Motifs In The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, tells a story about a dysfunctional family and the hardships they faced in what we call the journey of life. Throughout the book, Jeannette Walls re-encounters her favorite childhood memories spent with her father, Rex Walls, in spite of Rex's recklessness and destruction onto different parts of her life. Rex is a skilled electrician whose alcoholism often gets to the best of him and his decisions. His profusion of alcohol led his family to poverty because instead of paying off bills and buying necessities for survival, he spends most of their income on liquor. Therefore, his children lacked the simplest things such as food and clothing.

The Glass Castle is a 2005 memoir. It was written by Jeannette Walls, an American writer and journalist widely known as a former gossip columnist for MSNBC.The Glass Castle is about the story of Jeannette Walls and her family, who is often short on cash and food. It sets place on many different places since the family skedaddles around the country constantly. Some of those places include West Virginia, NYC and Arizona.

In the memoir The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, a dysfunctional family with a delusional mother and a paranoid father try to prosper in the world with their nomad style of living. In the novel Walls stresses on the importance of home ownership, and the value of promises. In many occasions, Rex Walls, the father attempted to bring stability to the family, but each attempt was met with failure, for he was an irresponsible man. Although he tried to stop drinking, in the end, he miserably failed. Also, Rex attempted to maintain a stable job, but due to his alcoholism and his severely clouded perception of the world, he pathetically failed.

The memoir, The Glass Castle, is about a family that undergoes many hardships and yet remains unique and dysfunctional through it all. It is told through the eyes of young Jeannette Walls who recalls her childhood, and growing up in the special scenario that she did. Certain aspects are capitalized throughout the memoir such as the theme, the cultural experiences, and the understanding of historical accounts. As Jeannette Walls once said, “Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more.”

In the Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Walls calls back on memories and realizes her father Rex Walls was a huge reason why they were so poor. Throughout the book, Walls recalls the times they had money that could help them escape the prison of poverty. Her father Rex Walls as portrayed in the book was a smart man, but selfish and worried about his own desires, and he could never leave the bars for long. Which led Rex to take the money for himself and escape the bitter taste of reality he lives in. As Jeannette Walls portrays, Rex Walls had a problem that left him to ignore his responsibilities, and forced his own children to take them up for him.

The Glass Castle is a emotional memoir that takes the reader on an adventure with the Author Jeannette Walls. The storys starts off from one of Jeanette's earliest memories. Cooking hot dogs as a three year old she caught on fire and obtained bad burns. A three year making hot dogs without any help or parental guidance or supervision. In this memoir the reader is taken up through Jeanette's life and will quicked learn the rocky relationship between the kids and the parents.

Matthew Seikel Mrs. Wood English III 07 February 2023 The Importance of The Metaphor The Glass Castle The goal of building The Glass Castle caused many ups and downs for the Walls family. In the book The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls the family is very poor and Rex who is the father wants to build a glass castle for the family. Jeannette who is the author and one of the main characters has positive outlooks and negative outlooks on her father wanting to build the glass castle. Rex tries his hardest throughout the book to bring happiness in trying to build the glass castle however, it seems he hurts the family rather than helping the family.

Glass Castle: The “glass castle” symbolizes Rex’s; Jeanette’s father’s hope and dreams. Before Lori was born; Rex and Rose had a baby girl whom unfortunately died at nine months. This caused a spiral downfall in Rex’s life making him become bitterer, gloomy, dark, and an increasing consumption of alcohol. But even though that situation occurred he still held on to that dream of building the glass castle. One of the biggest current problem he faces in his life is alcoholism.

The Glass Castle is the one idea that helps the family continue to grow and move forward even though the Castle has different meaning to each of the members of the family. To Jeanette and her siblings the Glass Castle is a symbol of hope, to the mother, it is a symbol of relaxation and what life would be like without responsibilities, and to dad, it symbolizes every broken promise he has made to his children, but in the Glass Castle, he has not broken a single one.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a memoir about a family struggling with poverty, neglect, and instability. The Walls children grew up in an environment of neglect and abuse, with parents who were often drunk and unable to provide for their basic needs. Given the circumstances of their upbringing, the question of whether the Walls children should have been taken away by child protective services is a complex and difficult one. But, with all the evidence provided in The Glass Castle, Rex and Rose Mary Walls should have their children taken away by child protective services.

The hope given by the glass castle beginning to be build was beginning to fade into a distant dream. “‘What are we going to do about the garbage pit?” I asked “it’s almost filled up.” “Enlarge it,” Mom said.’” (Walls 158)

Incidents such as Rex’s and Rose Mary’s very public argument led to many neighbors questioning their abilities to raise 4 children. This incident led Jeanette’s mother to dangle from a second story window while her father attempted to pull her back inside. Every time something seemingly unpleasant occurred, her parents had a way to either ignore it or intertwine it into their grand future plan of a never-ending adventurous life. Despite facing many hardships, Jeanette believed that her father was a genius. While her life may seem to be depressing to most, she thought that it was spontaneous and adventure filled.

The Glass Castle would have solar cells on the top that would catch the sun’s rays and convert them into electricity” (Walls 25). The glass castle represents the family’s hope and dream towards the future. The castle represents Mr. Walls’s hope for an idealistic life where he could provide for his family and have a safe, stable roof above their head; the castle also represents all of Jeannette’s wonderful wishes and aspirations growing up. The glass castle is a powerful tie shared by everyone in the Walls family. “[Mr. Walls] [carries] around the blueprints for the Glass Castle wherever [he] went” (Walls 25).

Once he finished the prospector and we struck it rich, he’d start work on our glass castle” (25). Walls’ innocence and optimism for the creation of the Glass Castle is indicated through her belief that Rex really is on the verge of finding gold and building the Glass Castle. In reality, he was out drinking all day, spending money that could have been used to feed Walls and her siblings. She still thinks that her father will follow through on his promises, and in doing so bring her happiness. She is unaware of his deception, which is becoming increasingly damaging to his family, as they have trouble affording food.

The Glass Castle is the life story of a girl, Jeannette Walls, and her siblings who grew up in poverty unnecessarily because of their parents’ irresponsibility. One of its themes is that strength and perseverance can significantly improve your chance at success and your future. The Walls children did not allow their childhood struggles prevent them from creating better and brighter futures for themselves. They all grew up impressively sane considering their living conditions.