earn money for food and other things if needed. Another motivation could be that Jeanette isn't happy with the way things are and she is trying to change the way they live or trying to make it more livable for her siblings and her

Personal Reflection

146005718 — 2024-02-21 18:03:44 UTC

To this part of the book I'm not really able to relate to Jeanette. My family isn't the best either but my mother didn't leave to try and chase some childish dream she had, she did everything in her power to make sure we had food,clothes and the essential things we needed. My father was a hard worker trying to provide as well but he was also a drunk but not a bad one like in the glass castle. My mother and father had always tried to provide and do their best to be in my sisters and I life.

Quote

146005718 — 2024-02-21 18:25:40 UTC

Jeanette was speaking to her mother about another way they would be able to get groceries and suggest welfare and then her mother says (Once you go on welfare it changes you. Even if you get off welfare, you never escape the stigma that you were a charity case. You're scarred for life.) (Walls,Pg ?). Her mother insists that she doesn't want them to be a charity case and that she doesn't want to accept the money. Even though they could really use the money to buy food, the mom thinks that the welfare will make the children more dependent from the government and they are trying to teach them to independent based off their parenting style