Analyzing 'The Glass Castle': A Case Management Perspective on Walls

This case study provides a comprehensive assessment of Jeannette Walls from the movie 'The Glass Castle,' examining her life, challenges, and aspirations through a case management lens. It identifies her strengths, such as resilience, and the barriers she faced, including family dysfunction and social circumstances. The analysis reflects on the impact of her parents' choices and the critical role of social networks in her life. Furthermore, it explores Jeanette's professional journey and her siblings' efforts to build stable lives. The reflection discusses the emotional impact of the movie and its alignment with case management principles, highlighting themes of poverty, mental health, and the pursuit of dreams amidst adversity. The study concludes with a consideration of the complex dynamics within the family and Jeanette's journey toward independence and self-discovery.

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CASE MANAGEMENT: GLASS CASTLE
Students ID:
Name of the University:
Authors Note:

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Who is this person?
The person here is Jeannette Walls. She is a popular American author and a reporter who has
been hugely known as the former gossip columnist working for MSNBC.com. She is the one
who has written the book The Glass Castle. Based on these memories of her nomadic family
members and her children, the movie has been made in the year 2017 (Walls, 2017).
What has he/she done in his/her life?
Jeanette and her family continuously move around from one place to another for resettling.
After getting away from her family she fulfilled her dream by relocating to New York. She
archived her goals to become an American Writer and a reporter on News Channel.
What brought him/her to this situation and service intervention?
From the movie "Glass Castle" it has been seen that the family of is dysfunctional, from
where the memoirs interact with each other without condemns the parental relation. It is her
problematic family where all the family members are disconnected from each that brings her
to such situation and intervention of service (Moran et al., 2017). It is her parent’s choices
and family dysfunctioning behaviour that affected her mid all the while forcing her to move
to different towns for settlement.
What are the opportunities for these goals and aspirations to be achieved?
Jeannette along with her siblings Lori, Brian gets settles to desert for exploring the place
away from her abusive father. By doing so, Jeanette was trying to find an opportunity to seek
a place in the world. Jeannette wanted to make a place of her ignoring and rejecting the
family truth and father. She frames her aspiration by getting an opportunity to move away
from the family by exploring the natural environment with her brother Brian.
What are the barriers to these goals and aspirations?

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The barrier that came on her way while seeking aspirations is her father who constantly
demotivated her in achieving her goals. In this context, her family has been always in a state
of relocating for settling for a better choice. However, they could never find a suitable place
for settling. Social circumstances were the major barriers in the way of the goals and
aspiration. The most crucial barrier in her way was her father who never supported her
achievement of the career.
Who are the critical people and/or social networks in this person’s life?
The most critical people in the movie Glass Castle is Jeannette's father, who could never
found a settling job that had paranoia against the state and the society. As a result of which he
was always engrossed with is alcoholism that propels them to relocated more frequently.
Jeanette's mother on the other hand never tried to settle in a job that was always in a thirst for
more adventure (Gursansky, Kennedy & Camilleri, 2012). As Jeanette grows up she realises
more and more about her parent's irrelevant choices thinking them to be irresponsible.
Who are the professionals involved in this person’s situation?” (Gursansky et al., 2012, p.
67)
Jeanette is the professional person in the family, who moves to New York to find a job as a
reporter that was an objective in her life, Lori, her brother as well found a job for himself as
they preferred to have the roof over their head. In this context, Lori, Jeanette and Brian were
able to find a secured professional as well could build a new life for them.
Strengths – identify the individual’s strengths and any successes you observed during
the movie
Jeanette strength, as perceived throughout the movie was her resilience over her family
members. Apart from these, it has been seen that throughout the entire struggles encountered
by the family, all the children try to stay positive. The kids barely had any food to eat as a

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result of relocation. Most of the time, they had to sleep in cardboard boxes and resided in the
infested home. Despite the entire problem the children managed to stick to their family until
they grew up (Moran et al., 2017). Specifically, Jeanette’s remarkable strength of resilience
is the best part of the story. This is because without having such fortitude, Jeanette would
have completely shattered due to her problematic family.
Needs/challenges
There were many social issues that have been seen throughout Jeanette and her family’s life
in the movie. Most of the challenges and needs were related to neglected medical and
educational requirement (Wilson et al., 2016). Moreover, the children and the family had to
live in unhygienic conditions, homelessness and unemployment of Rex along with alcohol
abuse and domestic violence of the family members. Moreover, there was a sharp presence of
discrimination and mental health problem present within the family members.
However, poverty was one of the crucial challenges and needs that have effectively addressed
in this movie. It has been seen that there were times when they had to live for days without
eating (Epstein et al., 2014). Again, financial insufficiency was a major issue in the movie. It
is evident from the movie that only a single parent was accountable for managing financial
issues and another one was responsible for supervising the children. In this course of time,
Rex develops a habit of drinking as a result which he started behaving in an abusive way over
his children (Romero et al., 2018).
Reflect on how you felt watching the movie? How has the content from the Case
Management course shaped your perception of the movie and how you viewed the
character’s situation?

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After watching the movie, I was quite heart touched, as there were all the components of
crying material. The entire film has moments of honest bitter as well as sweet pains.
However, much of the cladding within the movie was simple that deviated from the original
adaptation. It has been sorrowing to this so many conventional habits that have been revelled
in the movie portrayed through the swells of music, stringent display of wealth as well as
suffering. However, I could personally relate to the movie from the life of Jeanette who
wanted to fulfil her dreams as an America writer and reporter (Lawson, 2017).
Apart from these, I could completely agree with her decision of going away from her mad
family, where her family lived a life of vagabond treating across the streets of America.
Living in a family where father was half mad, devoid of social and an alcoholic that made her
cruel and nasty (Wilson et al., 2016). By the end of the movie Rex, her father has been
revealed as a complete monster that has an abusive alcoholic habit as a result of which
Jeanette have conflicts with her. However, the real darkness of the story could never be
found, as there is a presence of sentimental attachment, and roundness within the movie. The
entire movie had interesting content of the 1960s as Jeanette reacted against her father
dangerous nature that questioned her childhood (Lawson, 2017).
Apart from the line of Jeanette, there is fascinating content laying within the story related to
the mother who has been a victim as well a source of abuse. Despite all these, she manages to
stands by her husband that leads her life along with her children towards catastrophe.

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Reference list
Epstein, C. F., Seron, C., Oglensky, B., & Saute, R. (2014). The part-time paradox: Time
norms, professional life, family and gender. Routledge.
Gursansky, D., Kennedy, R., & Camilleri, P. J. (2012). The Practice of Case Management.
Lawson, R., (7 Aug. 2017) The Glass Castle Review: An Adaptation That’s Not Nearly
Shattering Enough. Vanity Fair. Retrieved on 2 August 2018. Retrieved from:
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/08/the-glass-castle-review
Moran, D., McBain, D., Kanemoto, K., Lenzen, M., & Geschke, A. (2015). Global supply
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Industrial Ecology, 19(3), 357-365.
Romero, C. B. A., Laroche, M., Aurup, G. M., & Ferraz, S. B. (2018). Ethnicity and
acculturation of environmental attitudes and behaviours: A cross-cultural study with
Brazilians in Canada. Journal of Business Research, 82, 300-309.
Walls, J. (2017). The glass castle: A Memoir. Simon and Schuster.
Wilson, D. M., Smith, S. L., Anderson, M. C., Northcott, H. C., Fainsinger, R. L., Stingl, M.
J., & Truman, C. D. (2016). Twentieth-century social and health-care influences on the
location of death in Canada. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research Archive, 34(3).