If you have not already read this amazing book it is time to pick up a copy…seriously. There is a reason why it made the best sellers list. The great thing about this book is that it is actually a memoir which means the entirety was based on a true story. I read this book last summer and honestly it was one that touched me so deeply. The main character Jeannette Walls describes what it was like to grow up in her irrational family. The first scene in the story describes her as a child about three years old cooking a hotdog for herself. Most of us would read this and think that it is preposterous that a three-year-old child would know what to do and how to make herself a sufficient meal. Hence she makes this hotdog and tips over the pot of boiling water, she burns herself and is rushed to the hospital. He parents take her to the hospital and tell the doctor that it is okay that they are not worried because it is good for children to get hurt when they are little because it helps them to be strong. They then precede to sneak Jeannette out of the hospital because they think that she is better when she clearly isn’t. This little scenario helps describe what kind of parents she grew up with. Her parents proved to be very absent minded and caught up in their own false realities to understand the brutalities and responsibilities of life.
This book really demonstrates what it means to be self sufficient and tells us that if you really want to become something in this life it is you that has to ultimately work for it. Jeanette describes a scene with her dad, it was Christmas and the family did not have enough money for any of the three children to have food, therefore they definitely did not have enough money for any of the kids to have Christmas presents. Her father takes her out into the yard and tells her that she can pick any star in the sky and that that star will forever be hers. She gazes up at the sky and spots Venus. She choses this planet instead of a simple star. This little moment sums up the book in its entirety. Jeanette was asked to chose a star but instead chose an entire planet. This shows that she has high ambitions and will not let the constraints of her parents and way of life constrain her.
The entire book shows her struggling to find a way out of her dysfunctional family. It is true that she does still have a relationship with her crazy parents but it is also true that this relationship needs to be limited because of her parent’s actions. There are so many instances that prove how much her parents have mistaken in the upbringing of their children. The children prove to be limited by their parent’s actions. It is true that this becomes the motivation for them to get their own lives together and to become active members of society unlike their parents. The end of the book shows how far each child has grown on their own. The children all take a risk and move to NYC at the end of high school to start working there. They all turn out to be wonderful assets of society while their parents still remain homeless and in their own fantasy’s.
It is sad to understand the metaphor of the Glass Castle. Jeanette’s father always told his children that he would someday build them a Glass Castle that they would live in. All the children believed the fantasy when they were little and as time passed they realized that this was just a fantasy.
It is amazing to me that all of these children became active members of society! This book is definitely worth reading, I have only touched on some of the beautiful aspects of this book!
