Glass Castle
What age is Jeanette Walls when she moves to NYC?
17
What is the Prospector?
A device invented by Rex Walls that apparently searched the earth for gold
What did Rex Walls give his children as a Christmas present?
A star
What was the relevance of fire in the story?
After Jeannette is burned the first time fire continues to appear. Jeannette believes that the fires might all be connected and describes it as a sort of character itself.
What are Rex's two addictions?
Alcohol, gambling
What does Rex Walls die of?
Alcoholism and chain smoking leads to a heart attack
What job does Rex often hold?
An engineer or electrician
Name all of Jeanette's siblings
Brian (younger brother), Lori (older sister), Maureen (younger sister)
Who was the man Jeanette Walls married? Who is she married to now?
Eric Goldberg; John Taylor
What did Jeanette ask for for her 10th birthday?
For her dad to stop drinking
What was the name of the Walls' favorite car?
Green Caboose
What does Jeanette try for the first time in the hospital?
Gum
Describe the Walls parenting style.
Hands off, presuming that the children are mature, confidence in the children's independence and strength
Why doesn't Rex trust hospitals?
He does not trust the government in general, he feels that natural medicine and treatment works just as well as government run hospitals
How did their dad ruin Lori's chance to win a scholarship?
He smeared Lori's Shakespeare sculpture with his thumb
What is the Prospector that they believed in while they were younger?
It is one of their dad's inventions that would determine gold nuggets and rocks
What was the Green Lantern?
It was the house with prostitues
What happened to the Glass Castle foundation?
It's a pit where the Walls family had to fill their garbage
What is the Glass Castle?
It's a special project (a great big house for them) that her dad plans to build once they are rich
What child in the Walls family holds the most hope for their alcoholic father?
Jeanette
Who is Dinitia Hewitt?
Jeanette's bully who later became a friend despite their differences. Stares at Jeanette a lot.
Compare Jeannette's relationship with Brian and Lori to that between her and Maureen.
Jeannette and her siblings depend on each other for survival. Jeannette and Brian pair together when faced by bullies from outside. Lori and Brian differ from Jeannette in their early loss of hope in Rex. Maureen relies on others to care for her so Jeannette considers Maureen in need of more protection than the rest of her siblings.
How does Jeannette characterize her parents?
Jeannette describes her parents as faulty but she does not condemn them for their actions. As she get older, she realized how her parents are making her family live in poverty and that if they actually tried to work hard, they may have had a successful life/family.
Why did Jeannette get a whipping from her dad?
Jeannette's mom wan't taking her obligations seriously and she talked back to her
What job does Jeanette have?
Journalist
What job did Jeanette Walls hold in high school?
Journalist for school newspaper
Which child is the first to move out of the Walls household? Where does this child move to?
Lori, moves to New York
Who is the sibling that the Walls family ended up losing track of?
Maureen Walls
Why were the Walls children taken to the zoo?
Pet the cheetah
Explain why the Walls family is always on the run?
Rex and Rose Mary are not stable people. Sometimes they are to be evicted or sometimes they are in danger. Most of the family's troubles are brought upon them by Rex's incompetence as parent and provider. Rose Mary is bad at handling the daily stresses of life and shareing parenting incompetence with her husband.
The Walls children were saving money in Oz, the piggy bank, what happened to that money?
Rex stole it from his kids to buy alcohol
Describe Erma and Rex's relationship
Rex was likely sexually abused as a child by Erma (led to his alcoholism), Rex is submissive to Erma and holds resentment towards her
What is Rose Mary's response when Jeanette offers financial help?
Rose Mary rejects the idea of getting financial help, and tells Jeanette to be proud of her parents and her parent's lifestyle
What does Rose Mary teach the children? What does Rex?
Rose Mary teaches reading. Rex teaches survival skills like gun shooting
What happened to Brian and Erma?
She took Brian to their grandpa's room and was grabbing at the crotch of his pants, squeezing and kneading while Brian was crying and holding his hands protectively between his legs
What was the profession of Rose Mary Walls before she pursued her love for art?
She was a teacher
What was Jeannette's mom doing when she drove by her?
She was picking through the trash and appeared like any homeless person in New York City
Who is Mary Charlene?
She was the second daughter with black hair and brown eyes that died one night when she was nine months old
Why does Maureen get arrested?
Stabs her mother
Why does Jeannette choose to title the book The Glass Castle even though the structure is never built?
The glass castle characterizes Rex Walls' need to create a life of fantasy and adventure for his family in the absence of stability and practicality. Its construction is consistently delayed in the work, but that which it represents endures.
What is the metaphor behind the Glass Castle?
The house demonstrates the potential for power and strength in the family, but the castle is made of glass, so it is easily shattered. This shows that these dreams of being successful are limited by and are destroyed by the family's lifestyle
What is the "skedaddle"?
When the family is going to get caught by the police, or when the family decides it is best to move somewhere else, they pack up everything they can and drive somewhere new.