Self-Sufficiency In The Glass Castle By Jeanette Walls

To make the future what we want it to be, there needs to be effort put into shaping it. The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls is the story of her life within a dysfunctional family. Jeanette must handle living with a loving, but alcoholic dad and a mother who troubles herself into a spiraling denial of her life. Jeanette does not live like an ordinary person, as she constantly moves and must rely on her own to care for her siblings and life. Jeanette has to shape things into what she wants them to be no matter how hard they are, in doing so she tries to separate herself from the family to achieve her own personal goals. The central idea of the novel is self-sufficiency in shaping what is wanted in life, which is developed by key components throughout the novel. Jeanette’s relationships among her family member are intertwined with the events that occur throughout her life and the attitudes she presents to her family in times of hardship, fleshing out the central idea.

Self-sufficiency is needed to make a person capable of causing desired things to occur and control their life by themselves. The Glass Castle is based on the central idea of self-sufficiency to shape one’s path in life. Throughout her lifecycle, Jeanette Walls had to live in an abnormal life in which she had to be self-sufficient in order to take control of it, not an ordinary thing in society today because parents usually take care of their kids but that is not the case for her. The central idea is supported by the relationships, attitudes, and events within the story, connecting with each other. Self-sufficiency is part of Jeanette’s survival throughout her life and paves the way forward into solving problems and challenges. Being reliant on yourself paves the way for an individual to take control of their life rather than getting assistance from others all the time where people do not uphold their responsibilities or