The Glass Castle

The Glass Castle 

I thought this book was amazing!  At first I was slightly skeptical and thought that it would be very depressing.  But Jeannette Walls is a fantastic writer and I thought she did a fantastic job telling her story of her childhood.  The Glass Castle had many different themes in the story such as poverty, neglect, abuse, depression, alcoholism, and self-sufficiency.  I think I was most surprised about the level of poverty the Walls family faced, and the self-sufficiency expected by the Walls parents of their children. 

The Walls family frequently went without adequate amounts of food, money, and shelter.  Rex, the father, was always losing or quitting jobs and often spent their money on alcohol and irresponsible things.  Rose Mary, the mother, sometimes worked as a teacher in grade schools but cared more about freedom and her artwork to maintain any job for long.  The family was in such poverty throughout most of their lives.  In her story, Jeannette divulges that she and her siblings had next to nothing and slept on cardboard boxes in their broken down homes.  She also speaks about how she goes days without eating and must resort to digging food out of the garbage in order to eat.  For example, Jeannette discusses how she hid in the bathroom at school waiting for girls to throw out their lunches so she could later scavenge.  Her example sheds light on the level of poverty her family was facing and how desperate she was to eat when food at home was scarce.     

I was also amazed by how Rex and Rose Mary insisted that their children learn to be self-sufficient and at such a young age.  They are determined to teach all of their children the value of taking care of themselves.  Many times Rex and Rose Mary put their children in unsafe situations in hopes to instill level of toughness and self-sufficiency in their children.  Although I find this to be dangerous at times, I think it was fortunate that the children learned to be so self-sufficient.  Unfortunately Rex was an alcoholic, Rose Mary was not interested in raising four children and both parents were a little narcissistic and neglectful.  The Walls children had to quickly learn how to take care of themselves and I think this is the main reason the children were able to survive their unfortunately awful childhood.  Their self-sufficiency and incredible intelligence is what gave them the strength and ability to move, and transform their lifestyle into something great.