Outside Reading- Week 1, Post A

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Vocab
Gypsum (39): A widespread colorless, white, or yellowish mineral, CaSO4·2H2O, used in the manufacture of plaster of Paris, various plaster products, and fertilizers.

Electrolysis [treatment] (5): Removing superfluous or unwanted hair by passing an electric current through the hair root.

Appeals
1. “We counted eleven places we had lived, then we lost track. We couldn’t remember the names of some of the towns or what the houses we had lived in looked like. Mostly, I remembered the inside of cars.” (pg. 29). Jeannette talks with her sister about how they have always been moving. This is an emotional appeal because it makes you think about how you would feel if you never had a true home. She truly couldn’t remember how her houses looked like because all she ever did was sit in the car. She describes this so that we really get a feel of how it was to live like that, and we know it’s true.
2. “The nurses brought me delicious meals 3 times a day[…]”(pg11). In the story she uses the words “3 times a day”, and “delicious” to describe the food and how they treated her at the hospital. This is an emotional appeal. Most people really do not like hospital food, and to describe it as delicious would probably mean she wasn’t fed very well. Also to be very happy and surprised that she got them 3 times a day is very strange. Obviously, her parents aren’t taking very good care of her.
3. “Two months after we moved to Bythe, when Mom said she was twelve months pregnant, she at last gave birth” (pg. 46). This is a logical appeal because Jeanette is stating the fact that after they moved there, her mother had a baby.

Quote
“A few days after mom and dad brought me home, I cooked myself some hot dogs. I was hungry, mom was at work on a painting, and no one else was there to fix them for me.” (pg 15). I think this quote is significant because it shows how little her parents do for her. Making hot dogs by herself was the reason she got burned in the first place. Why would you want to risk you child’s life again. I think this also foreshadows that Jeannette will be alone and doing things for herself for most of her life.

Theme
I think a theme so far is to enjoy everything you have, even if you have no material belongings. Jeanette loves her father and her siblings. She also loves the star that her dad “gave” her for Christmas. It is not something she can hold in her hands, but something she can hold in her heart.