In your reading, you have encountered a number of descriptive images of the House on Hobart Street. Consider how Jeanette, her father Rex, her mother Rosemary, and her siblings interact with the house. What does this house help you to discuss about who they are and the conflicts that arise between and within them?
For this response, prepare 1-2 paragraphs (using the model for an organized paragraph that we discussed yesterday). Be sure you are using quoted evidence and proper citation. We will examine these paragraphs in class tomorrow.
The decision of living in 93 Little Hobard Street does not make the children feel exciting and sense of belonging. Jeannette hope to return to their true home in Phoenix but she knows that it will never come true and her father’s big words will never come true, either. She said: ”I listened to Dad’s plans and tried to encourage him, hoping that what he was saying was true but also pretty certain it wasn’t.“（Walls 107 in e-book）The children started to lack faith in their parents’ word and their communication started to get stuck.
ReplyDeleteThe children and the parents start to separate in life. They find their own food, Jeannette write that:” Brian and I became expert foragers.”(Walls 107 in e-book) When they short of food, their mother even hide chocolate by herself and does not want to share it with her children. “Lying on the mattress next to Mom was one of those huge family-sized Hershey chocolate bars, the shiny silver wrapper pulled back and torn away. She’d already eaten half of it.”( Walls 109 in e-book) “Brian snatched up the chocolate bar and divided it into four pieces. While Mon watched, we wolfed them down.” It is really shock me that a mother will treat her own children that way. Without doubt, that may cool and break their relationships and hurt their emotions and feelings.
In my view, the sufferings and harsh conditions on Hobart Street have sapped the gumption of Jeanette’s family. It struck their faith and hopes for Glass Castle, which did harm to the togetherness of the family. While Jeanette was making an effort to spruce up their house and paint it in bright yellow, her mother and siblings tended to show their disregard. “I’d rather have a yard filled with genuine garbage than with trashy lawn ornaments.” (Walls 157)Seeing through the expressions of “genuine garbage” and “trashy lawn ornament”, we can figure out Jeannette’s mom’s boredom, frustration and compromise upon the reality. She even didn’t want to make a change. Still, “Jeannette’s father was making no visible progress on the glass castle”.(Walls 157)He always said he revised new schemes to strike it rich, however it never comes into any effective results. And even the foundation of the house, the pit, is dug by his kids and ends up filled with dump. “I listened to Dad’s plans and tried to encourage him, hoping that what he was saying was true but also pretty certain it wasn’t.” From Jeannette’s words, we can clearly understand her helplessness and disappointment. All of these negative feelings subtly separate the shared values and spirits in Walls family, just as Jeannette said, “I never had the feeling of togetherness I’d had in Battle Mountain.”(Walls 168) The cohesion collapsed and then the disharmony and conflicts came.
ReplyDeleteThe house on Hobart Street was the first house the family ever had and constructed together, the children were really dying for such a house and it was considered as “the basement and foundation for the Glass Castle”, while it also triggered conflicts among the family members.
ReplyDeleteLocating in such a poor block, the house, with no roof and rats’ running everywhere in the evenings, was frozen cold in winter, and transformed into a dump when it rained. Though the parents cared little about the house, the kids contributed a lot to construct the house as they were building a whole empire. “Seeing as how Welch was our new home, Brain and I figured we’d make the best of it” (Walls digital edition 97), and I once “was so excited by the prospect of living in a perky yellow home that I could barely sleep that night” (Walls 98)after the family decided to paint the house. On the contrary, Dad just thought the house was “a temporary measure” (Walls digital edition 98) and “was making no visible progress on the Glass Castle” (Walls 99). Later those days, especially after grandma’s death, he even was barely at home. Meanwhile, Mom also didn’t care much either. When Mom and the children decided to clean up the house, Jeannette thought they should “empty each room, clean it thoroughly”, but Mom thought the idea was “too time-consuming”, so all they ended up was “straightening plies of paper into stacks” (Walls digital edition 118).
