Lynx is a symbol of hunting prowess,
Lynx is a silent animal, so it usually uses the body-language to communicate. For thousand years ago the lynx has been considered one of the most powerful spirit animals in indiginous culture.Niska and Xavier are being like Lynx. Their traits: insight, listener, companion, silent power, and guidance.
When Niska is calling upon the spirits for her help the strongest spirit that comes to her is the Lynx. This shows that Niska is one whose spirit or internal self is something that refers her as a Lynx. Xavier also portrays the same traits as the Lynx such as: listener, companion, and silent power. The fact that Xavier sticks with Elijah through everything and never gives his opinion so as to correct anyone, shows that Xavier is someone that though holding the power to change someone resists and lets them try and correct themselves – this is Xavier’s gentle side that he doesn’t let just anyone get to know.The moment when Xavier and Elijah lost in the forest a spiritual guidance appears represented by lynx. I found that in Indigenous cultures, the lynx is a symbol of hunting prowess, but at the same time both dangerous and powerful. In this case, it is an appropriate symbol regarding Xavier and Elijah. Since their incredible hunting skills could bring them food and the title of in the bush, it also brings them struggles in the war, even as they achieved some sort of military recognition.
Residential SchoolBoyden uses abusive discipline, isolation of children from their families and cultural genocide in the description of Residential School. I think Residential School is symbolic of the real world/the state of the community at this time or even the War. In order to for First Nations to adapt to the European culture, they use brutal discipline methods upon the children.
We all know that war is a place of control, there is a harsh discipline almost to all of the people involved. In Residential schools, nuns isolated children from their families and didn’t give any chance to see them for a long period. With the loss of their families and its influences, children resulted in the loss of their culture and a difference in behaviour. It’s a well-known situation where people who went to the war returns as a completely different person because, eventually, war changes everything and everybody. Thus, I think, the author makes Residential School as a symbolic representation of the war in general. Connections “The Glass Castle and Three Day Road”QuixoteIn the family car “Blue Goose”, Walls family’s cat begins to protest by growling and scratching. Dad, by stating that “the family adventure isn’t open to anyone who doesn’t like to travel”, throws their pet out the window. The name of the cat, Quixote, makes me think as if it was taken from a Miguel de Cervantes’ novel – Don Quixote.
Don Quixote is a famous literary character who dreams of ridiculous things and who does not stop chasing them even if they clearly seem to be unrealistic. Moreover, giving his ideas with a kind of a nobility and romance, eventually, made him as a ridiculously silly madman. I think Don Quixote’s ideas do not differ from Dad’s same illusions of building a glass castle. Throughout the novel, Dad showed himself as a self-deceptive person regardless to reality because he constantly defeated in the novel while he still sticks up upon his illusory ideas, who, eventually, ended up as Don Quixote. Therefore, I think, the author made a sort of a little exposition of dad’s character by referring to a famous literature character – Don Quixote.Old YellerWhile reading “Three Day Road”, my friend made a comparison between an American drama “Old Yeller” film produced in 1957 by Walt Disney and a book “Three Day Road”. Surprisingly, there is a segment that is almost fully identical. In the “Old Yeller”, a child adores his small friendly yellow lab dog.
Child and dog always being as best friends. The dog always being close to a child while the child hunts wild boar, he stays with him all the times. Unfortunately at, one sad day, a wolf attacks the family. The dog immediately protects the child’s family, however, after getting a bite wound from a wolf, the dog goes crazy. The boy is forced to kill his own dog, to end dog’s insanity. I think, it is clearly similar to “Three Day Road”.
Xavier’s friend, Elijah got interested in making a pain and, eventually, goes insane by eating human (Wendigo). Xavier has then left with the heart-wrenching responsibility to kill his only one best friend and live with the painful emotions.DIRECTOR “Three Day Road”What is the significance of story about horses regardless Xavier and Elijah?The story about horse is significant because it shows the difference between Elijah’s and Xavier’s character.
