THE GLASS CASTLE- SR

How much does Dad contribute for Jeannette's tuition at Barnard?

$950 and a mink coat

What is the Green Lantern?

A brothel

Dinitia Hewitt

A girl who attends Jeannette's school, and one of her few friends in Welch. Dinitia bullies Jeannette when the Walls family first moves to Welch, but the girls become friends after Jeannette defends one of Dinitia's neighbors from a dog. Because Dinitia is black, their friendship is unconventional in Welch, which is still very segregated.

How much is Mom's oil-rich property in Texas likely worth?

A million dollars

What gift does Billy Deel give to Jeannette?

A silver and turquoise ring

What does Jeannette steal from the jewelry store and then return?

A watch

Why doesn't Jeannette like to use the neighborhood pool in Welch?

Bullies hang out there

What does Dad call it when he checks Jeannette out of the hospital without paying?

Checking out Rex Walls-style

What is Jeannette doing when her tutu catches fire?

Cooking hot dogs

rex walls (dad)

Dad reveals himself to be both a creative eccentric and a manipulative abuser. Dad has such a vivid presence in part because of the heroic persona he cultivates. Dad makes himself the center of every bedtime story, presenting himself as a storybook hero to his children instead of allowing them to admire fictional characters. His anger at Mom's disruption of these stories, then, reveals his deep reliance on his children's worship. Unfortunately, his desire for admiration also manifests as a need for control, leading to the physical and emotional abuse he inflicts on Mom, particularly when he drinks. As Dad's alcoholism worsens, the Walls family loses not only his income but his optimism. Throughout Jeannette's childhood, Dad created hope for the family by promising to build them the titular Glass Castle. By their first winter in Welch, Dad allows the foundation his children dig for the castle to fill with garbage, showing an unwillingness to even pretend to work toward a better life for his family. While Dad appears to truly love Jeannette, he lacks the emotional tools to provide for her or support her as a parent. We can attribute some of Dad's shortcomings to the abuse he suffered as a child in Welch. Jeannette deduces that Erma likely molested Dad as a child, leading to his anger at Brian for suffering the same fate. Erma's disinterest in her grandchildren and anger toward the world suggest that Dad may have had a loveless childhood as the unjust target of Erma's rage. This revelation could explain his adulthood need for admiration and refusal to take responsibility. Dad grew up with no role models for how to be a loving parent or how to show love in a healthy way. Toward the end of his life, Dad attempts reconciliation with Jeannette. He contributes to her college tuition, saving her from dropping out of school and providing for her like a parent. He also shows interest in her journalism career and tries to help with stories, partially recreating their bond. Though he never reaches hero-level status again in Jeannette's eyes, before his death Jeannette decides that he loved her in his own way.

Uncle Stanley

Dad's brother. He is kind to the Walls children when they live with Erma, but then later molests Jeannette when she visits his house.

Grandpa Walls

Dad's father who worked on the railroad when Dad was a child. Grandpa doesn't make much of an impression on Jeannette, neither abetting his wife's abuse nor challenging it.

What does Dad call moving towns in the middle of the night?

Doing the skedaddle

What big request does Jeannette make for her 10th birthday?

For Dad to stop drinking

How does Dad die?

Heart attack

Why does Jeannette join the school paper?