The different actions towards the house reflected different attitudes and values. Dad was the one who had had a strong belief and willing in building a house for the whole family, but he didn’t weigh their house on Hobart Street much. While Mom was still self-centered as before, she cared about her own self-esteem a lot and didn’t even want welfare, in that poor situation, she even said “we should be thankful because we had it better than pioneers, who didn't have modern conveniences like window glass and cast¬iron stoves”. (Walls digital edition 110). And she once ate chocolate secretly, meanwhile comforted the kids by saying “at least we have each other”. However, Brain and I continually helped with construction of the house and did the repairing work. Such great different attitudes of the family made the kids so disappointed and pushed Jeannette to think to a much deeper level, which changed her beliefs to some degree. She once believed in Dad’s dream so much, and she was influenced by Mom’s life philosophy, but she had been dreaming that “we had a thermostat at 93 Little Hobart Street” (Walls digital edition 112). And all these lead to the discussion of leaving Dad between Jeannette and Mom, which I think is the beginning of conflicts between the parents and kids.
From the memoir of The Green Castle, the description of the House on Hobart Street reflects Jeannette’s negative attitude towards the house and her family. She did not like the house on Hobart Street and have a sense of belonging to it. According to Walls (105 eBook), “we all read, but I never had the feeling of togetherness I'd had in Battle Mountain when we all sat around in the depot with our books.” Jeannette thought that the house on Hobart Street was worse than the house in Battle Mountain. She missed those good days and fun in Battle Mountain. Even though Jeannette is living with her parents and siblings in the same house, she could not feel the togetherness anymore. She was losing confidence to the family.
ReplyDeletePlus, the mindset between Jeannette and her mother is totally different when they are dealing with a same issue and the conflict may thus arise. Jeannette mentioned that the toilet was unusable due to the flooding. Jeannette told her mum that “We have to do something about the porch situation” (Walls 117 eBook). However, her mother “bought a bucket. It was made of yellow plastic, and we kept it on the floor in the kitchen, and that was what we used whenever we had to go to the bathroom”. In the conversation, Jeannette expected her mother to do something practical, i.e. fix the toilet. Unfortunately, her mother did not really solve the problem by only buying the bucket. It reflects that their mindset is on the contrary.
Missing the former house and regarding the one in phoenix as a true home reveal that Jeanette disliked the house on Hobart Street heart and soul. As time goes by, Jeanette has realized that living in this kind of house would make her different from others. Generally, Jeanette reluctantly accepted the reality that they can not go back to Phoenix and tried to do something for the house. “It would look, at least from the outside, almost like the houses other people lived in.”(Walls 157) She felt excited to do something for her family. And this kind of excitement reflects her mature and her increasing pride.
ReplyDeleteThis house also witnessed the crisis of confidence between children and parents. After frustrated by so many unrealistic dreams, Jeanette felt tired of believing in her father’s blueprint. “I listened to Dad’s plans and tried to encourage him, hoping that what he was saying was true but also pretty certain it wasn’t.”(Walls 171) These sentences reflects that Jeanette tried to keep faith in her dad while he letting her down once and once again. Instead of waiting for her parents, Jeanette and her siblings chose to rely on themselves. At the same time, her parents continued to be self-centered and careless towards their children. The whole family began to separate.
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ReplyDeleteThe decision for Jeannette’s family moving to 93 Little Hobart Street doesn’t seem to satisfy the children but the Dad.There is a rat straggling everywhere which makes Maureen too scared to sleep.What’s more,Welch even says "I'd rather have a yard filled with genuine garbage than with trashy lawn ornaments.”What Welch says means that she has no interest in fitting in this area,which reflects she is not satisfied with the new house.Although Jeanette,the most optimistic girl,tries her best to make an effort to spruce up the house and paint it,we can still see that she started to feel disappointed about her Dad.Her words ”He never got around to that”reflects that she realizes Dad never did realistic activities to achieve the dream(the Glass Castle).
ReplyDeleteHowever,from Dad side,it seems his last choice.We can see from the sentence “But Dad said 93 Little Hobart Street was such a dump that we shouldn't waste time or energy on it”.Dad doesn’t like this house either but their family need a space to live.So he can not help but choose this low-rent house.After they move to this new house,just as Jeannette says “I never had the feeling of togetherness I’d had in Battle Mountain.”,children seem a little bit disappointed about their father,about their family.I think it’s the trend of children’s discontent to this family.
