Summaries

**Beginning to Pg. 58:** The main focus of today's discussion was love: do Jeannette's parents really love her and her siblings? There are two sides to this, and we discussed both avenues. Her parents may really love their children, just have bad parenting skills. Or maybe they like the idea of their kids, but deep down, they only have a love for them like they did for Quixote, ready to get rid of him once it becomes inconvenient. We also discussed their parenting style. We saw two ways with this. It could be seen as they are greatly preparing their children for the difficult future, but on another side, it can be seen that they are ruining their children, not teaching them anything. We are waiting to see what it would be like for them if they were introduced into "common society". Did their parent's teachings make life in reality like a "piece of cake", or does it only make things more difficult because they have not been taught the manners of this society?

For the first meeting, our main purpose was to begin to understand these characters and how they are raised affects the people they are becoming and will become. We discussed all sides to the accusations some may make to this situation of the family, trying to embody the mindsets of the parents and of the children.


 * Pg. 58-93:** Today we discussed the life they lived in their new home of Battle Mountain. We talked about how the view we see of their father becomes even worse, yet Jeannette is still trying to hold onto him. Their father one minute buys his son a comic book for his birthday, the next he makes him give it a way to a woman who has just made his dad "happy", just like all the women at the Green Lantern. It made us even more upset at how their father insisted on having all the money, even the pay check his wife brought home. And his wife didn't even do the work she was hired to do, her children had to do what they could so that way she could keep her job. We discussed what happened with Jeannette's lover, Billy Deel. Did Billy really love Jeannette and the only way he knew how to show his affection was through force and "experience"? Or did he really care less for her, looking to spark a reaction? We came to the conclusion that he really did have a love for Jeannette and wanted to show her that he was experienced, that he could take care of her. Another question was also brought about: did her mom jump out the window and try and frame her father, or did her father throw her mom out the window? This question will never honestly be answered, but we decided that it was probably a bit of both. And then, with the incredible altercation in the end with Billy's gun, her family skedaddles again.


 * Pg. 94-159**:For our discussion today, we ventured into our own interpretations of what happened in this chapter. This became a section were we could compare how Rex and his wife were raised to how they raise their children. By meeting Erma, we got a peak into the life that Rex had growing up.Now that we have also gotten further into the childhood of these 4 kids, we also discussed how they have become desensitized to common emotions and fears. When they are being beaten up at school, they go home and let it pass until the next day. When their father ruined Christmas, they all held their emotions in. We speculated if this "habit" will ever break. Would this cause issues in their future? This discussion today focused on comparing characters, while also comparing today's reality with the reality this family lives in. The whole they have just seems to get deeper.


 * Pg 160-203:** The main focus of today's discussion was the effects of the deplorable conditions Jeanette and her family were living in on her life. We considered the possibility of repressed damage because outwardly, her life has seemed to only make Jeanette stronger physically and mentally. We also discussed the Walls children's parents, Rex and Mary Rose. Living the Welsh, the kids seem to go through a change in the way they perceive their parents. While Jeanette unquestionably still loves her mother and father, she is beginning to see them in a new, more truthful light and beginning to expect them to take some responsibility. The group also discussed the fleeting introduction of the child services man, who visited presumably to check on the house and the Walls family. However, he never came back. This scene raised many questions. Why didn't he try harder? What was Jeanette's reaction to the incident then, and how does she look back on it now? We speculated that looking back on it now, Jeanette was probably relieved she never heard from the child services man again, but on a deeper level, she was also shocked that nothing was done, that they weren't saved or at least investigated. This prompted a discussion about Jeanette's perception of her parents in the setting of the novel, and her feelings as an adult writing the memoir. She clearly has always deeply loved them, even through their terrible actions, neglect, and both inadvertent and purposeful abuse. We ended the day's discussion by going back to our main focus. We concluded that although her circumstances as a child were deplorable and unthinkable, they really did make her stronger because of her seemingly endless ability to love, forgive, and survive.


 * Pg. 204-235:** Today in class we began by relating our own lives to //The Glass Castle//. We talked about how we have personally worked so hard for something and then had that goal crushed by an outside force. The focus question for the day was, "How does this struggling aspect of their childhood prepare or hurt them for the future? What does this life they lead mean for their future success?". We began our discussion by talking about how emotionally shut down the children are. They literally have no emotional response to any situation. Then we continued to debate whether or not this is a good thing for later on in life. We concluded that although a little bit of emotional distance is okay, and sometimes even essential to surviving the working world, their stone emotions are actually very dangerous. They have been repressing all this hate, anger, disappointment, and saddness, and if it is pent up for a prolonged period of time, it could be released in a very unhealthy way. On a similar topic, we discussed the issue of trust. The Walls children do not trust anyone, and can you blame them? In their futures this may actually benefit them because they have learned to rely on themselves. On the other hand, having no trust will make relationships impossible, and many uncomfortable situations. We ended the day by talking about Lori's "Emerald City". For Lori New York represented hope, promise, and most importantly a world away from her parents. Our closing activity had us record talk about our own "Emerald Cities". Jordan's was to be totally self sufficient, Melissa's was to be a pediatrision in Colorado, and mine was to be helping the world in some way or another. (Note: Alex, Rachel, and Kira were absent, so they did not discuss their Emerald Cities).


 * Pg 236-End: ****Today to finish off this memoir we discussed relationships throughout //The Glass Castle//. We went on to Postsecret to see some of the post cards that were sent in. We connected some of these to the book and the relationships that Jeanette had with people in her life. You can see some of these on the page Learning Log . We all had different takes on these relationships in her life. Then we talked about how we all though of the Jeanette’s parents and her family. The life that she lived seems too difficult to us, but she never knew anything different. It was a sad truth. Overall, this was a really strong book that we all enjoyed. It causes you think about how good off we have it and be grateful for that. **