TOW #12 - IRB The Glass Castle

Jeannette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle consists of many stories of her childhood.  Her low income family bounced around many destinations to live in order to stay alive.  Her father, a booze-addicted man who couldn’t keep a job, and her mother, a free spirited and wild woman, created an unpredictable environment for their children.  Despite the family’s oddities, they still found happiness in every situation.

An important aspect of Walls’ book is the way she tells the story.  Her book is structured in anecdotes.  Each one typically has a surprising or crazy event, but most of them end happily.  In one particular story, Wall’s falls out of their car while on the road.  When they “took a sharp turn over some railroad tracks, the door flew open, and I tumbled out of the car” (30).  Walls had the wind knocked out of her, had her hands and elbows scraped raw, and blood and dirt coated her body.  As she waited for her father to turn around and pick her up, it felt like a significant amount of time had passed.  Walls almost went back to the town they came from, but thankfully her car could be seen approaching her.  Despite her pain, her father took her into the car casually and said, “you busted your snot locker pretty good” (31).  This created laughter from her entire family, and they never mentioned anything about what had happened. 

                From this anecdote, it is clear that Walls’ family could find happiness in a bad situation.  More importantly though, is the underlying problem in their ways.  Her parents did not notice that Walls had fallen out of the car for some time.  Her brother had tried telling them, but her parents did not understand what he was saying.  This event labels her parents as more careless and almost deems them as unfit for parenting.  Walls was left on the road for a while and could have been injured further is she wasn’t so lucky.  Walls’ father making jokes about the situation definitely gives their kids a more carefree and go with the flow attitude, but soon, Walls starts to see through that.

                Another story Walls includes is when her father comes home drunk looking for her mother.  Her mom is hiding from him with a knife.  When Walls’ dad finds his wife, he wrestles her until she is trapped.  Despite Walls and her sibling trying to stop them, they continue to argue.  Finally, Walls mother admits that she loves Rex and they rejoice over the fact and “were so happy they hadn’t killed each other that they had fallen in love all over again” (122).  As her parents celebrated Walls “didn’t feel like celebrating.  After all he’d put himself through, [she] couldn’t believe Dad had gone back to the booze” (123). At this point in her life, she is starting to see through the happiness her parents fell after horrifying situations.  This shift in tone starts to set Walls apart from her family.  Rather than finding happiness in many situations, is become more apparent that they are just covering up what had just happened.  The progression of these revelations make The Glass Castle more of memoir about seeing the good and bad, and knowing when something is right or wrong.