The Glass Castle: The author

       Jeannette Walls was born on April 21, 1960 in Phoenix, Arizona to Rex and Rose Walls. In this memoir, the first story from her childhood was in Phoenix, as a young girl she was cooking hot dogs by herself, (at the age of three) and lights her dress on fire, and spreads. Her mother runs to the neighbor who drives them to the emergency room. When the get there she is told she will be okay, Jeannette actually enjoys her stay at the hospital, its quiet. When her family visits she notices a bloody bandage around her brother Brian's head, the parents refuse to take him to the hospital because they believe one child in the hospital is enough. Soon her father and the doctor get in an argument about how to treat Jeannette. (The doctor believes she should stay bandaged, but her father insists the burns need to "breathe") That leads to the father breaking her out, of course without paying the bills. And this single story shows automatically the kind of family she has.

The Glass Castle: The Family

       Jeannette Walls endured a lot as a young woman and into her teens, as her parents constantly ran from bill collectors, and couldn't stay in one place for more than a year at a time. This must've been very difficult considering she had 3 siblings, one older sister, a younger brother, and a younger sister. Her mother, Rose Walls, was what's considered a free spirit and she would use most of the little income they were getting on chocolate, or art supplies for herself. Then her father, Rex Walls, was a drunk who couldn't maintain job, and even if he did for a while, he would spend it on alcohol. And if he was in need of alcohol, and had no money, he'd even steal it from his children. But, there were times when he was very compassionate towards Jeannette, there was really no in-between with him. Then there was Lori, her older sister, who was very artistic and always dreamed of being an artist, she was the first to leave the family, she moved to New York and offered Jeannette a place when she's ready. Next is her younger brother, Brian, who was her partner through everything. Lastly, Maureen, the youngest who isn't mentioned much, because she spent most of her time at friend's houses to get away from her family. This is the Walls Family.

The Glass Castle: Title Inspiration

       In this memoir, The Glass Castle, the building of "a glass castle" is a reoccuring idea, that young Jeannette continually hopes for, Throughout the entirety the idea of "building a glass castle" has been a dream of hers. It gives Jeannette hope for a better and happier life for her, and her family. This was the large connection between Jeannette and her father, Rex Walls. It was what they would always dream about, making Rex closest to Jeannette, Over her other 3 siblings. As Jeannette got older the dream seemed to get farther and farther away, when she was young it seemed obtainable but as she got older and older the idea became impossible to her. But, at the end (in a sense) everyone in her family did end up happy. She became what she'd always wanted to be, an author.