'What if they don't?'
'That just means you haven't come to the end yet.'" (Walls 259).
Out of the many insightful quotes in The Glass Castle, this is one of my favorites. It is part of a conversation between Jeannette and her mother, Rose Mary. Rose Mary is the one who makes the insightful comment. It relates perfectly to Jeannette Walls and all of her siblings, who had to undergo such a difficult childhood. Their childhood was a dreadful cycle with poverty and many horrible troubles looming over their heads. Every time the Walls family encounters an obstacle, which is very frequent, they somehow always find a way around it-even though it is not always the best way. Although the children face many obstacles like always moving, not living in the greatest areas, and have to deal with bullies and many different types of people; their biggest obstacle is their parents, who do not have their priorities straight. In her adult life, Jeanette finds out that her mother owns land in Texas that is worth a million dollars. Walls says, "All those years in Welch with no food, no coal, no plumbing, and Mom had been sitting on land worth a million dollars?"(273). This reveals that providing necessities for her children was not as important to other things were to Rose Mary Walls. This shows that Rose Mary believes that everything will work itself out, which is the essence of the quote above. When Jeannette is in high school, she counts down the days until she can move out of her house and go live with her sister, Lori, in New York. This quote relates perfectly to her situation. Regardless of the circumstances that Jeannette was forced to grow up under, she did turn out to have a very successful adulthood, proving this quote to be true.
Hi Maddie,
ReplyDeleteI thought your picked quote was interesting, that things always work out in the end. One could say Rose Walls' life never worked out for her to be a painter, but the opposite argument goes that since she has accepted her life, her life worked out to be what it is. "everything works out" is subjective in itself.
Jeff
Hey Maddie,
ReplyDeleteI love the quote you picked out! It really helps a person keep a positive outlook and be optimistic. Even when things look bleak, you eventually begin to realize that whatever happened was truly for the best. I think Walls also took this piece of advice to heart, seeing as she was so determined to make things work out for herself in the end.
I really like how you choose a single line to analyze, your quote was perfect and it was interesting reading your thoughts on it. I like to believe that everything works itself out eventually too, but that could be the optimistic in me. Nice Job!
ReplyDelete