A) How does the following passage epitomize
the Walls’ lifestyle and demonstrate Jeannette’s tolerant and understanding
character? How does the swimming event compare to the fire incident on p. 9? “I
staggered out of the water and sat on the calcified rocks, my chest heaving.
Dad came out of the water, too, and tried to hug me, but I wouldn’t have
anything to do with him, or with Mom, who’d been floating on her back as if
nothing were happening, or with Brian and Lori, who gathered around and were
congratulating me. Dad kept telling me that he loved me, that he never would
have let me drown, but you can’t cling to the side your whole life, that one
lesson every parent needs to teach a child is ‘If you don’t want to sink, you
better figure out how to swim.’ What other reason, he asked, would possibly
make him do this? Once I got my breath back, I figured he must be right. There
was no other way to explain it” (66).
The
Well’s Lifestyle is that kids should learn at an early age how to depend on
themselves and learn from their mistakes
even if that meant that the children were at a High risk of getting hurt.
Jeanneette learns to tolerate all these behaviors because she trusts so much in
her dad and believe everything he says. She also understood that it was for her
own good since they never had anything to really compare in to depth with. In
the Swimming event she learns how to swim by being thrown into the water every
time she reached out for her dads hand and the only way to she started swimming
by herself without depending on her father for help. The fire incident also
relates to the swimming event because the only way she learned to not be afraid
of the fire was to learn how to be with fire and play with it.
B) How does Jeannette describe her father in
the beginning of the memoir? How does she express her trust in her father? Cite
specific examples.
In
the Beginning of the memoir she described her father as a person that could be
trusted no matter what and that he loved all his children. She trusted her dad
when they went to the zoo and they got so close to a cheetah and touched it. She
never saw any problems with her dad until after the Christmas tree accident and
from there she started seeing that the dad has a drinking problem and even asks
him that for her birthday gift she wanted him to stop drinking.
C) How do the Walls siblings show loyalty
toward each other? Cite specific examples. Despite her family’s support and
loyalty, during which instances does Jeannette feel lonely?
The
Walls Siblings show loyalty toward each other in many occasions, one was when
they were living in Battle Mountain and Billy was after Jeanneette because she
rejected him after he kept bothering her that he wanted to be his boyfriend.
Since Jeannette rejected him he got mad and started shooting at the Wells
Children with his bibi gun, so the Wells Children got together and Jeannette
got her father’s gun which Lori got first and Jeannette shot back at Billy.
Another situation was when they were in Welch at their grandmothers’ house.
Erma, their grandmother touched Brian in a wrong way and the well’s children
got mad and started fighting with Erma, Jeannette kept complaining to Erma and
Lori actually fought back with her fists. Despite Jeannette family’s support
and loyalty, during her first few days at Welch Elementary Jeannette feel
lonely because she is separated from her brother and she kept getting bullied
by a group of girls. Another time Jeannette was lonely was when both their
parents left to get the rest of their stuff and Jeannette felt like she could
not trust her dad as much
D) How does the Christmas incident signify a
turning point in Jeannette’s life? Does the event change her perspective about
her father?
The Christmas
incident signified a turning point because the dad’s alcohol problems became
worse and the children did not like it when the dad came home drunk. Jeanneette
starting seeing her dad in a way she hadn’t before, she saw a problem in her
dad which was something new because she always saw her dad as someone she could
trust and believe.
E) How does the Walls’ life in Welch compare
to Battle Mountain and Phoenix? In what way does Jeannette’s life in Welch
shape her late childhood/early adolescence?
Live in Battle
Mountain and Phoenix was very different than life in Welch because for once in
the inter memoir we see that the children are separated from both parents when
they stay at Erma, their grandmother’s, house and both parents leave to get
things they left back at phoenix. We also seeing that Jeannette starts seeing
her father in a different way and she starts talking back to her grandmother
Erma. She has to be by herself in school and has to defend herself when she
gets bullied at school.
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