The glass castle – abuse writing assignment

Name: 

Using the provided quotes from The Glass Castle, and support from a provided article, explain how Jeannette Walls was a victim of child abuse.  Make sure your quotes properly support your argument and are integrated into your response.  Your body paragraphs should be written in ALICE format. 

Thesis statement (one sentence focusing on two main points):

Body paragraph 1 (focusing on FIRST main point from thesis statement):

Body paragraph 2 (focusing on SECOND main point from thesis statement):

“I am your mother, and I should have a say in how you’re raised” (Walls 26).

“Mom felt that Grandma Smith nagged and badgered, setting rules and punishments for breaking the rules. It drove Mom crazy, and it was the reason she never set rules for us” (Walls 21).

“Some parents worried that their kids might get hit by lightning, but Mom and Dad never did, and they let us go out and play in the warm, driving water. We splashed and sang and danced” (Walls 16).

“If you don’t want to sink, you better figure out how to swim” (Walls 66).

“We had no pillows, but Dad said that was part of his plan. He was teaching us to have good posture. The Indians didn’t use pillows, either, he explained, and look how straight they stood” (Walls 18). 

“‘It was the only thing to eat in our house,’ I said. Raising my voice, I added, ‘I was hungry’” (Walls 69).

“You’re not supposed to laugh at your own father, ever” (Walls 83). 

“He simply waited for me to fork over the cash, as if he knew I didn’t have it in me to say no” (Walls 209).

“She’d been reading books on how to cope with an alcoholic, and they said that drunks didn’t remember their rampages, so if you cleaned up after them, they’d think nothing had happened. ‘Your father needs to see the mess he’s making of our lives,’ Mom said. But when Dad got up, he’d act as if all the wreckage didn’t exist, and no one discussed it with him. The rest of us had to get used to stepping over broken furniture and shattered glass” (Walls 113).

“Unloved children grow up to be serial murderers or alcoholics” (Walls 83).

“At times I felt like I was failing Maureen, like I wasn’t keeping my promise that I’d protect her–the promise I’d made to her when I held her on the way home from the hospital after she’d been born. I couldn’t get her what she needed most–hot baths, a warm bed, steaming bowls of Cream of Wheat before school in the morning–but I tried to do little things” (Walls 206). 

“‘Okay, kids’ Dad said, ‘the civilians are revolting. We better skeddadle'” (Walls 109). 

“When Dad went crazy, we all had our own ways of shutting down and closing off, and that was what we did that night” (Walls 115). 

“‘Your father’s the only one who can help himself,’ Mom said. ‘Only he knows how to fight his own demons'” (Walls 117). 

“Just remember,” Mom said after examining the blisters, “what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.”  “If that was true, I’d be Hercules by now,” Lori said (Walls 179). 

“Being homeless is an adventure” (Walls 255). 

“We may not have insulation,” Mom said as we all gathered around the stove, “but we have each other” (Walls 177).