It's a free school club

Jeannette Walls

Jeannette ties the story of her coming of age to her complicated feelings for her parents, showing her growth through their evolving relationship. Jeannette worships her parents and believes that they have her best interests at heart. As she begins to lose faith in them, Jeannette spares their feelings by picking up the slack herself, getting a job and managing finances without actively challenging their authority. She doesn't truly give up on them until her Dad whips her for actively calling Mom and Dad out on their negligence. From here on, she stops trying to save her family unit and works to save herself and her siblings. During her college years in New York, her hero worship of her parents transforms into anger and shame, both toward them and herself. She enacts this shame by marrying Eric, a wealthy man whom she primarily loves for being nothing like Dad. By Part V, Jeannette's anger has subsided into acceptance. Her choice to marry John, who admires her scars, demonstrates that she can now appreciate the difficulties she went through. Throughout the memoir, Jeannette avoids drawing any straightforward conclusions about her childhood, reflecting the complicated way her parents both hurt and helped her. The undue suffering caused by her parents' recklessness produced the very qualities Jeannette needed to move to New York City and create a thriving journalism career out of nothing. Her happiness at the end, along with her continued relationship with her mother, shows that she considers her past to be like her scars: reflective of real pain but now only a sign that she survived. Jeannette's understated narrative style also shows an inability to completely judge her parents. She recounts events as they happen, trying to capture how she felt about them at the time with very few moments of adult self-reflection. By not interjecting her adult perspective, she allows her childhood to speak for itself, neither actively condemning nor defending her parents. She instead leaves judgement up to the reader, suggesting that she cannot bring herself to do so.

Maureen Walls

Jeannette's beautiful youngest sibling. Unlike the other Walls siblings who bond together in the face of adversity, Maureen survives in Welch mostly by making friends and living with their families. Maureen drops out of community college and tries to stab her mother. She spends a year in a mental institution and then moves to California.

Eric

Jeannette's first husband, a kind, wealthy man who is practical and organized, in many ways the antithesis of Dad. Jeannette leaves Eric a year after her father dies.

Brian Walls

Jeannette's little brother and constant companion. Brian likes to explore his surroundings and work outside. He and Jeannette regularly band together to survive by foraging for food, finding dry firewood, and occasionally stealing from neighbors. He follows Jeannette and Lori to New York City when he is a junior in high school.

Grandma Smith

Jeannette's maternal grandmother who often takes in the Walls family when they are down on their luck. Mom hated how strict and controlling she was as a mother, but Jeannette appreciates the structure whenever they visit.

Lori Walls

Jeannette's older sister questions Mom and Dad's parenting from an early age. Lori is intelligent and known for her quick, sarcastic remarks. She inherited Mom's passion for art, though she aspires to leave her family and live a more conventional lifestyle. She is the first Walls child to leave the family and go to New York City.

Erma Walls

Jeannette's paternal grandmother, whom the family lives with when they first move to Welch. Erma is an angry, racist woman who has had a hard life and lashes out at the Walls children because of it. She sexually abuses Brian and may have inflicted similar abuse on her own children.

John

Jeannette's second husband, who admires her strength and scars. He is a writer like Jeannette

What career does Brian pursue?

Law enforcement

What street do the Wallses move to after leaving Erma's?

Little Hobart Street

where do they move when Jeannette is four years old,

Los vegas

What event causes Jeannette to encourage Maureen to come to New York City?

Maureen falls through the stairs

What job does Mom get to help pay the bills?

School teacher

Why is Ginnie Sue Pastor an outcast in Welch?

She is the town prostitute

What causes Maureen to spend a year in a psychiatric unit?

She tries to stab Mom

What is Jeannette doing when she sees Mom on the streets of New York City?

Sitting in a taxi

What is the name of the Brooklyn newspaper where Jeannette has an internship?

The Phoenix

Billy Deel

The Walls' neighbor in Battle Mountain a violent and aggressive boy who develops an infatuation with Jeannette. At only eleven years old, he already has a record as a juvenile delinquent. He actively pursues Jeannette romantically and tries to force himself on her when they play hide and seek. When Jeannette rejects him, he shoots at her and her siblings with his BB gun.

What does Dad show Jeannette before she leaves Welch?

The blueprints to the Glass Castle

what happens in blythe

The kids enroll in school, and one day a group of Mexican girls jump Jeannette for being a skinny teacher's pet. The next day, Brian beats the girls off with a yucca branch, and Jeannette cracks a girl's head with a big rock

What does Jeannette's husband, John, think of her scars?

