Analysis Of The Glass Castle By Jeanette Walls

Jeanette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle (2005), reveals that where a person comes from does not have to be where they stay. Walls brings the reader through her life of struggle and how she reached the top. Walls purpose is to emphasize that everyone who is interesting has a past, in order to encourage her readers to keep fighting for where they want to be. Given the obliviousness of her parents and the reality of poverty, Walls is writing to an audience of young teens and adults who could be ashamed of where they came from, to tell them they shouldn't be. Walls grew up in a life full of poverty, alcohol, escaping and disappointment. Now that Walls’ memoir has been read, there is more respect for her success due to everything

In the beginning of her memoir, she puts a quote that says “To John, for convincing me that everyone who is interesting has a past”. So many people in today's world are struggling with poverty. Walls showed the reader what it is like to not get everything asked for, or even things that people need in life. She wrote about how she had to search through garbage cans to get food and steal things from clothes stores to be able to have new clothes. She wrote that she was made fun of for the way she smelled because they could not afford to take a shower more than once a month. She also was made fun of because of the clothes that she wore; they had holes, they were always wrinkly and they never really smelled clean, even if they were washed. Poverty happens in many ways and to all different types of people because it can hit like a train; anywhere and anytime. Walls is hoping to get her readers to have a better view on what it is like to be less privileged. She had to fend for herself since the day she was born. When she was around three, she was burned with third-degree burns and her parents took her out of the hospital because they couldn’t afford to keep her there. They left, even though she still medically needed help and care to make sure her burns did not get infected. “He told me we were going to check out, Rex Walls-style”. Rex Walls-style was how her dad did everything, illegally. Walls never was given things easy in life, and she had to fight tooth and nail, sometimes literally, for the things she wanted and the dreams she wanted to