In this bittersweet memoir, journalist Jeannette Walls tells her story in an emotional and humorous tone to depict the life of her rather dysfunctional family. She recounts the memories of going on adventures (“skedaddles” they call it), bouncing from one neighborhood to another with her family. Jeannette details her life from childhood to adulthood, and focuses on the unconventional upbringing she has grown up in. With her three other siblings, an incredibly free-spirited mother, and an intelligent yet alcoholic father, Jeannette endures all mishaps and learns to tackle the world head-on. In spite of her poverty-stricken childhood (digging through the trash for food, starving for days at a time, and living in broken homes), she perceives her youth in an almost comical light. In the face of such negative circumstances, Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle uses descriptive imagery through the use of tonal shift, irony, and symbolism to reveal the human tendency to find healing when willing and to forgive others and overcome hardships in the face of adversity.
From childhood to adulthood, Jeannette experiences life living in poverty which ultimately shapes her as a person. She begins her attitude shift from innocence to anger as a result of growing up and questioning her surroundings. Her attitude towards her father as a child is that of trust and purity, believing in everything that he does. Rex continuously promises that once he strikes it rich and finds gold, he will build them a glass castle; a glass mansion in the desert. Jeannette instills a sense of hope and belief in her father when she writes, “He carried around the blueprints for the Glass Castle wherever we went, and sometimes he’d pull them out and let us work on the design for our rooms” (25). Here, Rex is shown as a person who truly believes in himself and what he will do, and that furthers Jeannette’s trust in him. Because of Jeannette’s naivety in her father’s empty promises and unrealistic dreams, she puts all her faith in him. Despite the poverty and abuse she lives in, Jeannette still manages to stay optimistic and hopeful, that one day, her father will truly create a wonderful castle just for her and her family. However, as she grows older and moves to Welch, she starts maturing and losing that sense of innocence and faith in her father. The reality of her life and of Rex’s alcohol abuse puts her in anger and frustration. She experiences a further loss of faith in her father when she discovers that “Someone had slashed him apart and with a knife and stolen all the money” (228): the money that she and Lori have saved up for their “escape fund” to New York. The use of the word “slashed” is full of raging desperation, as if she was Oz that he has slashed apart, stealing any little trace of belief she has left in him. Rex’s behavior reveals just how much he has changed from being an ambitious role model to a reckless thief from when she was a child versus as an adolescent; it teaches her determination to overcome her current conditions and to never allow these setbacks to stop her from reaching her goals. Even though Rex has betrayed Jeannette’s faith in him, she tells the story with no negative intent (she depicts Rex as a character who can be hopeful and confident in his dreams but can also become someone that slowly loses that sense of purpose in what he believes in), but to inform the readers of her realizations in the poor choices he had made.
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As Jeannette settles into the comfort of her new life, her frustration towards her family life shifts from embarrassment to acceptance. While on her way to a party, Jeanette sees her mother digging through trash and her first reaction was to hide from being recognized by her. She shamefully writes, “I was overcome with panic that she'd see me and call out my name and that someone on the way to the same party would spot us together, and Mom would introduce herself and my secret would be out. I slid down in the seat and asked the driver to turn around and take me home to Park Avenue (3). Her mother’s unconventional ideals represent an unwelcome threat to Jeannette’s young adult life; she guiltily does not appreciate the arrival of her parents in New York. Jeannette’s upbringing may have taught her to be determined, but it certainly did not teach her to be ashamed of being associated with such low-class parents. The way that she was raised was so deprived of stability and status that she had to resort to moving into a career that would give her these senses. Her shame and guilt are measured by how society views “normal” etiquette and should be compared to how she was in the past. She begins to understand her parents the more she distances herself away from them, only visiting them on holidays or special occasions. Her shift from being embarrassed by her parents is replaced with acceptance for who they are as people. When Rex requests Jeannette to bring him a bottle of vodka during his stay in the hospital, she willingly brought it to him. This scene is a prominent example of “actions speak louder than words”; the fact that alcohol is the main reason for the downfall of the Walls family, yet Jeannette still fulfills her father’s wish, is an act of forgiveness itself. She even counters, “But despite all the hell-raising and destruction and chaos he had created in our lives, I could not imagine what my life would be like---what the world would be like---without him in it” (279). Even though her parents can be burdensome, they are still her parents. Without difficult experiences, she might never get the chance to grow in her mind and soul. Jeannette does not disregard his actions nor does she replace her trust in him, however, she displays her forgiveness in a form of acceptance for her parents and teaches others to be forgiving despite the struggles that might be present.
