The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls | Teen Ink

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

August 2, 2012
By Shelbyg121 BRONZE, Reno, Nevada
Shelbyg121 BRONZE, Reno, Nevada
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Sooner or later you should learn that complaining about life will not get you anywhere until do something about it nothing will improve. Jeannette Walls shows you just that, she never complained about the harsh life she was given. In “The Glass Castle” you get to see an inside look of the Authors (Jeanette Walls) life of becoming a mature young lady. She had to deal with her father who was an alcoholic and a mother who was not understanding and who chose to not deal with the life she and her children were living. This is a story about how the choices you make affect yourself and others. Jeannette’s father made so many promises to them that were never fulfilled and constantly let his whole family down. The Walls moved around so much they were used to packing what would fit into their car and leaving quickly. You find the children mostly taking care of their parents rather than their parents taking care of them. Rex, their father, rarely had a stable job. If he found work he would get fired within a few weeks or months. Their mother, Rose, had a teaching degree yet she didn’t want to work. When she did get a teaching job, Lori and Jeannette usually had to drag her out of bed to get her off to work. Jeanette usually walked in with money from working that day and her father would walk right out with it. He blew the money for their essentials on alcohol and cigarettes. His children sometimes had to go without food for days at a time because of that. When sober, Rex was kind and genuine to them and talked about how good their future would be and they would live inside a glass castle, only that was a lie. Jeannette seems to be going through endless suffering. She was the second oldest of four which meant she had to stay strong for the others so they did not lose hope for themselves. Even though her father was the main reason their lives were filled with pain, Jeanette was the only one in the family who still saw light in him and that’s why she was his favorite. Eventually even she had given up on him. At the age seventeen, Jeannette took off to New York to go live with her sister Lori who had moved there about a year previously. Her younger brother Brian moved there then her little sister Maureen. Their lives there quickly became better than ever before. Things were going great until they came to find out that their parents were in New York. Once again, they found themselves taking care of them again until they eventually got the nerve to kick them out of their apartments. Despite everything Jeannette had gone through she never came ungrateful for the life she had and looks at everything as a blessing now.


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