Memoir comparison: The Glass Castle and Yakuza Moon

            The first things you can compare between the two memoirs are that both involve childhood hardships and neglect. Both stories have a wrenching bare-bone style type of writing that makes both books incredibly powerful to read. Both memoirs have many heartbreaking moments that will make the reader feel sensitive and will both make the reader feel deeply affected. In  the Glass castle, Jeanette's parents are both very eccentric characters and they are parents society would not label as “normal” the same can be said for Shoko Tendo's parents, even though society in their time did not label them as normal since they are Yakuza family, her parents were actually normal and loving based on Shoko Tendo's description.  Another similarity is that Jeanette and Shoko both have siblings, Jeanette who has one assertive and intelligent older sister, one courageous and strong younger brother, and one fragile adolescent younger sister. While Shoko who has one irresponsible and selfish but caring older sister, and one responsible mature older brother. Both characters are intelligent and the most responsible, taking care of their own families while acting as if they were the parents. Based on this description, you can tell that both character's siblings are different from each other because of the difference in family each character's family circumstances. The first and most obvious difference between the two stories is the setting and cultural difference. Yakuza Moon takes place in Japan, while The Glass castle is takes place in America.   The biggest difference in both respective families is that Jeanette's family was fairly poor and Shoko's family was quite wealthy. The similarity for  each father is that they both neglect their kids because the amount of time each father spend with their children are from less to none, but are both loving and caring, but the big difference is Shoko’s father is more mature, conservative and responsible, while Jeanette’s father is the polar opposite. The same goes for both mothers of the story, while Jeanette’s mother is selfish, irresponsible and child-like, Shoko’s mom is mature, responsible and very devoted to her husband and children. In the end both characters are overall similar, because both had disturbingly abrupt pasts, and ended up becoming authors writing about their lives. In conclusion it does not matter if one’s family is rich or poor, families are to more likely to have constant problems and hardships if they live life abiding aside society’s rules and laws, and not living a “normal” life. 

Rex Walls & Chris Gardener Comparison

In the film Pursuit of Happiness, the character Chris Gardener is role played by Will Smith who is a kind, caring and sentimental sales man struggling to make a living and to make it in a company for a steady job and a steady salary for the sake of his family. In the novel The Glass Castle, the character Rex Walls is a kind, caring, psychotic and dysfunctional father who spends his time searching for odd jobs, attempting to create inventions and spending most of their money on alcohol. The first major similarity is that both of them are fathers who are kind and non abusive towards there own respected families, through out both of there difficult quest for a better a life they both work hard for the sake of there families' future, struggling to find a big break. Will Smith's goal is a much more of a realistic and common goal, which is to land a proper and steady job that pays a good salary in order for a better life. Rex Walls' goal is very much like a pirate searching for hidden treasure, he constantly is attempting to create inventions that can make him rich and also look for gold that can make rich, which forced his family to be nomadic, because of the debts.  Another similarity between the two is that they both tell many lies for themselves or for there families' benefit, in other words they are both dishonest. The difference between the two are also as great as the similarities in both, the first major difference is that compared to Chris Gardener, Rex Walls is very self absorbed and spends most of the cash he earns on alcohol instead of finding a proper job to support his family properly, while Chris Gardener utilizes his utmost best effort in his job and in his quest to move up in a steady career, and does not spend his earnings recklessly. Another difference is Chris Gardener is more caring and cautious for his child, while Rex Walls less caring because of his reckless behavior towards his children, meaning the danger he places them in and calls them life lessons. In  the end both fathers love there children and have similarities but looking at the overall comparison it is safe to say that Chris Gardner is the overall better and responsible parent and is what you would call a normal father.

"The Glass Castle" Character Analysis

The characters in the Memoir of Jeanette Walls and her family and throughout her life are quite unique and are all very enticing. The behaviours and interactions between the characters are almost out of a psychological fiction novel. Jeanette Walls the main protagonists as well as author of the story has the most powerful attribute, she has the ability to forgive her parents actions and as well as other peoples. She has plenty of justified reasons for hating her parents’ actions and well as some others, but instead she confronts them head on and attempts to fix issues that stand before her. In her childhood she is intelligent, kind and forgiving as well as the favourite among the father.  Unlike the other children in the family she has been able to believe in the father for the longest time. Even though her mother, Rose Mary Walls and her father, Rex Walls were not the greatest parents, they still loved her and her siblings, enough to even teach them the right morals that have been taught through there society and even the right morals that were not taught in there society. The timeline and settings described in glass castle had lots of discrimination and racisms surrounding them, enough for her parents to be same, but they believed in equality, which was also passed down to the Walls children. Rex Walls’ mother molested him throughout his childhood and also grew up with his dysfunctional family, and had a childhood that was filled with unpleasantries and distraught that shaped him to have the most complex characteristics. He has a kind yet unpredictably charismatic personality with a sense of justice. He is a man with complicated psychological complexes who makes bad choices within his life but is indeed a man with potential. Rose Mary Walls, the mother of the kids is a kind of person who does not like to worry about and put her care into her own space and works on her dream of becoming an artist. She calls herself a “excitement addict” and She likes to fiend on dominance over the people around her cause of her “control freak” like personality, even thought she puts her children in harm at moments and is not as caring as much as her husband, she is caring in her own way, and does not completely neglect her children.