Throughout the memoir, the irony is a strong factor in developing Jeanette into a successful adult. Because of the poverty Jeanette lives in, her family struggles to make responsible choices, consequently forcing the children to have more sensible control than the parental figure. In the Walls family, the children take the role of parenting each other (showcasing a parental role reversal). One example of irony is when Brian caught Rosemary (the mother) sneakily eating chocolate as he and his siblings struggle not to think of food. Jeannette distressingly writes, “Brian snatched up the chocolate bar and divided it into four pieces. While Mom watched, we wolfed them down” (174). Many would think that as parents, they should be one to look out for their children’s wellbeing, yet in this situation, Brian is just a child but know more about sharing and putting others first than his own mother. The fact that Brian is the one to carry out the action of dividing the chocolate instead of the actual parent is heartbreaking; it shows how selfish the mother is. It is absolutely appalling to see children pertaining more sense of responsibility than their parents do. Another example of irony is when Rosemary reluctantly applied for a teaching job, yet dumped all of her duties onto her children because she hates it since it is proof of her failure as an artist. The only reason why Rosemary even bothers to get a job in the first place is that Jeanette admittedly told her that she was hungry. Instead of being an upset child, Jeannette feels as if she has burdened her mother, writing, “I’d broken one of our unspoken rules: We were always supposed to pretend our life was one long and incredibly fun adventure” (69). It is ironic that they abide by these selfish rules, but abandon the simple rules that prevent them from dangerous situations (playing with fire or on railroad tracks). The delusions that the children have to live with to protect their mother prove that she is unable to live up to her ideal of self-sufficiency. Even when she has a teaching license and is capable of obtaining a job to provide for her children, she chooses to indulge herself in her own freedom rather than taking care of her children; Rosemary puts herself first in a situation where the children are literally starving displays quite a picture of what she values in life. Her behavior is of a neglectful mother who does not want to take responsibility for her own children. Whether it is in her job or as a parent, Rosemary goes out of her way to avoid dealing with responsibilities, and in turn, gave Jeannette an insight on shaping who she does not want to be in the future.
Situational irony takes another form in the male figure, Rex Walls, which teaches Jeannette to seriously think about what she wants to achieve in her future. Rex’s extreme nonconformist ways, it pushes his kids to become just the opposite of his ideals. The Walls family is raised on constant “skedaddles” and exceptional lenient parenting, causing the Walls children to yearn for a life of permanence and order. Irony works its way into Jeannette’s brother, Brian, when he decides to join the police force, as written “Brian had joined the police force as soon as he turned twenty. Dad couldn’t figure out what he’d done wrong, raising a son who’d grown up to become a member of the Gestapo” (274). It is ironic to think that Rex could fathom what, but not to why. The Walls children have such a disorderly lifestyle (due to Rex’s “convenient” escape) that it determined the setup of their future. Why they chose to live the way they do is from the cause-and-effect of the life they were raised in. Brian’s experience with starvation and instability mentally and physically pushes him into a career path where these affairs will cease to exist. Just like Brian, the exposure to poverty also made Jeanette antsy about the future. Jeannette’s role in her family is the hopeful daughter who believes in everything her father says or does. And yet, because of Rex’s nonconformist teachings, eventually pushes her to give up on the idea of the Glass Castle being built. On the night of that spring, after Jeanette has announced her decision to move to New York, Rex calls for her to discuss some ideas: she finalizes, “We’d stopped talking about the Glass Castle once the foundation we’d dug up was filled up with garbage...Dad’s hands trembled slightly as he unrolled different blueprints” (238). Rex’s nervousness is a cry for reconciliation (since the plans for the Glass Castle are the only bridge that connects both of them) and desperation for Jeannette to give him one more chance. It is ironic that Jeannette, Rex’s favorite daughter for always believing in his dreams, has decided to shut down any talks about the Glass Castle. In a way, her dismissive attitude towards her father is her last goodbye to any trace of innocence she has left for him. With the dysfunctional lifestyle the children are introduced to, they learn at a very early age to fend for themselves and to live “freely,” which was so far from normal that it led them towards a path of normalcy despite Rex and Rosemary’s teachings.
