Campus Reads: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls: Faculty

• Essay Contest from Ivy Tech Community College
• Essay Contest from Chaffey College
• Find a “pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps” story and compare it with The Glass Castle.
• Imagine you have an opportunity to interview the author. Prepare some interview questions based on your reading of The Glass Castle and your research on the author’s life and other works. Try to ask questions that are open-ended.
• Explain why The Glass Castle should be a must read for first year students.
• Create a list of the social, economic and family issues in the book. Write a paper on one of the issues chosen from that list.
• “A pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps, thoroughly American story,” is how one critic characterizes The Glass Castle. What other American stories of survival come to mind? Choose one and discuss or compare the story with The Glass Castle.
• What are some of the metaphoric and thematic meanings of the title of the book--The Glass Castle. Support your answer with specific examples from the book.
• Parental responsibility is one of the themes of The Glass Castle. All four of the Walls children leave their parents’ home in search of better lives, and they all come to terms with their upbringing in different ways. As new arrivals on the JWU campus, this experience of leaving a place you are familiar with in exchange for a new beginning is one you are intimately acquainted with. Though the impetus for your move is probably quite different, you are able to empathize with the some of the thoughts and emotions experienced by these characters. Choose the perspective of Jeannette, Lori, Brian, or Maureen and compose a letter to Rose Mary or Rex that reflects their experience with the move.
• A book review is a critical evaluation of a text, event, object, or phenomenon…it is a commentary, not merely a summary. It allows you to enter into dialogue with the work’s creator and with other audiences. You can offer agreement or disagreement and identify where you find the work exemplary or deficient in its knowledge, judgments, or organization. Reviews are typically brief, around 1000 words, and although tone may vary, book reviews share common features: a short summary of content, critical assessment of the content, and a suggestion as to what type of audience would appreciate it, if any. Find and cite two book reviews (not for this text) that you think are exemplary of the points raised above, then write your own for The Glass Castle.

Objective: Deconstruct the ways in which socioeconomic status impacts economic opportunity.

 “I was sitting in a taxi, wondering if I had overdressed for the evening, when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a Dumpster…It was months since I’d laid eyes on Mom, and when she looked up, I was overcome with panic that she’d see me and call out my name and that someone on the way to the party would spot us together and Mom would introduce herself and my secret would be out.  I slid down in the seat and asked the driver to turn around and take me home to Park Avenue…”

 Discussion points: How does access to privilege work in The Glass Castle?  How does it change over the course of the book?  Despite their extreme poverty, are there any ways in which Jeannette and her siblings are privileged?  How does their privilege help them to escape the cycle of poverty? How does Jeannette feel about her success?  Why doesn’t she call out to her mom when she sees her on the streets of New York?

 Activity:

Option 1: Privilege Monopoly explores how forces of oppression are produced and reproduced in everyday life at micro and macro levels of society. The pre-game discussion, game, and debriefing sessions provide students with a rich opportunity to engage in learning and critical dialogue that highlight the intricate ways systemic oppression influences interactions and relationships.

 http://bit.ly/1SLxvPg

 Option 2: The Privilege Walk/Activity

A.      http://www.whatsrace.org/images/privwalk-long.pdf

B.      http://www.lakeland.cc.il.us/cm/diversity/content/documents/Classroom_Activity_Privilege_Walk.pdf

C.      http://www.buzzfeed.com/nathanwpyle/this-teacher-taught-his-class-a-powerful-lesson-about-privil#.qp2e9xWwEv

Option 3: Class Infographic http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/national/20050515_CLASS_GRAPHIC/index_03.html

Assignment:

Using the Privilege Walk (A or B), write a 1 -2 page paper on your own relationship to privilege.  How are your experiences growing up similar to that experienced in the Glass Castle?  How are your own experiences different?