The Glass Castle Paragraphs

3. Jeannette Walls, in her memoir, “The Glass Castle”, depicts the daily obstacles that humans face which both hinder and help develop character by making people more cautious of how others perceive them.  For example, when Jeannette moved to Phoenix she was constantly bullied due to her economic status. Jeanette relates this obstacle through the passage, " I walked outside trying to hold my head high and Dinitia and her gang surrounded me and it began. As we fought they called me poor and ugly and dirty, and it was hard to argue that point" (Walls 140). This obstacle of being bullied due to factors that one can’t control, affected her character by making her more self-conscious. Before these incidents with bullies, Jeannette wasn't concerned with how people perceived her, she had been more concerned with her family and living, but this incident changed her motives and ideals. One can see how this affected her future as it led her to become a gossip journalist, revolving her life around other’s obstacles was a way to shift the conversation away from her circumstances. For example, when Jeannette was talking about homeless people in her class and her teacher asked her "what do you know about the lives of the underprivileged? What do you know about the hardships and obstacles that the underclass faces?'  ... 'You have a point', says Jeannette" (Walls 257). This is an effect of the bullying from when she was young, because ever since she has been hiding her true self and her early life as she was afraid how people would see her if she told people the truth. After welch she did all she could to get away from her old lifestyles and create a new life for herself, and she did this by not discussing her past. The bullying impacted the development of her character because it made her extremely concerned about how others saw her, which ultimately restricted her happiness by not feeling she could be herself.

2. In the memoir, “The Glass Castle”, by Jeannette Walls, courage is the quality that allows people to move on after facing hardships. While enduring the many journeys of Rex Walls, Jeannette constantly had to leave things behind, "Anyone who didn't like to travel wasn't invited on our adventure.’ Dad said, he stopped the car grabbed Quixote by the scruff of the neck and tossed him out of the window" (Walls 18). Anything that Jeannette became close to was soon brutally taken away from her due to either her parents inability to care for the things she loved, or that they were so selfish that they didn’t want her to have anything to care about. Jeanette needed to have courage to overcome the obstacle of constantly leaving things she loved behind, or else her family would have thought less of her and wouldn't accept her, they may leave her behind too. One example of courage was when Jeanette was determining if she was going to move to New York she mused, “Maybe I should move to New York City right now and graduate from high school there” (Walls 236).  Having the courage to move out of the toxic environment in which she was stuck was very beneficial for her growth. After constant obstacles like money problems and poor living conditions, she was able to reevaluate her life, and it helped her determine how she wanted to live her life.

1. Jeannette Walls, in her memoir, “The Glass Castle”, depicts the daily obstacles that humans face which both hinder and help develop our character and identity. For example, when Lori got injured and was covered in blisters, her mother proclaimed, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” (Walls 179). Every Time something terrible happened to her children, Jeannette’s mother never had much to say except ‘what doesn't kill you makes you stronger’, which is true because it teaches people how to overcome issues in their lives. The life of the Walls family demanded overcoming obstacles and issues that constantly presented themselves in their lives.  Being able to struggle though their existence and overcome these obstacles made Jeannette compassionate and strong, which resulted in her attaining her successful lifestyle. For example, when Rex Walls suffered a serious arm injury, he had a wide-open gash and asked Jeanette to stitch it up, “I tied the two ends of the thread together, like Dad told me to and then, to put in a second stich, did it again. The gash was pretty big and could have used a few more stitches, but I couldn't bring myself to stick that needle in my Dad’s arm one more time” (Walls 170). This shows how Jeannette was always taking care of the people who were suppose to be caring for her. This made her a very independent and mature person by having to be caretaker to her own parents. This event foreshadowed what would become a reoccurring problem in Jeannette’s life, where Rex’s dependency would require that she take care of him. This shows how obstacles that she overcame helped develop her character through making her strong, independent, and mature

Tragedies

The first scenario that I believe will conform the best to the 8 stages of tragedy would be the tragedy of the marathon runner. I created this tragedy and it is about a man who was training for a marathon but started to get these pains in his legs and being an ignorance and stupid person he continually ingested drugs from an illegal vendor, which eventually lead to his legs having to be amputated. This portrays that he is not bad because he was running in support for his family and a good cause but not good because he kept taking drugs that he knew wouldn’t result in a good outcome. His tragic flaw was ignorance and stupidity in decision-making. This characters peripety is when he realizes that he has to get his leg amputated but doesn’t accept his fate and waits even longer to have the infection get even worse. Any person may feel sorry for him because he is a regular guy involving himself with drugs to overcome an obstacle, and is very relatable to many people. A challenge would be to have his flaw be a continuous issue. Another challenge would be to show the effect these drugs had on his family.

The second scenario that would also conform to the 8 stages of tragedy would be the tragedy about a painter having trust issues and finally allowing himself to trust and have it all be a scam. The painter would be the tragic hero because he is not all good because he doesn’t trust people and doesn’t allow him to love but also isn’t all bad because he doesn’t harm anyone is very kind. His flaw is a lack of trust that leads to very serious repercussions. The catharsis would be when the customer who purchases all his merchandise is a scam. This influences the audience to feel pity because he was mistreated as a child, which led to his trust issues which lead to his demise. This makes the audience feel pity for this character because everyone can connect to this mistreatment. Some challenges to write this would be to include irony and to have a chorus. Another challenge would be to build up suspense and to create an image and personality of the character if he doesn’t show his emotions.

