Quotes From The Glass Castle

Many people tend to take things for granted. We overlook the things that some people wished they had so they can live without struggle. It usually just comes so easily for us and we don’t realize how hard other people’s lives are. Jeannette Walls knows firsthand what it’s like to be without these modern luxuries. In her memoir, “The Glass Castle” she writes about how she sometimes grew up without things like a place to live, clothes to wear, food on the table, electricity to power the house and keep her warm. In her upbringing, her parents never really supplied her with the things she needs or took very good care of her so she learned how to survive with the little she got. She learns throughout her life that she should never take anything

Her siblings also knew this too when they all had to share clothes with each other. For example, “He wore my hand-me-down pants, which I inherited from Lori and then passed on to him, and they were always sliding off his bony behind.” (Walls 45). From this she learned that she and her siblings had to appreciate what they had and take care of their things because they would have to make sure their clothes lasted for a very long time. This is so that they would have something to wear until it doesn’t fit anymore and they could pass it on to their brother or sister. Jeannette knew that she was going to have to continue living like this and this is how it was going to have to be from now on. An example being, “Instead of beds, we kids slept in a cardboard box, like the ones refrigerators get delivered in” (Walls 52). Jeannette was happy she had something to sleep in and never complained that it wasn’t enough even though she deserved better. She was so used to not having enough that she didn’t want anything better. When her parents suggested to get her a new bed she denied it. As stated in the book, “A little while after we’d moved into the depot, we heard Mom and Dad talking about buying us kids real beds, and we said they shouldn’t do it. We liked our boxes. They made going to bed

For example, “I had just turned eighteen. I quit my job at the hamburger joint the next day and became a full-time reporter for The Phoenix. I’d never been happier” (Walls 248). Jennettes life was so much better on her own and she was actually able to make money to support her life. In her younger years, she knew that times were hard in her life because not much was provided for her so she would always value the little things she got. Because of all the battles and the struggling Jeannette went through to get what she needed to live she knew that taking things for granted wasn’t okay and that she couldn’t do it anyway because she didn’t have anything that great. Every little thing she got was very special to her or she appreciated it very much. When Jeannette moved to New York City with her sister she realizes how much she had been missing out on her whole life and that there’s so many great nice things out there. For example, “Our apartment was bigger than the entire house on Little Hobart Street, and way fancier... My favorite room was the bathroom. It had a black and white tile floor, a toilet that flushed with a powerful whoosh, a tub so deep you could submerge yourself completely in it, and hot water that never ran out” (Walls 247). After moving here she completely learned that you should never take anything for granted because life was always so hard for her. She wasn’t