Xavier could not see animal from suffering from the strong pain. Therefore, he decided to kill it and end its suffering and make the animal’s condition better. However, from time to time, Xavier is coming back to this memory feeling remorseful for having to do it, where Elijah enjoys listening to the story and fully engaged by the details of horse suffering. This reveals Elijah’s addiction and high interest in pain overall, where Xavier presented as a person with a soft heart. 2. Why do you think Elijah is appealing to authority? Throughout the time being in the war, Elijah always enjoys the war and tries to get the attention from people, yet he always has been receiving it. Elijah wants to move up in the war and, to be specific, one time he says his desire to stay and not to go back to the trenches.
It feels like Elijah’s childhood played a significant role in developing his character, since he was growing up without parents but being raised by nuns, thus, Elijah used to be always in the centre of attention. He feels a need of showing his worth and individuality, and the war is his place to do that. Just like someone who is doing their job constantly, but wants to stand out from the crowd. It seems like Elijijah is that type of person who is striving to prove everybody his worth.Literary Luminary “Three Day Road””I am forced by my poor English to sit back and watch it all happen, to see how he wins them over, while I become more invisible.
A brown ghost.”It seems like Xavier has jealousy feeling towards Elijah. Since their life at school, Elijah was able to adapt fast and communicate with locals there, while Xavier was still abused by nuns. Xavier feels invisible in comparison to Elijah. He is unable to perform as well as Elijah also on the battlefield, despite having skills. I think this passage shows Xavier’s image of Elijah as someone who is charismatic and charming, where Xavier himself more reserved humble. 2.
“He was the last great talker in our clan. He told stories softly so that you had to lean close to him to hear, so close that you could smell the smoke in the hidden ribbon my mother weaved into his hair, the scent of his neck like the wind coming off the Great Salt Bay. I used to imagine that he weaved his stories all summer, his words forming invisible nets that he cast over us on the long winter nights, capturing each other’s warmth. And sometimes his stories were all that we had to keep us alive.”This passage shows an important place of the father in Niska’s life. Father is sort of the idol or leader in her view, but also the only one who is giving her warmth and calmness. I think father was a kind of an Angel and a guardian to Niska, because we see that Niska have nobody, therefore, she keeps him as an illusionary supporter through his stories. Niska and Elijah desperately need getting rid of all their struggles in which they are all engaged.
As Niska says “his stories keep us alive” her father represents a spirit of a rescuer of problems.Therefore, having nothing but FAther’s stories Niska using him as a healing for Xavier and herself because “it will keep us Xavier and Niska alive.”Visual depiction Bended Joshua TreeThe Mom of the Wall’s family spots a bent tree in the desert. It seems like because this tree was constantly blown by the wind, it was forced to grow sideways, which Rosemary finds as a uniqueness which makes the tree beautiful. I see this tree as a representative image of all Wall’s kids. Their parents’ frequent moves and irresponsible actions as the blown wind to kids’ childhood. Looking at the present Jeanette who is living in New York, she desperately tries to resist the struggle of her past. She hides everything from her past times just because of the fear of people’s judgment that Jeanette left her own parents live on the streets.
Jeanette tries to grow upwards despite of the “blown wind”, however, she eventually bends as like this tree, allowing her struggles of the past be a part of her present life.Personal ReflectionAfter reading the “Glass Castle”, I saw the other side of how family interactions and perspectives impact on building a character. I am impressed how Jeannette Walls openly describes her background story to make people understand how her childhood build her as an independent successful person, even if it was achieved through painful and sometimes shameful experiences. The story shows how little kids faced with poverty, hunger and pain, how they stayed strong, and sometimes had to be as an adult. Throughout the story, Walls kids experienced so many bad situations, yet they stayed as a loyal family till the end.
It seems like they did not have something good, however, they kept a lot of good memories too. Recalling a part of Christmas at Mojave desert, they were so happy to take stars and planets as their gifts, kids always understood and never blamed their parents’ views. I think it is very important to take a lesson from them.
A lot of kids, unfortunately, do not see what others are facing with. While complaining about how mom cooked the things that you might not like or she is just not good enough, maybe the one kid, the same as you, is sitting and praying for someone to hug and something to eat that will make him stay alive for a bit more. It is a huge problem not appreciating the basic things you have.
Personally, this book gave me a sort of the light and a reminder that I need to be: thankful for what I have, for who I am, be strong and always have a hope, work hard and be an honourable human. In conclusion, The Glass Castle gave me insight into the value of life, love, loyalty and family. The resilience and openness that Walls family expressed prove to create a truly inspiring story.
