Summary of pages 285-288

The Glass Castle Blog

Thursday, January 16, 2020

The Glass Castle pages 285-288

Journal Prompt: Imagine your father passing away, how would you react if you saw your mom for the first time in five years since your fathers funeral

Summary: It has been five years since Jeanette Walls Dad had died. The whole family minus Maureen, is, getting together at Jeanette and her new husband John's, old farmhouse for Thanksgiving. Her mom arrives with Lori on the train, her mom wears four ratty sweaters while holding four garbage like bags full of gifts for John and Jeanette's family. While Lori shows up in a cap and Fedora. Even though she has not seen her mother since her father's funeral she still welcomes her mother with open arms. When her mother does come off the train she is very excited to see Jeanette and her husband John. As Jeanette hugs her mom she described that her long hair is mostly gray, however, her eyes are still very bright and her cheeks are roses. When they finally drive through the countryside and arrive at Jeanette and John's new home, John's 15-year-old daughter he had with his previous marriage runs out along with Brian to welcome them.

Jeanette showed her mom and Lori the house they both loved and appreciated the house. In the kitchen, food was cooking for dinner. The mother had some good news at dinner and that was after her being a squatter for 15 years and the city decided to sell her apartment to the other squatters for one dollar apiece. She couldn't stay long because she had to get to a board meeting of the squatters. The mom had been in touch with Maureen who is living in California. After that, they went on and started to talk about Rex. The mom said, "Life with your father was never boring."

By: Kurtis Cina, Edan Alkovic, Elli Rode

The Glass Castle Summary Pages 252 - 261

Journal Prompt: How can you try to help someone who doesn't want help?

Summary:

Jeannette has moved to New York on her own. She is in a private college at this point. One morning, she had heard on the radio that there was a traffic jam on the New Jersey Turnpike. She heard that a van had broken down, causing a large traffic jam. 

Later, Jeanette gets a phone call. It is from her mother. Her mother tells Jeannette news about how she and Jeanette’s father are moving to New York. Jeannette asks her mother about the van, to which her mother confirms that, yes, the van was her parents. When Jeannette tells her about how it was all over the radio, her mother is not embarrassed or worried about it at all, but rather excited, saying “We only just got here, and now we’re famous!”

When Jeanette asks why they’re here they respond saying that hey wanted to become a family again.

Months go by and Jeannette’s parents move from neighborhood to neighborhood in the area, each time getting kicked out because of something Jeannette’s father did. They lived in Lori and Maureen’s apartment for a while and Brian’s. But eventually, they were kicked out for good after they broke everyone’s temper so much. 

Once or twice a month then, the “family” would meet up at Lori’s apartment. Jeanette’s parents would describe how they made it on their own in New York City. Her mother describes it as “an adventure.” When winter comes, it is freezing, and they definitely do have it hard out on the streets. But yet, her parents still don’t budge and prefer to live out on the cold streets alone. Jeanette and her siblings suggest that her mother sell many of the valuable items they have, like the diamond ring from a long time ago. But her mother is not convinced.

Jeannette in her normal life is inquired many times about homeless people. But never does she ever tell anyone about the truth of her parents- the poor lives they lead. 

When winter ends, Jeannette’s are still in New York. But her father comes up with tuberculosis. He is hospitalized. Jeannette visits him from time to time. But it is clear that his health is slowly decreasing, and he is positive that the tuberculosis will kill him.

Emily DiGiuseppe - Summary
Lily Olszowski - Summary
Maria Manniello - Journal Prompt

Blog Post pages 203-213: Glass Castle

Journal Entry: As a kid Jeannette Walls age how would you handle situations where your father is using you for money to buy Alcohol and Cigarettes? Has any teacher had faith in you where no one else has and has had made a huge impact on your life? 