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ReplyDeleteThe various attitudes towards the house have communicated different philosophies of life among the Walls. Jeannette harbors the desire to improve the quality of the family and to get along well with each other as possible as she can. She firmly believes “people might be more accepting of us if we made an effort to improve the way 93 Little Hobart Street looked.”(Walls 99 eBook), which reflects that she puts an emphasis on a good relationship with the people around them. And she makes great effort to realize it. Therefore, she kept “looking for other ways to make improvements.”(Walls 99 eBook), such as painting a yellow house. From this description, we can see Jeannette’s gumption. However, different from Jeannette, “Dad said 93 Little Hobart Street was such a dump that we shouldn't waste time or energy on it that we could be devoting to the Glass Castle.”(Walls 99 eBook) By saying “93 Little Hobart Street was such a dump”, he knows that their surroundings are terrible, but he just puts up with it, which to some degree reflects he is too lazy to improve life. When she is told what Jeannette is going to do, “Mom said she thought bright yellow houses were tacky.” (Walls 99 eBook) From her words, we can notice that Mom aways lives with her artistic dream, and cares little about life. When it comes to Brian and Lori, they express their opinion by saying “we didn't have the ladders and scaffolding we needed.” (Walls 99 eBook) They think without “ladders and scaffolding”, they can do nothing about the house. It reveals that they also want to make change, but they easily yield to the reality because they are not willing to try other methods. These all reflect the conflicts within the family.
ReplyDeleteThe attitude Jeannette expressed towards the house on Hobart Street was so different from the rest of the family members. Jeannette always tried every possible way to improve their living condition, although the house was unbelievably shabby. After dad had brought some paintbrushes and a layer of yellow paint home, Jeannette became “so excited by the prospect of living in a perky yellow home that I could barely sleep that night.”(Walls 157) However after announced, “If we all work together, we can get it done in a day or two.”(Walls 157), none of the family member showed any interest to it. “Dad said 93 little Hobart Street was such a dump that we shouldn’t waste time or energy on it that we could be devoting to the Glass Castle. Mom said she thought bright yellow houses were tacky. Brian and Lori said we didn’t have the ladders and scaffolding we needed.”(Walls 157)
ReplyDeleteWhen Dad described their new abode as “a dump” it was apparent that her dad didn’t like the place at all, instead of helping his daughter to get the terrible situation better, he still insisted on saving the energy and time on the unrealistic dream of building the Glass Castle which was so absurd. And mom thought the color was so tacky, which I found it totally ridiculous. How was it possible for such a person who lived in such a miserable life to be so persnickety? Didn’t she ever feel ashamed of being such an irresponsible and pretentious mother? And what’s more Jeannette’s sibling both treated their new home indifferently and evaded helping Jeannette by finding excuses that could be easily solved just by borrowing these tools from neighborhood. After they moved into this dilapidated building, their family which used to be integrated and united got separated and apathetic.
Specific types of atmospheres and surroundings affect and have a great influence in people's attitude and experiences. The House of Hobart Street has a great influence in the Walls' family attitude and the way they live their life, specifically in the young kids, Lori, Jeannette, Brian and Maureen but also in Rose Mary and in Rex. Jeannette talks in The Glass Castle about the house in which the Walls family lived in Hobart Street, and how that house was a very simple one and even a very limited house. When she says, “She bought a bucket. It was made of yellow plastic, and we kept it on the floor in the kitchen, and that was what we used whenever we had to go to the bathroom. When it filled up, some brave soul would carry it outside, dig a hole and empty it.” (Walls, 480). In this quote, when Jeannette says “some brave soul would carry it” it makes me understand how they felt and what were they living in such difficult circumstances and how the difficulties of life and of their house made them have a different attitude and try really hard to find the positive things in their lives, and they also had to face the difficulties of living in such a house and trying to adapt themselves and their way of living, such as going to the bathroom and almost dying in winter because of the cold.
ReplyDeleteHaving such a poor and difficult life made Jeannette a girl who always saw the positive things in every part of life and was always trying to be happy. The circumstances and quality of the house where her family and family lived made Jeannette see life from a positive side. Jeannette Walls writes, “I was so excited by the prospect of living in a perk yellow home that I could barely sleep that night. I got up early the next day and tied my hair back, ready to begin the housepainting. “If we all work together, we can get it done in a day or two,” I told everyone” (Walls, 407). When she talks about the excitement she had for painting the house and that she couldn’t sleep (“I was so excited by the prospect of living in a perk yellow home that I could barely sleep that night.”) I think about the positive attitude Jeannette had on her life and how a really little thing could make her day, week and even month, the best one. The house was absolutely difficult to imagine living there and Jeannette instead of being sad and crying for not having a better house, like all her family, she was happy to be able to paint her house.
