The book, The Glass
Castle, by Jeannette Walls is a well-written memoir about the author’s
childhood to adulthood. Having little cash and food all the time, the Walls family
frequently moves from place to place and tries to settle down. This story
reveals the obstacles and hardships Walls has overcome in the course of her
life time and tells how she is able to become a successful writer.
Walls is an optimistic, hardworking girl who is always
helping around the family. She has two sisters, named Lori and Maureen, and a
brother named Brian. Lori, the oldest sister, is a smart girl who is into drawing
and painting, Brian, Walls’s younger brother, is a protective boy who is
particularly close with Walls, and Maureen, the youngest sibling, is a
dependent girl, who is always relying on someone to take care of her, including
her friends. Rex is the intelligent, loving father except when he is drinking,
constantly losing jobs and takes everyone’s precious money for alcohol, and last
but not least, Rose Mary is the lazy, irresponsible mother and also an
unsuccessful artist, who values self-sufficiency although she does not like to
provide for the family herself.
There are several scenes in the book that made me very
sympathetic, astonished and shocked.
First, Walls explains that she sleeps in a cardboard box because she is
too poor to own a bed. If the readers are in the same situation, they would be
uncomfortable, freezing and complaining, but Walls “liked [her] boxes. They
made going to bed seem like an adventure” (52), which reveals her positivity as
well as maturity at such young age. Then, she describes her new house, “The
toilet wasn’t hooked up to any sewer or septic system. It just sat atop a hole
about six feet deep. There was no running water indoors…While the house was
wired for electricity, Dad confessed that we could not at the moment afford to
have it turned on” (151). From this description, readers can see the harsh
struggles Walls went through in her childhood. Finally, the author reveals that because she
had no food at her house, she had to look for lunch in the garbage after
everyone threw away his or her food in school. Again, it is very difficult to
picture a girl, searching through trash for something to eat and consuming the
leftovers that had been in the garbage. Especially because these are true
events that actually happened to the author, it is very unimaginable to think
about.
As a result of continuous poverty and Walls’s alcoholic
father and unconcerned mother, the children could not take it anymore and want
to get away from their parents. When Walls is asked to go to Iowa for the
summer to babysit and is offered $200 plus a bus ticket back to Welch, West
Virginia, where she currently lived, Walls suggests that Lori take the job and
give her a ticket to New York instead of Welch. Thus, Lori leaves Rex and Rose
Mary, eventually followed by Walls, Brian and Maureen. Walls’s decision to go
to New York like her sister is an important choice that greatly impacts her
life because it leads to not only a successful writing career but also a stable
life she has never experienced before. She finally achieves her goal by getting
her dream job and having enough money to
support herself with food, clothing and shelter on her own.
I thought that this memoir was remarkable, and I enjoyed
reading about Walls’s life. It was very interesting to learn what the author
went through as a child and how she became a successful writer. Although I am usually not into this kind of
book, I really liked it, and I think everyone should try reading it too. The Glass Castle was a phenomenal book that all people, including adults, can enjoy.