The reading starts off by saying how Jeanette is joining the school newspaper club called the “Maroon Wave.” She says how she wants to be apart of something that people won’t bully her and move away from her when people sit next to her. Jeanette then explains how she is a good runner and wanted to be on the track team but with the fees, her mother couldn't afford it. Miss Bivens, the “Maroon Wave” advisor, was also Rexs teacher when he was young. Miss Bivens was the only one who had faith in Rex and was the one who told him to run back to the school after a poem contest incident. This showed Rex how much she cared about him and ended up naming Jeannette after Miss Bivens. Everyday Jeannette would go to the newsrooms and watch how the process works. The “Wave” was written there so she was there. She watched the editors and reporters of the real newspaper of the town and was very interested. She had never known what was going on in the world except for her Mom and Dad's twisted version of everything. 

In the next chapter, Jeannette starts off by saying how she feels that she has failed as a sister of Maureen. Her job was to protect her and she hasn't done that. She wanted to be a good sister this year for her birthday and wanted to get her something because she knew her mom and dad wouldn't get her anything. She saved up for months and Brian, Lori and Jeannette ended up getting her a plastic kitchen appliance set. 

Jeannette then starts to talk about how her mother's mood swings were making Jeannette upset. She would be happy for a little and then mad and have a mental breakdown. She explains how one morning of one of her breakdowns Jeannette was mad and proclaimed how she needs to not be a baby and toughen up. Nothing would cheer her Mom up and Jeannette was getting frustrated. Jeannette thinks it's her mom's fault for not keeping control of her dad and Lori thinks the opposite. 

The summer came up and Jeannette wanted to prove that she could manage her father and control him. Her mom left for 8 weeks to go to Charleston, South Carolina taking college courses. Jeannette was given $200 for food and bills and after the first week, Rex manipulated Jeannette into giving him money for beer and cigarettes. She wanted to say no but she also had to give it to him because it is her father. She says how he knows she has a soft spot for him and he took advantage of it. She was feeling used. He kept on using her for more and more money. He asked for 20 and she gave it to him because of his excuse for borrowing a friend's car and needed to put gas in it. He used the money for something else. He was scamming her of her money. She kept trying to say no and that the money was for bills and things like that, but Rex kept making excuses to get more money off her. It puts the family in a hole they can't get out of and that's why they live in poverty. 

Made By: Jeremy Schon, Braydon DiBlasio, and Eric Dau

Pages 186-195 The Glass Castle

Journal Prompt:  Imagine this you are poor found something as valuable as a diamond ring. What would you do with it and why?

Summary: As Brian picked up a rotting piece of wood Jeanette and Brian found a diamond ring. They thought this could help there current position in life. After showing it to their mother, Rosemary kept the ring. She exclaimed that it would boost her self esteem. After having the ring she wore it with pride and was in a good mood. Then Jeanette figured out that her father was the one dragging down the family with his crazy actions, and suggested that her mother should leave her father. So when she told her mother about this she immediately denied it and kept believing in Jeanette’s father. All through summer Jeanette’s father never found out about her proposition and was happy with her all summer.  Also in the summer one day, Jeanette befriended a girl around her age named Dinita. They wanted to go swimming however, because of segregation they had to go when the African Americans were allowed to swim because Dinita was black. Later on, Jeanette was home alone and child welfare came to the door. He claimed that a neighbor of Jeanette’s had said that her parents had been neglecting Jeanette and her siblings. He promised to come back later to see her parents but he never showed. Jeanette was very upset at this man and gave her parents his card and they both were silent. Then her mother answered and just said that she was going to get a job.

The Glass Castle Blog Post 1/8/20- Pages 145-148

JOURNAL: Do you think the father was right to act so harshly towards the children? Why?


SUMMARY:
On page 145, in the late winter, Jeanette’s parents drove the Oldsmobile back to Phoenix, after moving to Welch, West Virginia, to pick up stuff they had left behind like bikes and their school records. Their parents left them with their grandma, even though Jeanette and her siblings were missing Phoenix.

