A lot changes once the Walls family leaves the desert and puts down roots in Welch. How does Jeannette's tone and way of telling the story differ once they move to Welch? Why is it different? Find a specific example that demonstrates this difference and analyze it in some depth.
14 Comments
Sophia
10/14/2015 02:58:30 pm
Once Jeannette moves to Welch her naivety greatly subsides. She has become more aware of the harsh circumstances of the world and starts to see the true nature of her parents, (especially her father.) She loses her belief in him that she once always had. This is evident when she gets fed up and decides to move to New York. That night her father comes into her room with the finished blueprints of the glass castle. He asks her to stay, bribing her by saying he will finally build them the glass castle. This time Jeannette is not fooled. She expresses that she knows he will never actually build it, and will be leaving Welch for good, no longer enjoying the adventure she once saw in her family.
Reply
John
10/14/2015 05:07:57 pm
When Jeannette settles down in Welch, her tone becomes more serious and less naïve. It becomes different because she gets more mature and begins to understand their situation in life and life in general. A example of this is when Erma tells Brian that his pants are ripped and tells him to let her mend them with them on. Erma then attempts to molest him but Jeannette comes in and stops her, calling her out on what she had done. Before, Jeannette never would've gave much thought about it and probably wouldn't even notice. Now, she has become aware about evils in life. She now knows molestation/rape is bad unlike the time in Battle Mountain.
Reply
Hanna
10/14/2015 05:52:45 pm
When the Walls family is living in the desert, Jeannette’s tone is more so innocent and accepting towards her parents and their wildly unstable ways of living. Once the family moves to Welch, Jeannette’s tone gradually changes to one of gloom, bitterness, and disgust towards the same things. This drastic change in tone occurred because as a child living in the desert, Jeannette knew nothing other than her family’s dysfunctional way of living, which she found difficult and dangerous at times but also bearable. After the move to Welch, many aspects of Jeannette’s home life became exceptionally worse, which helped her to better understand the flaws in her family. When Rex stopped drinking in Phoenix and Lori doubted the withdrawal would last, Jeannette stood by her father, stating that, “This time it will” (Walls 118). After living in Welch for several years in dire conditions, Rex and Jeannette get into an argument that ends up with her angrily asking him a question: “And why don’t you act like a dad?” (220). This illustrates her change in tone since Jeannette was always well known in her family for being the one to stand by and support Rex no matter what offense he had committed. In Welch, Rex’s previously-existing alcoholism escalated to a point never witnessed by Jeannette prior to living there; not only did this help her better understand their appalling situation, but it made her lose a great deal of her faith in her father, his promises, and their family’s entire lifestyle.
Reply
Alex
10/14/2015 06:57:41 pm
Once Jeannette moves from the dessert to Welch, she becomes less naïve and ignorant. She starts to see things for what they really are such as her harsh living conditions and her parents. She begins to lose faith in her father who ever since she was a young kid, adored. This is shown in the summer when her mother goes away to school again and she is forced to care for the rest of the kids by herself. Once her mother returns, she comments on how the mother is not a good mother and should start acting like one and she does not back down even when her father tells her to apologize. This is because Jeannette has grown up and mature and realized just as Lori had, that her parent are selfish, neglectful, and manipulative. Another example of this is when her dad takes her to a bar to make some money, however uses her to get it in the way of letting a man grope her and take her upstairs to do other activities. Rex tries to justify it and say he only let her go upstairs because he knew that she could handle herself. However Jeannette is no longer as naïve as she was in the dessert and sees through the lies and remains mad at her father. Had this happened in the dessert, she would not have remained mad at him for so long. Also, Mrs, Schnarr, I'm unsure if we will talk about this in class, but did anyone find it sad when her dads hand was trembling because he was sad she was leaving and was in desperation to get her to stay?