Jam
ReplyDelete“At first Mom tried to make living at 93 Little Hobart Street like an adventure.” (Walls, 153) But she gradually lost her passion and patience. Mom did give a try. “She decorated the living room walls with her oil paintings, and soon every square inch was covered…” and she “also built rows of shelves in the windows and arranged brightly colored bottles to catch the light.”(Walls, 154) These were efforts Mom made to improve the house. However, as time went by, she became indifferent about it. She didn’t care if there was a garbage pit nearby. She wouldn’t like to help Jeannette paint the walls, either. Because “Life is too short to worry about what other people think” (Walls, 157) So she just gave the house up and left it as what it was. But what I wonder is, as for her, what on earth we should worry about with our short and precious lifetime?
The Dad, I think, was always hiding in the shadow of the Glass Castle. It seemed that all of the families kept following him to chase his Glass dream. However, he “was making no visible progress on the Glass Castle” (Walls, 157) When there was a house that he could turn into a real home, he made no effort to make it better. He even didn’t give a try. He said “This is a home now”. But he never had a sense of belonging to this crude house. He thought it “was such a dump” and was not worth paying time or energy on. And when he threw garbage into the base pit of the Glass Castle, I really doubt his passion for this unrealistic dream. I even think that the dream had already gone downhill into an excuse for Dad to escape from the tough realistic life.
To Jeannette’s siblings, this house was more like a tatty asylum, or even a nightmare. Maureen “kept dreaming that she was being eaten by rats, and she used every excuse she could to spend the night at friends’ houses” (Walls, 156) The home was not a peaceful harbor to them. Oppositely, it was a terrible place from which they wanted to get away.
Although Jeannette didn’t like the house either, she was the only person who really wanted to make some improvement. She painted the walls all by herself and even tried to make a ladder. I think she did grow up a lot. She was sophisticated and determined now. Not like Maureen or Dad, she accepted reality that she couldn’t change and tried everything she could do to make it better.
Living in the house on Hobart Street is a turning point of her family's relationship, especially between Jeannette and his father. Her father asked his kids to dig a hole "for the Glass Castle", however, "the hole for the Glass Castle's foundation slowly filled with garbage". Jeannette even doubted her father--"But that's for the Glass Castle." That made a great change in Jeannette's attitude to her father. Before, Jeannette hold a faith in her dad which did give her dad hope and courage. We can see that after dad required his kids to dig a huge hole,though It was so hard, they made it at last. Jeannette was still chose to believe in her dad at that time, She hated this house so much,Glass Castle was he only reason to live here,she believed in her dad because her also wanted to give herself hope. However, filling the basement of Glass Castle with garbage hurt Jeannette deeply. Glass Castle was the most beautiful dream she heard from her dad, but dad ruined it. the bridge of faith began to broke down. After that, the text of dad was not that much, dad seemed disappear suddenly. Why? I think it referred that Jeannette was losing her faith in her dad. Jeannette was not that into her dad at the very beginning, dad was more important and meaningful to her.Glass Castle, star gift, giving up drinking... there were so many things that built the special relationship between Jeannette and her dad.Since losing faith of the important one, Jeannette finally began to doubt her family, the life style, the words her parents said, together with her siblings. That was the beginning of the real conflict in her family. Parents here almost lost all the trust of their children. Their kids known that it was useless to ask their parents for help, you had to deal with all the problem by yourselves.Their fought against other kids ,they tired to make worm by themselves,they ask for someone else's help on their own, they wanted to leave this house so much that even they were sick, they didn't want to tell their parents,because "Being sick might have meant staying home in our freezing house instead of spending the day in a toasty classroom.
ReplyDeleteHome should have been a worm and happy place. If you say that they were not happy at all before moving in the house, at least, Jeannette believed in something in her family, the "keep moving" style and the Glass Castle made some of her families feel excited and have passion.But now, things'd changed totally."keep moving" style was disappeared, the Glass Castle was gone, along with Jeannette's faith.