Proverbs

1.     The first proverb I wrote, “ Having sour milk can destroy the birds flight”, for the novel Things Fall Apart  represents Okonkwo’s lack of guidance and nurturing as a child.  The milk represents nurturing and support though childhood and sour depicting the lack of nurturing. This lack of support, when Okonkwo was young, affected all aspects of his life.  The disgrace from his family influenced him to be successful, yet it had many negative effects, like being concerned with image and being too ambitious.  This ambition fuelled him to do irrational things, which is why it can negatively influence the person’s path in life.

2.     Then next proverb I wrote, “When the lion wants nothing less than the lamb it becomes a mouse”, which was for the drama Macbeth. This proverb depicts the protagonist Macbeth’s ambition and drive to become king and shows how in the end he was insignificant.  I used a lion and a mouse to represent the change between being powerful and very insignificant.

3.     The last proverb that I wrote,  “A blind leader can’t lead his troops to a truthful victory”, to represent the drama Oedipus by Sophocles.  The protagonist in this drama is not literally blind, he is metaphorically blind to the truth and is expected to lead his country to greatness.  Oedipus is the king of Thebes, and in the drama, Thebes was in danger.  Oedipus is blind to the truth which prevents him from saving his country.

Close Reading Assignment 10

Macbeth’s soliloquy in act 5, scene 5 refers to Lady Macbeth’s premature death.  Although some take the first line, “She should have died hereafter” (Macbeth 5.5.20), to mean that she had to die sometime, I believe that the entire passage needs to be considered to understand Shakespeare’s intent here.  If Shakespeare intended it to mean ‘she had to die sometime’, that would depict Macbeth as an uncaring person.  I think that Shakespeare intended the passage to be read as Lady Macbeth dies prematurely, which saddened him.  In the line “There would have been a time for such a word” (5.5.21), Macbeth is saying that today is not the time to hear of her death, that tomorrow or tomorrow’s tomorrow would have been better.  It shows that Macbeth is truly saddened by the loss and does not want to accept her death. In one line in this passage Shakepspeare uses “dusty” to describe death that may be a reference to the “ashes to ashes and dust to dust” of the bible, that life is a circle and back to dust we will inevitably go.  There is a question as to whether he should have used the word “dusky”, which maybe he should have as the rest of the passage refers to murkiness and shadows.  In the next few lines Shakespeare describes life as short and meaningless and in the line “life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage” (5.5.27-28), he is disheartened that life is such an illusion as the shade that can be caused by a candle.  Poor player may refer to an insignificant person getting his 15 (or 60) minutes of fame by pretending to be something he is not.  The effect of these words is to illustrate Macbeth’s disgust at the lack of meaning to life, especially his life, which has been turned upside down by his greed.  In Macbeth’s line that life “is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” (5.5.30), Shakespeare suggests that humans are full of a lot of bluster with not a lot of substance. This is a pretty powerful blow as we all need to think we are significant in someway or to someone in order to have a fulfilling life.

Close Reading Assignment 9

Act 5, scene 1 of Macbeth depicts a doctor and a maid observing Lady Macbeth sleepwalking and talking.  Lady Macbeth is an iconic character who is known for her bad to the bone and ruthless attitude, and whose ambition fueled her to do irrational things. Until this point where she has finally felt true guilt, and this is seen when the doctor sees her about her sleepwalking. The maid tells the doctor about her recent strange behavior of getting up and washing her hands in the night while still asleep. The sleep walking represents the guilt taking over her being and making her go insane. She can’t function properly anymore, although she didn't physically kill Duncan she partook in it and its metaphorically and literally killing her from guilt. This sleep walking helps the audience get a better understanding of Lady Macbeth character because it shows us that as tough as she has acted she is deep down a very weak character that can not handle the power she sought to have. In the line, “It is an accustomed action with her to seem thus washing her hands” (Macbeth 5.1.30), the maid reveals Lady Macbeth’s continuous mid-slumber ritual.  Hand washing was referenced in Act 2 immediately following the murder of Duncan, however, that action was described to illustrate Lady Macbeth’s desire to destroy any evidence of the murder which would lead to Macbeth or herself being suspected.  In this scene the hand washing is a sub-conscious action meant to show how Lady Macbeth’s heart is burdened and she is desperately trying to cleanse her soul. We can see through this scene that Lady Macbeth’s character has changed quite a bit since the early scenes where she was adamant about Macbeth doing anything he had to in order to be King.  Here, she appears to regret the deaths, especially the wife and children, and wonders if her hands will ever be clean, meaning her heart free of guilt. When a person washes their hands they do it to rid their hands from germs and other unwanted debris and that’s exactly what Shakespeare is implying here. Lady Macbeth is trying to rid herself from the guilt that she has and trying to get over what she did but she cannot.