The glass castle in The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls can be taken as so many things at first thought. It could be symbolic or literal but you won 't know which it is until you read it. For me, I thought it was a castle they were trying to get to, like a safe haven. It turns out that the glass castle stood for everything the Walls family had worked for, you see this through the characters, their life in Welch and where they ended up in the end.
Getting to know the characters was a very important part of understanding the importance of the glass castle. By knowing who they are it allows the reader to see the journey to the end of the book. Rex Walls, the father, was a very important person in this book. He was a drunk, a good father, an adventurer, and so much more. Rex wanted to give his family everything that they deserved and to Jeanette that
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At this point in the book the Walls family moved to Welch because they were out of money, and needed a change of scenery. Another reason was so Rex’s mom could keep him on track after he got really drunk one night and created a mess. Welch was a place of poverty and known for the biggest municipal parking lot, that’s all. Turns out, Rex was barely sobre since they came to Welch. There were a few things that were shown of Erma, Rex’s mom. She was also a drunk and a little bit racist. She could never let go of her misery and perhaps that’s why Rex is such a heavy drinker now. The people in Welch were all like Erma, they were racist, like to fight and had something to prove. The kids at school would call Jeannette and her siblings poor and “special” for having accents. They were put in special classes because teachers thought they were slow even though they were smarter than the teachers. These experiences made the Walls family stronger. By living, not suffering, through poverty, rude remarks, and drunk parents, they ended up right where they needed to