The Glass Castle Reflection

“The Glass Castle” by Jeanette Walls is an extremely intriguing novel that really kept my attention throughout the whole story. The Walls family is definitely one that is unlike any I’ve ever come across, and the lessons that the children learned were ones that helped shaped their lives and made them who they are today. Jeanette obviously learned so much from her experience that she wrote a whole book about it, managing to hold the reader’s attention through all 281 pages. Jeanette Walls goes through many descriptions of situations that she faced that people normally should not face. For most of her childhood, she was traveling from place to place because her parents always thought that they would hit it big and never finding a steady job.
Her father did not believe in conformity among the rest of the flourishing nation and her mom was selfish and thought that wherever they might travel she’d become a famous artist, although her paintings really were not astonishing. The one thing that the Walls did have despite being in poverty was their sense of happiness which I definitely would have never thought they would have, especially after what they had been through. One thing about this novel that shattered one of my ideas about poverty was the fact that once you are in poverty, you never seem to find a way out, no matter where you travel or what your dreams may be. The Walls’ took their situations and aggravated them even more. For instance, on page 118, it said that “We kids didn’t need to be going to school… He and Mom could instruct us better than any of those shit-for-brains teachers.” Her parents did not care too much about their formal education and thought that it was better to learn just by traveling and going on adventures. Usually, through a lot of hard work and training, many people can work their way out of poverty and make a living for themselves, Jeanette’s parents for certain reasons were not able to do this. Her dad was a raging alcoholic and there were many instances especially when they were living in Phoenix where he would come home and completely trash the house. “He came home in such a drunken fury that Mom usually hid while us kids tried to calm him down. He broke windows and smashed dishes and furniture until he’d spent all his anger.” (pg. 112) They could never fix the damage both because they did not really have the money to begin with and he was out wasting it on alcohol. Another reason why they stayed broke was because her father was spending money on a machine called “The Prospector” which was supposed to dig up gold from the desert and make them rich, it never happened. The fact that the family was happy was something that was shocking while reading this book.
People in poverty never seem to be too happy about it, and always want to try to find a way out, but that was not the case with the Walls family. They just made the best out of what they could get and always tried to make it a fun adventure even though it might seem like hell for a middle class person. An example of that was when they were living in Battle Mountain in the train depot for a few years. “Our new home was one of the oldest buildings in town, Mom proudly told us, with a real frontier quality to it.” (pg. 51) Jeanette’s Mom always tried to make the best of what they had and always looked at things positively, even though there were not many positive things happening in their lives. It was also the same when they moved into the beaten down shack on the side of a mountain in West Virginia. The house had no plumbing and was unskillfully wired for electricity which they could hardly afford. The family would even go on streaks of starvation because they would have no money, but they still managed to survive and make the best of it. Her parents seemed well educated and always taught the kids life lessons about what was right and wrong. Jeanette and her siblings always got mocked and taunted in school because of the poor background of their family, but they were taught to stand up for what they believed in because they knew that they would become better people if they did
so. The experiences that Jeanette and the rest of her family faced were ones that were definitely unique and weird compared to my life for instance. She learned how to swim in a sulfur pit for Pete’s sake. What were her parents thinking all those years and even today? They apparently just enjoy living in poverty and living off what they make for themselves, not from what people give them. Jeanette and her family had many strange “adventures” that would usually end up nowhere in the end and they would always have to start back over. During all of the different trips and jobs and houses that they lived in, her Dad and Mom never made any progress with their careers and that by itself is unusual since America is known for its opportunity and prosperity. The novel “The Glass Castle” by Jeanette Walls is definitely a book that will change anyone’s thought on poverty or homelessness. It is definitely something that is still happening today in America, but from the looks of it some people are just happy with being homeless and just living day to day in poverty. Once they are poor for a while, they can never seem to find a way out, but they still have hope that one day they may find the opportunity of a lifetime.