Reply
Yasmine
10/15/2015 06:12:12 am
After Jeannette moved to welch, her tone of telling the story became more mature and less innocent. She became more assertive and had her own thoughts of the situations happening in life. This is because she had grown up and with her life experiences she knows how to define what is right and what is wrong, she gradually started to have her own point of views. When Rex asked what she wanted for her birthday present, instead of asking for a toy or something for herself, she wished for her dad to stop drinking. She wanted her family to have a better life.That wish benefits the whole family. This was the time when she started to lose faith in her father, she no longer admired him like she did before. Becoming more mature, she now knows that her dad is wrong in some ways. If it was in the desert she would stand by him for no reason, but now she no longer is his mouton goat anymore.
Reply
Meagan
10/15/2015 03:02:48 pm
As Jeanette grew up, she learned some of the hard truth of the way her parents raised her and her siblings. The mood of the story changes from Jeanette being at first, naive and unaware of her situation to her growing up and becoming more independent and knowledgeable. When she lived in the desert, she was aware that her family was somewhat different from others but she accepted it and even loved at times her "on the run" lifestyle. As Jeanette got older she became wiser, in Welch when realized of her parents parenting style was lacking responsibility and the proper care that one child needs. A quite clear example of when Jeanette becomes fully aware of her situation is when it's the summer and she is given all the money to manage and buy food for the whole family. Rex asked Jeanette multiple times for money to buy cigarettes or booze instead of using the money for the whole family to use for food. Rex at this point takes advantage of her because he knew that she would never say no to her father. Jeanette finally learning the ways of her father and she knew that he was manipulating her for his sole benefit. Since Jeanette is no longer ignorant to her father she no longer has faith in him which she did have prior to moving to Welch. Due to this change in Jeanette's observations about her family, the tone of the book changes as well from once a more upbeat and naive mood when she was a child to a now bleak and somber tone.
Reply
Cam
10/15/2015 03:45:55 pm
During her time living in the desert, Jeanette views her life as one big adventure. This allows her to ignore many of the negative things in her life and to simply focus on the journey. The Walls family's nomadic way of life instills a sense of freedom and joy in Jeanette, and this is evident when she writes about that period of her life. Jeanette is also younger at this stage of her life and the thoughts and perceptions that her writing convey to the reader are more naïve, and certainly less critical than those that come later in the book. This all contributes to an lighthearted and upbeat tone during her time in the dessert. However, this all changes when Jeanette arrives in Welch. A sedentary lifestyle, unusually squalid living conditions and an increasingly useless set of parents all contribute to slowly change the tone of Jeanette's writing from what it was to miserable and downtrodden. This tone, and the factors that contribute to creating it, are evident when the "escape fund" that Jeanette and Laurie had amassed is stolen brazenly by Jeanette's father. The writing at this point rises to a new pitch of misery and despair as Jeanette loses the last shreds of innocence and naïvety in respect to the character of her father. Thus, we can perceive a marked difference in tone between Jeanette's time in the dessert and her time in Welch.
Reply
Brianna
10/15/2015 04:34:17 pm
When the Walls family moved from the desert to Welch, Jeanette's tone and view on her family's way of living changes significantly. As a child, constantly moving homes was seen as an adventure. The Walls children were naïve and accepted how her parents behaved. Jeanette started to realise that her parents were neglectful and selfish. During the scene where Jeanette was determined to fix up the house by suggesting to decorate and paint it, it was evident that she was concerned about what others thought of her dysfunctional family. The tone changes from adventurous and happy to lost and confused (when the Walls family moves from the desert to Welch).
