The Glass Castle Essay

Jeannette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle, documents her childhood which is surrounded by poverty and inattentive parents. Both of the parents of the Walls children were self-absorbed in their own lives, the children learned that they must depend on each other to meet their own basic needs. Even though Rex Walls was an alcoholic and Rose-Mary was indulged in her paintings, they managed to teach their children the most important life lesson that well-rounded adults must know. The memoir expresses Jeannette’s feelings towards her parents, which follows a quote by Oscar Wilde, “Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older, they judge them; sometime, they forgive them.” As the memoir starts, Jeannette writes about how she loves her
parents, but as the story progresses she begins to question if her parents are responsible adults. Later in the memoir, after her life has begun to sort itself out, she starts to realize that even though they were not responsible parents, they loved her and that was what truly counted. In Jeannette’s early life, her family was always on the skedaddle.
Every time the going got rough, they would just leave behind the life they had created in their temporary town and start anew in a new town. Jeannette loved the running, because it meant more time with her family and being in the desert; also it meant they were closer to building the “Glass Castle”. The Walls’ father, Rex, always promised his children that all of this running was just a temporary measure, “All we had to do was find gold, Dad said… he’d start work on our Glass Castle.” (Walls 25) This dream represented Rex’s hope to be something to his children, but his drinking keeps on prolonging their dreams by keeping him unmotivated. However, Jeannette ignores her father’s drinking as a child, and thinks “...Dad was perfect, although he did have what Mom called a little bit of a drinking situation.” (Walls 23) During one Christmas, the Walls had no money at since Rex had lost his job; so Rex decided to take each of his children out into the desert and have them pick out their own star. Jeannette accidentally picked out Venus instead of a star, but Rex decided that she can have Venus, even if it was a planet. This memory shows how Rex wishes he could give more to his family. When he had nothing, he managed to give his children one of the best Christmas presents they could have
gotten.