Jeannette Walls By Jeannette Walls Sparknotes

This autobiography begins with Jeannette Walls, the author, taking a taxi cab to a party being hosted that day wondering if she had overdressed for the occasion. While in the taxi she sees her mother ‘rooting through a Dumpster’ and panics that she might see her and call her name. Feeling embarrassed by her mother she asks the driver to take her back home to Park Avenue. Back at home, she looks around at her comfortable life. She feels guilty and ashamed as she questions how she can live such a comfortable life in this home, while her parents ‘huddled on a sidewalk grate somewhere’. She worries about them and has even tried to help them ‘countless times’, but both have said ‘they were living the way they wanted to’. Jeannette feels guilty after

She mentions how she enjoyed her stay in hospital because of the food and order, and she also had her own room. Eventually, her father decided it was time to checkout Rex Walls-Style, which meant not paying the hospital bills. At home, Jeannette got right back on ‘the saddle’ and started cooking hot dogs like before, however she became fascinated by fire. A few months later, her father decided it was time to leave, in the middle of the night. Jeannette comforted herself by holding the cat, but he was being fussy so Dad just threw it out, and her mother said she should not be ‘so sentimental.’ Jeannette explains how the family often did the ‘ the skedaddle’ to avoid the bill collectors, but even with the consent moving all the children were well educated and had learned many survival skills.The next section explains how their mother loved the desert and how the family ate irregularly. She mentions that her father’s plan was to find gold, the solution to their problems, using his invention the Prospector, which can then fund for the Glass Castle, but Dad had a “small” drinking problem. In section six, Jeannette shows how little she knew about her father’s past. However, she absolutely finds it romantic how her mom and dad met, contrary to her mother who felt she had to marry the guy. Jeannette’s father left the military after the marriage and her mother became pregnant with Lori. A year she was pregnant with Mary Charlene, who died of crib death. Jeannette was born two years later to replace Mary Charlene and Brian was born when Jeannette was one. Jeannette mentions how Mom never seemed to be upset over the death of Mary Charlene, but her father, however, started drinking and losing jobs after this. The section ends with how her father pawned her mother’s diamond wedding ring, and that the family has lived in