Reply
Katie
10/15/2015 06:24:44 pm
When Jeanette and her family move to Welch, Jeanette's tone changes from innocent to aware. When they're in the desert, Jeanette is young and innocent, she isn't aware of the problems that her family is facing because she is too young to understand her parents ways of life. When they arrive in Welch she begins to open her eyes and become more aware of her dads drinking problems and her moms foolish way of spending their money. We really see a different tone from Jeanette when she decides to move to New York with Lori. She is finally on her own and her perspective on life is completely different. Her dad basically begs her to stay in Welch because he feels like the last person that believes in him is leaving but that doesn't stop Jeanette from making this life changing decision. Jeanette's tone in the desert is innocent but when she moves to Welch she is more aware of her surroundings and is able to break free from her poisonous family. The
Reply
Benjamin
10/15/2015 06:39:07 pm
When the family settles in Welch, Jeanetts' tone changes from excitement about discovering and sunny places to hatred and need to get out, or live a better lifestyle. An example of this is when Rex's mother starts beating the children, and Jeannette only wants to leave and nothing else. Also, when Rex begins drinking more than ever, she feels the family is breaking up. Lastly, when she finally feels part of a group at the community pool with the black people, but then is shut out once Dinita loses control of her life and once again, Jeanette doesn't feel welcome anywhere.
Reply
Mylinh
10/15/2015 07:57:13 pm
The tone that the story adapts when they move to Welch turns more serious because Jeannette starts to understand her lifestyle, what reality is actually like, and societal norms. For example, when Brian was touched by Erma, Jeannette makes a big deal out of it, while when she was touched by Billy her reaction was less extreme compared to Brian's incident. So therefore, she has a similar situation to a "loss of innocence" transitional period were she understands more about what is happening around her opposed to when she thinks about everything as an adventure.
Reply
Narmeen S
10/17/2015 05:28:06 pm
The Wall family, especially Jeanette, had been optimistic up to the point of Phoenix. While living in the desert, they had made the most of their living satiation, and made their hardships into adventures and games. She had overcome hard obstacles rather quickly. The Glass Castle idea their dad had brought into their lives had given them hope to a better future. Jeanette and her siblings had been extremely naive, and did not realize how poorly they were living. That had soon changed when they arrive in Welch, the place everyone was stuck in, and could not leave. An example of how her tone had changed when they arrived in Welch was when Brian and Jeanette dug a hole for the foundation of the Glass Castle, and was later turned into a garbage dump; “Brian and I watched, the hole for the Glass Castle’s foundation slowly filled with garbage” (155). While in Welch, the Wall family had sunk to a whole new low, and finally had hit rock bottom. Although Jeanette, Brian, Lori and Maureen despised Welch and everything about it, they learned a lot about themselves and also their parents.
Reply
Kyle
10/18/2015 05:05:10 pm
After moving to Welch, Jeanette becomes much more serious, and critical of her family's way of life. Rather treating odd incidents with a sort of weird fascination, Jeanette despises anything out of the ordinary that her family does. She hates not having a lunch for school, and living in a house that is literally coming apart at the seams. I believe this change in Jeanette's state of mind stems mostly from two things. Firstly, Jeanette is now older and is able to draw her own conclusions about the circumstances she lives in, and secondly Jeanette realizes that her family is not going to move around any more. When Jeanette comes to the conclusion that Welch is where her family is going to stay, she immediately changes in tone. She is not happy in Welch, and sees that her parents have now lost all motivation. The father sinks to a new low, and the mother is more useless than ever. Jeanette knows that in Welch things will never improve, and her new tone reflects that. She now sees through her fathers facade of confidence, and learns that she cannot rely on her parents to perform as such. All this leads Jeanette to despise Welch, and become more distant from her parents. This in turn cause her tone to become much harsher, and focus much more on negative experiences as such, rather than as adventures.
Reply
Blake H.
10/20/2015 05:15:11 am
Upon settling in Welch Jeanette loses much of her eagerness to learn and explore and just has the urge to leave because she feels she has no better option this is shown as her dad takes her to the train station and they don't have the same connection anymore
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
ENG 3UI BlogThis blog will serve as another way in which you can communicate your ideas to your classmates and contribute your thoughts to discussions. Archives
November 2015
Categories |