They prove her strength

After Erma molests Brian, Lori and Jeannette confront and physically attack Erma. What is the significance of this event?

When Jeannette and Lori attack Erma for molesting Brian, they reveal both a source of their generational trauma and the limits to their parents' protection.

When does Lori decide she wants to become an artist?

When she gets glasses

what was first opening scene

While in a taxi in New York City on a cold evening in March, she wonders if she has overdressed for the party she will be attending. When she looks out the window, she sees her mother, dressed in rags and picking through a dumpster. Jeannette slides down in her seat to avoid being recognized, and asks the driver to take her home.

what does mom paint on the way home from san fransico to Mojave Desert

a Joshua tree catches her eye. It is a gnarled tree, grown sideways because of the environment's harsh winds. Mom thinks it's so beautiful that she has to paint it immediately. Jeannette tells Mom that she wants to get a Joshua tree sapling and protect it so that it will grow upright. Mom admonishes her that to do so would ruin the tree's beauty. Dad drives a little up the road from the tree and finds a place for them to live there in Midland.

what does glass castle rep

a hope of future stability and happiness for the family.

setting 1st 10 years

american southwest

author born?

arizona

setting

arizona cali w virginia NY city

authors college?work?

barnard college MSNBC

whyd they leave to pheonix

bc cops showed up after they tried shooting billy

Battle Mountain

dad gets job in the Barite mine.

rose mary walls (mom)

deeply philosophical nature, analyzing the meaning behind the actions she takes. selfishness becomes evident throughout Jeannette's childhood, we realize that she uses philosophy primarily as a tool to absolve herself from both blame and responsibility. This paradigm is most evident in her constant insistence on compassion. At first, Mom's belief that the children must show compassion to people who actively hurt them, like Billy Deel or Erma, seems kind but dangerous. However, when Jeannette realizes that Mom simply doesn't want to upset Erma and have to search for a new home, we realize that Mom's call for compassion helps her avoid confrontation and conflict. she uses her beliefs as a justification for choosing her own comfort and safety over her children's. Mom is a victim of Dad's physical and emotional abuse, a fact that she also attempts to hide with philosophy. Mom explains her choice to stay with Dad as being an "excitement addict," intentionally using the word addiction to evoke Dad's alcoholism. As the family has given up trying to get Dad sober, Mom's phrasing here implies that she can do nothing to change or leave her relationship with Dad.

Mary Charlene walls

died of crib death when she was an infant, and Mom says Jeannette was born to replace her.

what happens when dad loses job in blythe

disappears for long stretches of time, saying he is looking for gold.

symbolism

fire glass castle joshua tree goat

tone

hopeful

what does her dad say about sleepoing with no pillows

it will give them good posture like the Indians

What event leads Dinitia and Jeannette to become friends?

jeannette helps Dinitia's neighbor

author?

jeannette walls

genre

memoir biography of jeannette walls life

POV

narrator tells stories as a child ffom each respective age as she saw

welch

old coal mining town in West Virginia

why do they leave to san fransicso from las vegas

the mafia will be after them

whats dads sworn objective

to build his family the Glass Castle, a large home made of glass, complete with solar panels and a water-purification system.

Which "star" does Jeannette pick out as her Christmas gift?

venus

whats jeannettes first memory

when Jeannette is three years old and living in a trailer park in southern Arizona. While she boils hot dogs over the stove, the tutu she is wearing catches fire, engulfing in flames. Her mother smothers the flame with a blanket, and the neighbor rushes them to the hospital. At the hospital, the doctors say Jeannette is lucky to be alive and perform a skin graft, replacing the skin on Jeannette's badly burned sides with skin from her thighs.

how does the memoir open

with a scene from Jeannette's adulthood in New York City, rather than with her first memory. removes some of the tension from the memoir by promising a somewhat happy ending for Jeannette

where they homeschooled?

yes