Analysis Of The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

After reading Jeannette Walls book, The Glass Castle I can say with honesty that it is one of the best books I have ever read and will always be one of my favorite books. Three particular elements of the work stood out to me- the honesty of her writing style, the stories she shared, and the incredible character development. Throughout the book, in each and every story Walls tells the stories with complete honesty, not adding or detracting details to make the stories better. The writing is easy to understand and therefore it is easy to get caught up in the book and really enjoy it. The way the stories are written is almost conversational, as if she were telling them directly to you. This technique draws you in and makes you want to keep reading

From her Dad, all the way down to her younger sister, the reader was able to visualize the characters as well as their personalities. Walls described all sides of her characters from the funny, exciting, and happy side to the darker side that her characters, but especially her parents had. She wrote honestly about how her dad struggled with being an alcoholic and how her mom struggled with severe mood swings. She described her siblings personalities through how they each handled their parents decline and the hardships they had to

She writes with honesty because she did not have that in her life. And she shares her hardships so that others know that they too can survive. Throughout her life Walls experienced time after time of her parents lying to her either flat out or indirectly. They lied to her siblings and her about the condition of the houses they were going to live in, they lied about the land her mom had that turned out to be worth a million dollars, and they lied about food sources. When Jeanette and her siblings had nothing to eat and were “ rooting through the trash” (Walls 173) their mother was buying chocolate bars and eating them all by herself, claiming that she was “.. a sugar addict just like your father is an alcoholic” (Walls 174). Walls and her siblings had to take the chocolate from her just so they could eat. Another time, when Jeanette and her older sister Lori were saving up any money they earned so that Lori could leave and find a better situation, their Dad broke their piggy bank and took the money and then lied about it, instead asking “ Jenette do you know what happened?” (Walls 229). After having experience after experience like this the reader can see why Walls wrote with this honesty-she rarely had it in her life and she wants to avoid that situation with her