The book continues on the next page by describing Lori as a teenager and Jeannette and Brian not far behind. Because of this problem, their parents leave them with Erma (Rex’s Mom). Jeannette believes that their parents will come to get them soon and that makes her very hopeful for a better life. The book then leads into how strict Erma was and her childhood. After about a week of the parents being gone Erma decided that Brains britches needed mending. She took him into her room and told him to leave his clothes on. Jeannette head Brian weakly protest so she decided to check it out. Jeannette walked in on Brian crying and holding his hands protectively over his pants. Jeannette who was obviously disturbed told Erma to leave him alone.

When Jeanette tells the others what Erma has done, Erma denies it and says she was just fixing his pants. But when Jeanette yells at Erma, this angered Erma, and she tries to hit Jeanette. Lori had to step into the situation to calm it down, which causes Erma to hit Lori. Then, Lori hits Erma back and they get into a physical fight until Uncle Stanley woke up and pushed them apart. After the fight, Erma keeps the kids in the basement and doesn’t let them go upstairs, not even to the bathroom. When Jeanette’s parents came back home, Erma told them her side of the story and Rex was very angry. When they tried to tell him the real story their father didn’t believe them and didn’t care.

Page 148 continues with Rex’s harsh comments towards the children. After insulting Brian’s manhood he shakes his head to make the sound of Jeannette’s voice disappear. After Rex goes back upstairs with Erma the children began to wonder if the same thing happened to him. They conclude that it would explain why he drank so much and his anger problems. It would be the reason for not visiting Welch and his childhood home earlier.

The fight between Jeanette and Ernie pages 164-174

The fight between Jeanette and Ernie Pages 164-174 

Journal: How would you feel if you had to provide food with a very limited amount of money? How would you help your family, if you could?

In the beginning of the chapter, in Welch, the Walls family had lots of enemies and tried their best to avoid as many fights as possible.

Jeanette’s biggest fight she got into was the battle of little Hobart Street. It was a fight between Jeanette, Brian versus Ernie, and his friends.

At the time Jeanette was 10 and Brian was 9.  It seemed like Ernie’s goal was to throw the walls family out of Welch.

Jeanette’s mom really liked to read and so did Jeanette’s sister Lori.

Jeanette’s father was drunk one night, so he got in a fight

with a mountain and he said the mountain won.

This fight gave him a big gash in his forearm and a cut on

his head that was so deep that Jeanette could see the white of his skull.

Jeanette got a toothpick and tweezers and picked up some rock

out of his gash then she poured some rubbing alcohol on the wound.

He put a tourniquet around his arm and then he gave

Jeanette the needle and thread to stitch up the wound.

This is because of the fact that Jeanette's mother and

siblings were asleep so she was the only one that could help him.

He then helped her stitch up his arm.

When Jeanette got home after she left the house her father was gone.

He never explained to her why he kept leaving.

Usually, when her dad came home he brought with him some food.

When they got low on food and had nothing to eat they would go hunting for food.

One day when Jeanette was hunting with Brian

they stumbled into an abandoned house with canned foods.

When they tried to open the cans they all exploded so they couldn't eat the food.

Whenever kids throw out food in school,

she would take the food and eat in for herself because she could not afford food.

Jeanette’s mother was a sugar addict and

she compared herself to her father who was an alcoholic.

The Glass Castle Blog Post 1/7/20

Wednesday, January 8th, 2020

JOURNAL: How do you think Jeanette felt to be put in the class for children who struggled in school? Why did her new principal put her in that class?



SUMMARY:
Rose Mary, Rex, Lori, Jeanette, Brian, and Maureen were driving from Phoenix, Arizona to Welch, Kentucky. In Welch, they meet their Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Stanley. They realize soon that their father’s family is not how they had wanted and that they were almost worse than their father. 

Rose Mary and Rex brought them around Welch to show them the history of the town. The town had seemed run down and also could have influenced why her father acted the way he did. Her mother enrolled Jeanette and Brian into the elementary school where they were told that they had disabilities because they spoke faster than the western accented principal. In the class, she had tried to show she didn’t have a disability but the teacher and class made fun of her, they even physically hurt her. 

