Summary Of Jeannette Wall's Memoir 'The Glass Castle'

The Inevitable Misfortunes of Poverty

“The most important thing in life is learning how to fall” (Jeannette Walls). Wall’s memoir The Glass Castle accurately portrays her horrifying life of growing up in extreme poverty. The memoir unravels a true story about Jeannette Walls’ brutal childhood as she grew up homeless and often lacked even basic necessities such as food, clothing, and shelter. Walls’ father Rex raised his children irresponsibly, leaving them with many mental and physical scars while compromising their safety. Similar to the way Walls was raised, human cruelty remains evident in the Mac Davis song “In The Ghetto,” where the lyrics describe an endless cycle of poverty and crime. However, the movie Les Miserables depicts the

As much as Walls loved her father, she realized he would “never build that Glass Castle. But we had fun planning it.” (279) Rex told them that special kids could have “those shining stars, he liked to point out, were one of the special treats for people like us who lived out in the wilderness.” (39) Walls really felt special when her mother said, “life’s too short to worry about what other people think. Anyway, they should accept us for who we are.” (157) This vicious cycle proves to the reader that Walls never had a way to escape from her parent’s cruel ways; she grew up thinking like her parents did. This cruel way of thinking made Rex feel good about himself while making Walls’ feel special. The idea of the Glass Castle gave Walls a sense of hope that her dad would stay true to his word, but the impracticable idea of a house of glass symbolizes just how unstable the Walls’ foundation was. Walls said, “As awful as he could be, I always knew he loved me in a way no one else ever had.” (279) Rex never had the stability to protect her and she knew he would endanger her. Walls’ father Rex had extraordinary power in convincing Walls that he only wanted the best for her, even while causing her to

Music writer, Claude-Michel Schonberg, exemplifies the true meaning of Les Miserables with the words, “Look down and see the beggars at your feet. Look down and show some mercy if you can. Look down see, the sweeping of the street. Look down, look down upon your fellow man!” (Schonberg) The movie shows some of the negative influences a young boy named Pip faces: low self-esteem, fear, abuse, and lack of love from poverty describe the cruel life he endures. More examples from Pip’s life include the fact that his sister abused him by beating him till he told her what she wanted to hear, as well as his challenge with a convict. The convict threatened Pip’s life out of a need for food. Pip turned toward stealing food in order to help a convict and then became fearful that the convict would kill him. Down deep, Pip showed a desire to do the right things all along, but the cruel life he lived clouded his mind, which lead to negative behavior. Pip’s life appeared as an inevitable evil cycle: he was raised an orphan and faced with the cruel ways from man as he grew