The Joshua tree that Rose Mary sees in the desert in Arizona is hunched over from the harsh desert wind. Persistently being pushed by the wind, Rose Mary says, “It’s the Joshua tree’s struggle that gives it its beauty.”(Walls, pg. 38). This represents that the tree is effected from its struggles as the characters in the memoir do also. The Walls family can be seen as the tree by the parents frequently having the children move and the parent’s non concern for the children. Jeannette tries to resist the force at first by trying to stay away from her past. Even though she tries to hide her past, how misshapen it is, she finally comes to turns with her un-normal past, like the Joshua tree, finally accepts it. …show more content…
Neither of the parents go by the normal standers of right and wrong. Rex fights and argues with the police and Rose Mary struggles to decide the way of normal teaching, she would rather live free as an artist. They always insist that their children are special and they should never abide by the rules of society. By the ending of the book, the children start to want to break away from their family’s nonconformity and live normally.
The concept of hunger goes throughout this memoir, the hunger is shown in many ways.Such as how the Walls are hungry from not have enough food at all time. Even though this is constant throughout the story, it is not just hunger of the body they face. The children are also hungry for affection and attention from their parents. This is shown by Jeanette and Brian always wanting to go out on adventures to get attention from their parents to actually worry about