On the first day at her new school, it was a rainy, dreary day. During her class which was "English for students with learning disabilities," a question was asked by the teacher and Jeanette didn't agree with the said question, so she didn't raise her hand. This then prompted the teacher to mock her defense on why she didn't agree in front of the class and say Phoenix like "'Feeeeenix'". After being humiliated by her teacher, Miss Caparossi, the girl behind Jeanette poked her between the shoulder blades with a sharp pencil, only to beat her up after school. 

Jeanette was threatened and beaten up because the other students thought that she was trying to be better than them. This was due to her mother telling her that she should try to be better than them. Jeanette's bullies pushed her onto the ground, in the rain and mud and started to kick her to their heart's content. 

Riana Tonzola - Summary, Picture and Prompt

Kaitlin Daly - Summary

Sasha Pryce - 

Liana Ferrigno - 

Grandma Dies and Jeannette's Birthday Wish: Pages 91-101, 119-125

JOURNAL: Have your parents selected not to tell you about the passing of a loved one or family pet? If yes, how did you react when you found out? If not, how do you think you would react?

SUMMARY: Jeanette describes her grandmother’s house as big and white with French doors and Persian rugs. She remembers spending time with her grandmother, getting pampered and one day she cut her hair like a “flapper”. Grandma was a teacher in a one room schoolhouse and have very strong opinions about the ways things needed to get done. These rules drove Jeanette’s mother crazy, so she treated her children differently. But Jeannette loved her grandmother.

Her family is on their way to Phoenix where their grandmother lived and Jeannette asks if they are going to her house. He mom tells her that their grandmother is dead. Jeannette became very upset and her mother doesn’t understand why. She doesn’t see how there is any reason why the kids needed to know that she was dead. Her grandmother died of leukemia and Jeannette’s mother said that they shouldn’t grieve because everybody dies at some point. Jeanette’s mother chose to inherit the adobe house in Phoenix’s business district. So they were moving into this house.

The house was practically a mansion with fourteen rooms including the kitchen and bathrooms. They had a huge yard with orange trees. The neighborhood was inhabited by mostly Mexicans and Indians in big houses that were split into apartments. All of the children went to Catholic Schools, but their mother and father didn’t believe in the ways of Catholic schooling. So, they enrolled in a fancy, public school called Emerson. All of them were put into gifted reading groups because of their ability to read. The nurse tested their eye sight and Lori had to get glasses, although Mom disagrees.

They took advantage of all the neighborhood had to offer and bought and sold many items to stay afloat. Mom opened an art studio in the house and Dad joined the electricians union. They even got a telephone. This didn’t last long though, because termites started to eat through the floorboards in the house.


.......


When Jeannette turns ten, she asks Rex for a very specific present: for him to quit drinking. Lori doesn’t believe that he will do it because he’s tried before and always fails. Jeannette, however, is optimistic. Rex locks himself in the bedroom to go through withdrawals and Jeannette is always by the door when she’s home to make sure he is okay.

It took 2 seasons for him to completely sober up and when he was they decided to move again. Jeannette encouraged him to speed on their drive which led to the car breaking down. Rex decided that they could easily walk back to the house in Phoenix to get the tools to fix the car, but it was over 80 miles. On their way, a woman stopped to pick them up and called them “poor people,” which seriously upset Jeannette. When they finally got home, Rex left and didn’t come home that night.

The Hot Pot and Dad lost his job: Pages 64-72

In Battle Mountain they had many pets. They couldn’t afford pet food, so the pets would get their scraps or nothing at all. Mom also would not let them kill any files in the house because it ruined the cycle of life. The flies were needed to feed the lizards, and the lizards were needed to feed the cats.

One day they went to the Hot Pot, a natural sulfur spring in the desert, to go swimming. Brian and Lori knew how to swim, but Jeannette did not. So, Dad decided she was going to learn that day. He would take her out into the deep parts of the water and let her go. Jeannette would be flailing around eventually would start to sink, inhale, water, and almost drown. Each time, her father would pull her out and throw her back to the same fate. She then realized that in order to stop being thrown back into the water she would have to get away from her father. Eventually she got away. This was her father’s way of teaching her to swim. Jeannette was really mad at him for teaching her in this way. But how else would she have learned??

