In The Glass Castle, Jeannette's family is dysfunctional, like in the movies Stand by Me and Now and Then. How does the coming of age process differ from the movies and The Glass Castle? Do you think Jeannette's coming of age process was more significant than in the movies because it came from her family or is it just as equal? Does the book make you feel like your own coming of age moments aren't as significant because you didn't have to get over the hardships she had to face growing up? Do you think the mom had any coming of age moments during the book?
Sorry I posted it so late, I was thinking about it all this morning and then forgot, I'm a terrible student.
In terms of the Does the book make me feel like my own coming of age moments aren't as significant...? And I'd have to say no. And that's because (as I find myself saying often in class) its not the events that cause a person to come of age, but rather, their reaction. Any event, even as mundane as waking up in the morning, could push someone towards coming of age, the key is how they use that experience to mature and grow. So, in that regard, I believe my personal coming of age moments are pretty profound, not to say I don't feel sympathy for Jeannette.
ReplyDeleteIn the movies, the coming of age moments come from their friends that they turn to, while in The Glass Castle, they come directly from her family. I don't think the coming of age process was more significant in the book than in the movies because there were profound moments in each of them. I don't think my coming of age moments seem less significant to me, but from a third party I think they would find them less significant. If I wrote a memoir and compared it to The Glass Castle mine would seem ordinary.
ReplyDeleteSo many questions! Let's see...well, for starters, the big difference between the movies and the book was the fact that the families were removed in the films. Of course, that doesn't make their effect any less prominent; despite being removed, they laid a lot of the foundation for the groups' coming of age experiences (this is especially true in Stand by Me). And again, we cant really give a concrete definition for family when we're analyzing stories like these. For this reason, I believe each process was equally significant. Although it's tough not to feel belittled by Jeannette's struggles, the lesson she learned was something many people can understand, and that's ultimately what gives the book its power. I mean, think about it. Why are we drawn to stories like these? The experiences of these characters are so foreign, but their struggles reflect ours in many ways. I can't always relate to Jeannette's life, but I have developed similar values about my family in my own unique way.
ReplyDeleteThe coming of age moments in Stand by Me were mostly in the circle of friends while in The Glass Castle they were centered around family. In The Glass Castle the family moved around a lot making it nearly impossible for the children to make friends and experience coming of age moments with their peers. But when they did encounter other children there age they made the best of it, such as Jeanette swimming with the black girl. In Stand by me the family was absent, but because of what was happening in their family is why the girls were so close. Sam's parents were getting a divorce and Roberta's family was only men. I believe the significance of coming of age in these stories are equal.
ReplyDeleteSome of my reactions to the life of the children in The Glass Castle made me wish I had experienced some of the events she did. But I did not feel as though my coming of age moments were less significant than hers, each person had their own unique coming of age.
I didn't see much growth in the mother's character.
I completely agree with Taylor B. I think we may be putting too much emphasis on the process of coming of age rather than the change, or the result, itself. Coming of age varies for each person and it would discount real, meaningful experiences that people have if we were to judge them based on how extreme or how traumatic they were. A coming of age is a moment or a process that causes growth of some sort, and that can be something traumatic or something that seems trite. Trauma makes a good story and is something that is very visible, but that's not to say that other emotions don't create change as well.
ReplyDeleteLike a few of you already said, the difference with the movies compared to the book is that in the movies the children came of age through their friends where as in the book the children hardly had time to make friends. I wouldn't say that one coming of age is more significant than the other, but I do think Jeannette's was harder. She didn't have the support of close friends to help her through her issues, she basically had to deal with her troubled life on her own. I'm a little on the fence with this question, I don't want to belittle the other kid's coming of age but Jeannette obviously had more to deal with. I will agree with Taylor B. though, your coming of age is defined more by how you react to a situation than the situation itself. WIth that in mind I would say they are equal.
ReplyDeleteAs for my own coming of age, I cannot say for sure because I feel I have a lot more growing to do, so I don't feel I'm totally equipped to answer that question.
As for the mother, I didn't see any significant growth in her. I felt she grew a little when she confronted Rex about their lifestyle when they were living in The Tracks, but regressed again with her unwillingness to get a job and their childish arguments. She also had a sparkling moment when she actually did get a job but the way she handled it and her lazy attempts at actually working were yet another regression. So in some ways yes she occasionally came of age but regressed soon after.
For if her coming of age moment was more significant because it came from her family, I don't think it was more significant but perhaps more prolonged. Now and Then and Stand By Me both took place over shorter spans of time. Glass Castle was about her entire childhood; her coming of age moment as we saw it had more build behind it. I don't think overall it affected her as a person any more or less than the movies though. She did have more of them that we saw though.
ReplyDeleteAs for if reading such an extreme coming of age novel makes me feel like my coming of age moments are more insignificant, I do partially see that. It almost feels petty to compare the two. It's like saying "My mom is mean" and hearing back "At least you have a mom, my mom is dead". This is more noticeable for Glass Castle than other novels to me because it actually happened. Such as in Ender's Game, the coming of age moments are spectacular and in a way enviable, but they didn't actually happen at all.
-Danyelle W.
The significance of a coming of age moment can't really be measured by how "hard" it was or whether or not your family instigated the event. Like Taylor said, the significance of a coming of age moment is determined by the person's reaction and growth in the situation.
ReplyDeleteI really don't think the mom had a coming of age moment in the book. Walls wrote the book so that the mom was a pretty simple character, there's no apparent development. She may have changed throughout Jeanette's childhood in real life, but none of these instances are reflected on in the memoir.