For some, childhood is filled with rainbows and butterflies, but for others, it’s defined by resilience and survival. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls does not sugarcoat her unique childhood when she reveals her unstable and harsh upbringing with her unconventional and charismatic parents. What may seem impossible to survive, to the readers, Jeannette and her three siblings endured. Her unstable family and years of poverty taught her and her siblings resilience and optimism.
Jeannette spends most of her childhood moving from one place to another in a beat-up car, never having a stable place to call home. Her father, Rex, is a brilliant man who teaches his children academics like geology and physics, as well as independence, imagination, resilience, and risk-taking. He encourages curiosity through adventures and storytelling. However, he is also an alcoholic and abusive father. Her mother, Rose Mary, is a licensed teacher, yet she chooses not to work a steady job, even as the family struggles to eat, believing it would stifle her focus on art. Both Jeannette’s parents were neglectful and irresponsible, forcing her and her siblings to fend for themselves and take care of each other. Although her parents are loving and inspirational, their actions and parenting style ultimately put the children in harm’s way.
Jeannette Walls becomes tough and resilient due to her challenging upbringing. From a young age, she develops maturity and survival skills, learning hardships without complaining and making sacrifices for her siblings and parents. Her father tells her, “Sink or swim.” Jeannette chooses to swim, to survive, and she does. Eventually, she and her siblings find themselves in New York, where they begin to build a better future for themselves. Despite the difficulties of their childhood, they remain loyal to their family and continue to support their parents. Jeannette graduates from college, marries and creates a stable life for herself, proving that her past does not define her future. Her story shows that with strength and determination; one can overcome even the most difficult or what seems to be impossible circumstances.
The Glass Castle is an impressive and powerful memoir that is engaging from the very beginning. It entails a roller coaster of emotions revealing, in each chapter, the unpredictable and harsh reality of Jeannette’s childhood. This memoir is a reminder that one’s harsh past does not have to be and must not define their future. Jeannette Walls’s message to her readers is that despite the pain and hardships of the past, it is still entirely possible to build a better future through smart choices and perseverance.
Get the book! Check out The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls at BMCC’s library, the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library, or the Queens Public Library.
About the author This review is by Nibhana Khan.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