The Walls' nomadic lifestyle is webbed with many symbolic manifestations; Jeannette manages to weave in her interactions with fire and the effect it has on her life. From childhood to adulthood, fire is a symbolic source that constantly appears throughout her life. Jeannette recalls her first encounter with fire when she burnt herself cooking hot dogs at three years old; she vividly remembers being, “Frozen with fear, I watched the yellow-white flames make a ragged brown line up the pink fabric of my skirt and climb my stomach. Then the flames leaped up, reaching my face” (9). Fire represents the never-ending instability of her life and the neglect she goes through because of it. The description of the flames climbing towards her symbolizes the poverty and disappointment that she is plagued with, as well as the chaos that follows her around. This scene perfectly depicts the spirit of responsibility and independence but also highlights the carelessness that is her parents. The moment that Jeannette is burned is the start of her journey to the dilemmas that she will face (this trauma teaches her to seek security rather than freedom). Even though this moment began her fascination with fire, she is able to forget her tendencies when she realizes the dangers of it. Unlike her parents, she is able to clearly see the destruction that fire can cause (they never understand the consequences of their actions) and that ability helps her get out of her insane situation. As she reaches adulthood, she learns that fire is also a positive influence on her strong willpower and persistence to survive. During Thanksgiving dinner as her family is giving a toast to her father’s death five years prior, Jeannette wraps up with, “A wind picked up, rattling the windows, and the candle flames suddenly shifted, dancing along the border between turbulence and order” (288). The border between turbulence and order is called the Boundary, mentioned by Rex, where rules and order do not exist. Jeannette remembers entering the Boundary when she and Brian go through different means in search of food, entering a realm where rules do not apply to them. Her life is a theme of self-sufficiency and resilience, and despite the homelessness and starvation, she still pulled through and fought with spirit. The fact that she begins her memoir of a scene with fire and ends it with the flickering of candles is a symbolic representation of her life. It is a full-circle moment that represents the chaos and control she has. She can have a normal life and come to terms with her childhood; the fire has power over her in the beginning but in the end, she has power over the fire.
In her adolescent years, Jeannette’s life is mirrored in many physical objects she encounters. All of the items that are presented to her are the obstacles that teach her to be flexible and independent. After getting out of the hospital, Jeannette decides to play with her toy doll, Tinkerbell, by holding a flame to its face; Jeannette quickly regrets it saying, “I tried to smooth her features back to the way they had been... Even though her face was melted, she was still my favorite toy” (16). Tinkerbell being burnt is related to Jeannette’s harsh realities of her life; the doll becomes an indirect symbol of her (figuratively) and her childhood (metaphorically). Jeannette’s attempt to fix the doll can be considered an effort to lessen the trauma of her childhood. When Rex wakes her up on another skedaddle, she has to leave Tinkerbell behind; which symbolizes the loss of childhood and being forced to grow up. Although Jeannette burns Tinkerbell, she still cherishes the toy (they both parallel each other): she hopes that there would be someone out there who would love her for who she is, regardless of her poverty, struggle, and deformation. On another skedaddle with her family, Jeannette comes across the unsightly Joshua tree. Upon a memory, she describes, “It existed now in a permanent state of windblown ness, leaning over so far that it seemed ready to topple, in fact, its roots held it firmly in place” (35). In the process of growing up, the Joshua tree symbolizes the nature of how Jeannette is raised. The lives of the Walls children can be seen as individual Joshua trees because they are constantly blown by their parents’ frequent skedaddles and unconventional behaviors. At first, Jeannette tries to resist this force when she moves to New York. She does not want to be exposed to her past and judged for her decisions, however, her efforts at growing upward are averted despite the constant wind that blows; she finally allows her struggles to show and begins to embrace her past. The beauty of the Joshua tree is in its strong roots; the roots are morals that are instilled in Jeannette’s young life. Because the personification of the Joshua tree’s past hardships makes its future more special, it made Jeannette become well-rooted in her beliefs.
Forgiveness is the key to embracing and acknowledging the past, which is how Jeannette is able to come to terms with the events of her childhood. Jeannette provides intricate details about her background, emphasizing the importance of perseverance. She remains as cheerful as possible and holds no resentment towards her parents, only telling the story as it is. Her purpose is to let people see her struggles and how she overcame them through her dedication to succeed. She does not let her circumstances succumb her into living the way her parents do; instead, she puts in astounding efforts to succeed and live a flourishing life. In the end, Jeannette is thankful for the experiences she was born into because even if her parents do not feed her hunger, they never stop feeding her the wisdom and beauty of life.
- Whittemore, Amie. “The Glass Castle.” The Desert Sections 17-18, 19 Oct. 2019, https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/g/the-glass-castle/summary-and-analysis/part-2-the-desert-sections-1718.
- Paige. “Symbol.” Symbol, 1 Jan. 1970, http://glasscastleera6.blogspot.com/2010/06/symbol.html.
- Walls, Jeannette, et al. “The Glass Castle Themes.” GradeSaver, 31 Mar. 2011, https://www.gradesaver.com/the-glass-castle/study-guide/themes.
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