Analysis Of The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

The Glass Castle is a memoir by Jeannette Walls covering her growth from childhood to adult life. Throughout her journey, Jeannette formed a close relationship with her siblings to combat the often unstable environment created by their parents. Financial instability, constant uncertainty, and persistent hunger burdened the Walls family; however, their adaptive lifestyle overshadowed these daily onuses. Jeannette and her siblings did not make the life-changing realization that they were growing up in an unhealthy setting until their teenage years. The Glass Castle depicts this tragedy, one often filled with false hope and satisfaction. Jeannette Walls’ father was a man of great optimism—he always believed that his family would find prosperity despite their struggles. He communicated to his children the idea of a “Glass Castle,” his dream palace to live out his life in. This castle led to Walls’ father’s desperate pursuit to gain funds, resulting in gambling infiltrating the Walls family. Walls’s father became a master of gambling, raking in hundreds to thousands of dollars at a time, but poor budgeting and alcohol abuse depleted the income quickly, leaving his children and wife hungry and incapable of paying water and electricity bills. The tribulations brought onto

Jeannette became a collector, her rock assortment becoming her crowning achievement. She also took a liking to reading and writing, taking influence from her older sister, Lori. Lori was a mother figure for her three younger siblings, as their actual mother evolved into an isolated character during their teenage years. Jeannette and Lori grew close, and they would eventually sprout the plan to escape the confines of their childhood. Brian, their brother, would join them on their venture, but the youngest Walls child, Maureen, remained with her parents and would lead a life of seclusion similar to her