The Glass Castle Essay

The Glass Castle is a perfect and stable home, a better future for the family to live in. It is a recurring dream and goal for Jeannette's father, Rex, who wants to build a grand and beautiful home for his family. However, In Jeannette Walls' memoir "The Glass Castle," the Glass Castle changes from a symbol of hope for the family and turns into a reminder of the gap between dreams and reality, eventually becoming nothing more than a faint memory, a reminder from the past of what it took to survive the hardships and dysfunction of the Walls family.

In the beginning of the book, Jeanette describes her life as a never ending adventure “with nothing but the best outlooks for her life. The Glass Castle gives her hope that things will always be

Despite Rex's repeated promises to build the Glass Castle, the family is never able to achieve this goal, and instead they are constantly on the move, living in poverty and squalor. When the family finally settles down, they begin building the glass castle and start with digging the hole for the foundation. “But since we couldn’t afford to pay the town’s trash collection fee, our garbage was really piling up. One day dad told us to dump it in the hole.” (Walls 157) The hope given by the glass castle beginning to be build was beginning to fade into a distant dream. “‘What are we going to do about the garbage pit?” I asked “it’s almost filled up.” “Enlarge it,” Mom said.’” (Walls 158) Jeannette's father's alcoholism and her mother's neglect also add to the family's struggles. The Glass Castle becomes a broken promise. An example of the lack of action and motivation from Jeannette's

She starts to realize that the Glass Castle is not a realistic goal, it keeps her going for her younger life and now she needs to climb out of her hardships herself. “‘I stared at the plans. “Dad,” I said, “you’ll never build the Glass Castle.” “Are you saying you don’t have faith in your old man?” “Even if you do, I’ll be gone. In less than three months, I’m leaving for New York City.’” (Walls 238) Jeanette had finally decided to give up on her false hope in her family. While she could have lived in Welch for the rest of her life, struggling to live while following the hope provided by the Glass Castle blindly, Jeanette left to make her life better, thus turning the glass castle into a memory of hope from the