Review: The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

Glass Castle Essay “I’d broken one of our unspoken rules: we were always supposed to pretend our life was one long and incredibly fun adventure.” (Walls 69) In novel The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the Walls family is supposed to “pretend.” Even though Rex and Rose Mary walls, the parent of the children don’t have a lot of money they tried to give their kids the most fun life possible. They did so by not having many rules and traveling many places. As a result of their parent not having good choices with their money the kids and family became very close with one another. Although the kids have to scavenge for food and come up with their own means of fun it doesn’t make them bad adults but stronger people. The Walls family shows that

Their parents did everything in their power to give their kids the most fun adventurous lives possible. The parents strongly believed that money could not buy happiness whatsoever. So one year for christmas the family was very low on money and could not afford christmas presents. Instead of Rex going out and buying one he got creative, so that his kids would still have a wonderful christmas. With his good creative he got his kids kind and thoughtful gifts. ‘“Pick out your favorite star,’ dad said that night. He told me I could have it for keeps. He said it was my christmas present.” (Walls 40) Jeannette was a little sceptical about it claiming that no one owns the stars. Rex comes up with something that proves Jeannette otherwise. ‘“No one else owns them. You have to claim it before anyone else does, like that gao fellow Columbus claimed America for Queen Isabella. Claiming a star as your own has every bit as much logic to it. I thought about it and realized dad was right.” (Walls 40) Rex Walls had to be smart when low on money. In this situation money makes the family stronger. It brings them closer showing even though they aren’t rich they make the best out of every situation. It also helped the kids realize they don't need materialistic things to make them better human

Even though the Walls children learned a lot of important lessons because they didn’t have a lot of money they also went through some really rough stuff. The family could not afford any place to stay so they ended up living with Rex’s mom. Erma was not a very nice lady. While they were staying there they needed top grab somethings from where they lived before. Their parent went it grabbed it. While they were away a not so good situation occurred. “They’d been gone gone for a minute or two when I heard Brian weakley protesting. I went into grandpa’s bedroom and saw Erma kneeling on the floor in front of Brian, grabbing the crotch of his pants, squeezing and kneading while mumbling to herself and told Brian to hold still goddamnit. Brian, his cheeks wet with tears was holding his hands protectively between his legs.” (Walls 145) While the parent were gone this situation happened. If they would’ve lived on their own this wouldn’t have happened. In this situation not having money broke the Walls