Hannah Bauman
Dr Vogel
English 340
May 7th 2014
The Glass Castle
In the memoir, “The Glass Castle”, written by Jeannette Walls. She writes about her childhood, growing up with unorthodox and irresponsible, yet intelligent and talented parents. Moving from one city to another, living in a variety of environments, from a mobile home, to a motel at one point, to an abandon train depot, and then to a rundown miner’s house until her and her siblings moved to New York on their own finally. Their father, a man, who in some aspects could be mistaken for brilliant, is a belligerent drunk, can’t keep a job, and steals his children’s hard earned money, that they are saving to finance a new life in New York City and then spends it on booze. Then a mother who is an artist with a college degree, but refuses to act like an adult and get a job in order to take care of her children. Jeannette and her siblings have no choice, but to fend for themselves and find a way to get themselves out of this terrible dysfunctional environment.
For the children of this story growing up was full of unexpected adventures and struggles with consistent poor living conditions. The children would routinely go for days without eating anything, or when they did eat the meals consisted of very poor nutritional value. At one point Jeannette and her brother have to dig through the school garbage container for leftover food. This often led to the kids being bullied and/or ridiculed by their peers because of their social status and unkempt appearance. However, even with these misfortunes the children managed to excel in school. Despite their unfavorable situation, they were extremely resilient and somehow managed to find humor in their unfortunate predicament.
An example of the children’s resiliency is…one day, Jeannette being the resourceful girl she was, after a visit from a Child Protective Services, she went to the library and researched their options to get themselves out of this predicament. After many hours of research Jeannette came up with a solution. She ended up giving her mother an ultimatum; to leave her father or she needed to find a job and improve their living conditions. Jeannette stressed to her mother that they cannot keep on living like the way they had been. Although hesitantly, their mother decided to get a job as a teacher. However, it was short lived due to the mother being a terrible teacher and having childlike tendencies. The children often had to assist their mother with her duties as a teacher, grading school work and organizing papers. Additionally, to make matters worse, she even at times refused to get out of bed to go to work. This eventually led to the kids having to drag her out of bed in order to get her to work.
Jeannette and Lori, the older sister, finally got fed up with their mother’s behavior. They eventually made plans to go to New York, Lori planned to go first, following high school graduation, then, Jeannette would follow next when she finished High School. From this point on they both saved their hard earned money and put it into their piggy bank. Shortly before Lori graduated High School as they count the days until they could move out on their own and fend for themselves, Jeannette came home to find the piggy bank torn apart and all the money gone. They immediately confronted their father and of course he denied it. They were both devastated, but they stayed positive, put their heads together, and found another way to get to New York.
I enjoyed reading this book and it reminded me to be appreciative and be thankful for my upbringing and supportive family. I found it to be a page turner, very inspiring, couldn’t put it down. The children’s difficult childhood story is a true testament to resiliency. I would recommend this book to anyone in search of inspiration. This book included drama, adventure, humor, and redemption and kept me interested and attentive throughout. In the end…the children triumph over the struggles they encounter due to their irresponsible parents. However, in the end, their upbringing made them, but it didn’t break them. Their shared hardships only made their bonds stronger and together, they prospered with each other’s support.
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| Check out these fantastic reads from Jeannette Walls | The instant New York Times bestseller a “rip-roaring, action-packed” (The New York Times) novel about an indomitable young woman in prohibition-era Virginia. | “[An] eloquent tribute to a pragmatic heroine . . . A powerhouse—fast-moving, fearless and impossible to forget.” —Michelle Green, People | Walls’s gripping novel "transports us with her powerful storytelling" (O, The Oprah Magazine) |
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Depressing but inspiring.
I read this book when I was in high school. I don't normally like memoirs. I don't like them because I'd rather read fiction because I think memoirs/biographies are boring. But this one is not boring. Jeannette Walls life was very interesting, suspenseful and very sad. But overall it was inspiring. I think it is inspiring to think that a person who grew up with awful parents, sexual abuse, alcoholic father, an emotionally unstable mother and not having basic necessities was able to triumph in life and make something of herself. It fills people with confidence and hope. This book is about resilience and strength to face adversity and come out on top. I love it ! Jeannette is a very interesting person. You really like her and get to understand her way of thinking and how they way she was raised influenced her thoughts. This was a life story worth telling. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, it will make you angry the most important thing is it will make you feel something other than boredom. They story is emotionally investing. I recomend everyone to read this book even If you don't like memoirs or biographies and books based on the author's life or someone else's this book reads like a novel so It's not some wierd format and the chapters are very short so you can probably read 4 chapters in under an hour. Now some negatives. I think that the story is a bit rushed. Jeannette speeds through the events in her life pretty quickly and some parts are over too soon. I feel like on some chapters Jeannette doesn't spend alot of time talking about an event that happened to her and she goes through it too quickly like the part where they are with the grandmother or the Billy Deel incident and she doesn't go in depth into what happened. Other than that this book is amazing and I highly recommend it as long as you don't mind reading depressing books. I rate it a 8/10 as for the copy I got I bought it new and the book was very clean and without damage only complait I have is that others have mentioned that the front cover doesn't reach the end of the pages for some reason. I don't know if it's only the paperback that has this issue or what but it looks really wierd because it's the only book I have that is like this.
Top reviews from other countries
Lis Vaessen-Özönder
Memoir reads like fiction
Reviewed in the Netherlands on April 18, 2024
Jackie
One of the best books I have ever read
Reviewed in France on January 31, 2023