Brady Vibert
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Brady Vibert FHCI
The Glass Castle
Jeannette Walls
Copyright 2005©
Brady Vibert
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The Glass Castle has many interesting themes, characters, settings and a riveting plot.
But in this we learn a lot about the characters, their back stories and perhaps why they do the
different things that they do. The plot and setting intertwine very nicely and apply to the
themes very well, but the themes mentioned are not always the easiest to pick out. The book is
a memoir of the main character; Jeannette Walls and her family. The author wrote the it in such
a way that it helps the reader understand that perhaps life is not as perfect and simples as we
see it, but rather a delicate system of events that happen in precession of each other.
Throughout this book we see the growth of the family as more members are added, we observe
the changes in the family dynamic and how one instance can impact the lives of someone from
that point on. The main themes in this revolve around family and difficulty as this was the basis
of this novel. One of the main themes or things present in this book is clearly that this was a
satire of the “North American Dream” and our way of life. Jeannette Walls and family clearly
live a life fairly opposite of what we would consider to be a “good lifestyle.” Many obstacles
were thrown at this family; as the plot progresses and in the backstory. The plot is metaphor
towards life due to the fact that in life many things happen with no forewarning, planning, or
insight. Each entry exhibits the idea of conflict and resolution or lack thereof. Arguably the most
prominent and important theme in this novel would be that of family. No matter what happens
to the Walls family, they manage to survive, occasionally thrive and for the most part protect
each other. Each member of the family has to overcome issues caused internally by the family
and externally by the environments present, but they seem to do it together or at least assist
each other in the best way they can.
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Throughout this book we see many antonyms to our North American way of life; these
happen to include alcoholism, money struggle and carelessness. Many of these problems are
not a direct cause of the children, but rather Rex and Rose. Rex for instance is an alcoholic, we
see him change during the book based on the amount of money he can possibly spend on
alcohol. When the book starts it is noted that he rarely drinks and that the family is not really
affected by his drinking. Towards the middle of the book when they are living in Battle
Mountain we see that he will now disappear from time to time and it is assumed he is at bars
and watering holes trying to escape his life. The quote: “Why aren’t you helping? You spend the
whole day at the Owl Club. You act like it’s not your responsibility.”i clearly shows that his
family is coming second to his alcoholism and that they are negatively impacted. Along with the
alcoholism is a money struggle. Money struggle is apparent from the beginning of the book
straight through until the end of the book for Rex and Mary. “’Twenty dollars?’ I couldn’t
believe Dad was pushing me this far,”ii shows how Rex is taking money from his wife and his
daughter at different points in the book to fund his own ventures, rather than support his
family and try to give them a better living. However as the children move out they find a way to
solve their own money issues without the assistance of their vacant parents. The apparent
carelessness for life, environment and parenting is shown deeply by Mary and Rex as the trials
of their children unfold. In several events the main character is in some kind of peril solely
related to the parenting of Rex and Mary. Jeannette was sexually assaulted on two occasions,
one of which was the idea of Rex for distracting someone to make money. Before this
happened in the book, in the first chapter we read that Jeannette is almost burnt to death
while trying to cook wieners on the stove. Her parents caused this by letting a three year old
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cook. Not to mention the perils that have been caused to the other children, like Jeannette’s
younger sister Maureen. While her childhood is no worse than any other of the Walls kids, she
does not seem to grow up well as a result of her upbringing.
In life many obstacles are thrown at us, whether we choose to overcome them or allow
them to consume us is a different subject. In this text there are many examples of obstacles
being thrown at the Walls family. It is hypothesized by the children that their father was
sexually abused by his mother as the quote signifies, “Do you ever think she did something to
Dad like what she did to Brian?”iii But this then goes on to show the father’s lack of parental
care, perhaps based on his childhood experiences. It is noted also that his childhood was not
much better than that of his children so it could be the main factor for his lack of apparent
knowledge. Another large obstacle thrown at this family is the constant movement or
“skedaddling” as Rex refers to it as. The family never lives in the same place for much time until
the middle of the book. The moving can easily show the issue the children have with being able
to grow up in suitable environment as they never had a stable base of operations. With a lack of
solid relationships with friends and family it can only be shown that psychologically the children
do not have the required bonding to grow up efficiently and happily. One of the other main
obstacles thrown at the family is that they all have different views of their father. Brian was
quoted as saying “Yes”iv when Rex asked if he was ever let down by him. Whereas Jeannette
never really admits to her father letting her down, indirectly she does. But she never once
admits it to him or makes it apparent that she is let down by him or ashamed of him. Lori is
quite the opposite as she is very verbal about her distaste towards her father and all the things
he does to fail them. It is apparent that Lori is not afraid to deal with her parents and their ways
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of life where as the other children just sort of suck it up. She appears to be the “strong” one of
the children.
One of the main characteristics of the Walls family is their ability to survive and
occasionally thrive, both mentally and physically. The family suffered many financial and
emotional problems. While in Battle Mountain we observe Jeannette almost raped by the boy
living down the street. Often this causes people to be very emotionally and psychologically
damaged while Jeannette seems to not suffer very much. After Jeannette is almost raped she
searches up the word “rape” when she hears of it, even though she doesn’t understand what it
means after looking it up. She does not ask her parents what is means.v This shows how little
she cares about this event even immediately after. While living in Welch they suffered from
near starvation and abuse on many occasions, not only by their own family members but also
by the citizens of the town as well. Living under Erma’s roof is a perfect example of the children
suffering at the hands of family members, more specifically what happened to Brian while Erma
was trying to “fix his pants” as shown by the quote, “I know what I saw, she’s a pervert.”vi As a
result of this Lori and Jeannette were punished for stopping Erma from molesting Brian. Erma
extradited them to the basement and made them suffer the cold without any coal to keep
warm. One main thing we deduce from this is that regardless of where they went there was
always peril. For instance when they lived in Phoenix they had a house, car, Rex had a job and
Rose had her mother’s money. But, Rex still found a way to ruin everything as he had so well
before, not to mention that Rose did not really help either, she was just as useless as he was.
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The strike to the Achilles tendon was when they moved from their almost paradise lives in
Phoenix to their lives in Welch, which they remained in until the individually moved out. There
are clearly a lot of other events that occurred in the lives of Jeannette and her family that
shows a great ability to overcome the problems and curveballs that life throws at them.
It is clear that The Glass Castle has many themes present and many more themes hiding
subtly. But one thing that is certain is that this memoir is certainly a tale of the “North American
Dream” gone wrong. There is no doubt to that or the fact that life can through many issues
your way. In this book we see a considerable amount of problems thrown at the Walls family,
whether it is the financial problems or the vices present. Arguably the most progressive theme
in the book is that of coping with life’s curveballs and just copping with life in general. We see
that some people turn to alcohol or drugs while others seem completely fine. This book clearly
displays this with great accuracy and extensive examples. All in all, this entire book was a good
read and a very comprehensive read with many important themes and ideas.
i
Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle. New York: Scribner, 2005. Print. Pg 69.
Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle. New York: Scribner, 2005. Print. Pg 210.
iii
Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle. New York: Scribner, 2005. Print. Pg 148.
iv
Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle. New York: Scribner, 2005. Print. Pg 78.
v
Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle. New York: Scribner, 2005. Print. Pg 87.
vi
Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle. New York: Scribner, 2005. Print. Pg 147.
ii