The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls

        We all heard the phrase “every family has problems” before. Right? Right! Well, that phrase does go well with Jeannette Walls’s family. Why? Because in her memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette describes her life being raised in a dysfunctional family who do the best they can to be a “normal” family.

            Jeannette Walls was born as the second child in the Walls family, in Arizona, from Rex and Rose Mary Walls. Jeannette’s siblings were Lori, her older sister, Brian her little brother, and finally her little sister, Maureen. Basically, the Walls family was a poor family. Rose Mary was a creative mother who loved to paint but never sold any of her artwork. Rex, on the other hand, was the kind of dad who did some temporary odd jobs here and there but was also a huge drunk.  Rex and Rose Mary did love their children but they always had a hard time taking care of them. For example, when Jeannette was three years old, she knew how to cook hotdogs on the gas stove (unsupervised). She was wearing a skirt while cooking the hotdogs, and before Jeannette knew it the fire from the stove got caught of her skirt and was covered in fire! After her mother took Jeannette to the hospital, the doctors couldn’t believe that a three year old was still alive after being severely burned while cooking hotdogs. But since Jeannette loved being at hospital for several weeks because she gets to eat whatever food she wants, the medical bills were expensive for Rex to pay them.  Instead of paying the medical bills, he went into the hospital, took Jeannette, and drove away from the hospital and started heading somewhere where the police or social workers can’t find him.

            The big reason why reason the Walls family moved from place to place because Rex was in some sort of trouble with the law. Some of the places that the Walls were: Nevada, California, and West Virginia. Where ever the Walls traveled to, Rex would get a job, make some money, buys beer, lose his job, and then moves the family somewhere else because he doesn’t want the police or the social workers to come after him and take his kids away.

            One particular place that Jeannette talks about the most is living in Welch, West Virginia with her family. Rex was born and raised in Welch, his parents and his brother, Stanley, still lived there and he thought that since the family needed some help with money, they could stay them even though the children never met them. Sadly, Rex’s mother and Uncle Stanley was not a good people because Rex’s mother molested Brian and Uncle Stanley molested Jeannette. Unfortunately, Rex and Rose Mary were the sorts of parents who did not care about their children’s safety and let their children deal with it themselves. Thankfully, Rex and Rose Mary eventually found a home that they could afford to own, in Welch, it was a shabby looking house with no indoor plumbing and electricity but it was home.  

Through out the book, Jeannette mentions some of her darkest moments in her life.  Such as, being molested several times, living without food and starving to the point where she had to dig through the trashcans at school just to find food. Along explaining life living with her father who is the town drunk. Jeannette does mentions some happy times in her life with her father. Such as, giving her the planet Venus as a   Christmas present. Jeannette also remembers touching a cheetah at a zoo while on a family trip. Finally, Jeannette loved working on the school newspaper at Welch High School until she had the money to move to NYC to be with Lori and became a reporter for a newspaper company.

The reason why Jeannette Wall’s memoir is titled, The Glass Castle, because her father, Rex, knew a lot about engineering and mathematics, he wanted to someday find gold and build a house made out of glass for his family to live in. He wanted the family to dream big even when there are moments when the family feels like they are falling apart.

Personally, I came across this book when I was in eleventh grade and my English teacher assigned this book to the class. I reread this book again when I noticed that it was becoming a movie. After rereading the book, it is sad to imagine four children trying to stay alive and looking after each other since their parents did not take of them properly. Finally, the way I see it is that anyone can have a better life through bad experiences.

 In concluding, if you want to read a book about a dysfunctional family that Jeannette Walls grew up in even though there is a bit of child molestation, domestic violence, and drug use. I do think the book is good to read if someone thinks that their family life is messier than another family.

Trivia Questions: 

1) When Rose Mary finally got a job as a teacher, how did the children help her in the classroom or at home? (just name one thing that they did) Was Rose Mary a good teacher or a bad teacher?

2) When Jeannette first started school, where did the teachers place her in? 

3) When living in Welch the family dug a hole for the Glass Castle project, what did they use the hole for instead of building the Glass Castle? 

Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle: A Memoir. New York, Scribner, 2006.Print.