Character Analysis: The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

Nicholas Sparks once said, “I don’t know that love changes. People change. Circumstances change.” In the memoir, The Glass Castle author Jeannette Walls shows how her father Rex Walls changes with everything thrown at him as a father or four. In the beginning of being a parent Rex shares his intelligence with his children. As Rex’s children get older rex get more and more worried about the kids. In the end of Rex’s parental run Rex becomes more productive with the way the kids run their own lives. Throughout The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, rex changes from an intelligent drunk to a paranoid person to a helpful father.

In The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, Rex Jeannette’s father shows that he is very smart. When Jeannette is three she

When Jeannette is on her way to the bus station to go to New York. Rex is giving Jeanette is favorite knife to protect her, “Dad reached into his pocket and pulled out his favorite jackknife, the one with the horn handle and the blade of blue German steel that we'd used for Demon Hunting. ‘I'll feel better knowing you have this.’ He pressed the knife into my hand” (Walls 240). This Rex is being helpful to Jeannette so that she can have a long life and be safe in New York. This causes Jeanette to feel proud of her father for worrying about her because she does not know what she is getting into by going to New York. Rex is trying to be protective but also helpful at the same time to keep his kids safe when he's not around. Rex is helpful when he finds out Jeannette can't pay for her college tuition and he wants Jeannette to have a good education, “Dad called a week later and told me to meet him at Lori's. When he arrived with Mom, he was carrying a large plastic garbage bag and had a small brown paper bag tucked under his arm. I assumed it was a bottle of booze, but then he opened the paper bag and turned it upside down. Hundreds of dollar bills—ones, fives, tens, twenties, all wrinkled and worn—spilled into my lap. ‘There's nine hundred and fifty bucks,’”(Walls 264). Rex is being helpful because he is showing that he is fatherly like most parents he is willing to help Jeanette pay her college tuition. Rex is helpful because he could use that money to get off the streets, but instead he uses it to help Jeannette get a good education. Rex could have gotten off the streets but he and Rosemary both agree that they should use the money to help out there daughter get the education they never got in there lives. Just like many parents who want their kids to do better than them Rex and Rosemary are the same. Rex is changing from being an intelligent drunk and a drunk paranoid person to a helpful