Then Dad lost his job, but he said it was because he had a new plan for finding gold. Times became very tough because there was no way to get food and Dad would be gone for weeks at a time. One day he came home with a package of food. The can of corn was stolen and they ate most of the rest of the food. Lori and Jeannette were so hungry one day that they ate margarine mixed with sugar. Mom yelled at them, but Jeannette thinks it was because she had planned on doing the same.

These hard times led to Dad asking if their grandmother could loan them some money, but Mom was too proud to do that. This led to a LONG fight between Mom and Dad. They caused such a scene that their neighbors came out to watch. Soon furniture was thrown out the window and Mom was hanging from the second floor window screaming. Jeannette was embarrassed. They ran inside to help Dad pull her back into the room. Mom accused Dad of trying to kill her and claimed his innocence.

The Joshua Tree and Christmas Gifts: pages 35-42

JOURNAL PROMPT: If you did not have the means to live comfortably, what would you take joy or pride in? How would you celebrate the holidays?

SUMMARY:

The Walls move from California to the Mojave Desert in Arizona. They stop in the middle of the Desert because Mom wants to paint a Joshua Tree. The Joshua tree is ugly and has grown sideways because of the strong winds it has to put up with. Jeannette thinks it is an ugly tree, but her mother says it’s beautiful because, “It’s the Joshua Tree’s struggle that gives it its beauty.”

So, they move into a shack in a town called Midland. Jeannette is afraid of the critters crawling around, so Dad makes up a game of hunting the Demon so that she is no longer afraid. They run around the house and desert in the middle of the night calling out for the Demon to approach them to get killed. Dad found a job at a gypsum mine and Mom is pregnant.

None of the kids believe in Santa Claus because Mom thinks it’s a conspiracy and that all of the toys are “Made in Japan”, not by Santa’s elves. They usually celebrated Christmas a few days later because that is when they could buy presents and wrapping paper at sales, and get a Christmas Tree from someone’s garbage. This year, Dad lost his job at the gypsum mine, so they have no money. Because they could not get presents for the kids, Dad took them outside one at a time and allowed them to choose a star. This star would be their Christmas present. Jeannette chose Venus, even though this is not a star. She likes it because it is really bright and you can see it early in the morning when all of the stars have already disappeared. That night at dinner, Dad told them everything there is to know about Astronomy and the stars.

Introduction to parents and lifestyle: pages 9-16, 19-25

Jeanette is cooking hot dogs in her favorite outfit when it catches on fire. Her father is not home, so her mother asks their neighbor for a ride to the hospital. At the hospital the doctors are worried about her because she is severely burned and needs a skin graft. The nurses are concerned about her home life too. They think she is neglected by her parents. Jeanette enjoys staying at the hospital because everyone takes care of her. One day her family shows up and argues with the doctors because dad does not approve of the hospital. So, he came back another day and took her out of the hospital without permission.

When she got better she became fascinated by fire. She would light things on fire and stamp them out, run her finger through a flame, and lit matches constantly. One day she melted the face of her favorite toy and wished she could do a skin graft on the plastic toy to make it beautiful again.

Their lives consisted of travelling around the desert areas of Arizona and surrounding states living in mining towns. They were always on the run from perceived evils like the FBI, but they were just moving because of bill collectors. Jeanette’s dad never got along with her mother’s mother, who was very wealthy. So, they never lived a life of luxury. Dad taught them how to shoot guns, and throw knives by the time they were four. They also learned how to read and do math very well by age five. Their parents taught them how to thrive on almost nothing in the desert and survive any type of storm. Dad was an extremely intelligent man. He knew almost everything there was to know about math and science, and he was an inventor. He developed the Prospector to find gold. However, he was an alcoholic, but an awesome story teller. He told stories about what he’s done in life and what he will do; like build the Glass Castle. As soon as they found gold, the Glass Castle would be built.