Theme Of Success In Jeannette Walls The Glass Castle

The idea of success is viewed differently between the minds of individuals, but through all lenses reaching happiness is key. Defining the word success, Bob Dylan once wrote: “A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.” In Jeannette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle, she examines the hardships and challenges brought to her family as she grows up living an impoverished life. She depicts both of her parents’ flaws as she ages and begins to understand life from a more mature point of view. Although Bob Dylan’s definition can apply to Rex and Mary, the reader struggles to comprehend this notion. Rex and Mary Walls’ do not conform to societal norms. The majority of Americans finds

Mary desperately has goals of becoming a successful artist in life. However, she never attains a paycheck for her art. Mary is forced to work as a teacher to buy food and pay bills. Although this is a profession Mary studied for, she is not happy about her career. Towards the end of the school year in Welch, students’ progress evaluations were due and without them, the remedial reading program was going to lose its funding. Although Mary had woken up in the morning, “toward the end of the school year, [she] had a complete meltdown. She was supposed to write up evaluations of her students’ progress, but she spent every free minute painting, and now the deadline was on her and the evaluations were unwritten” (207). Mary’s free spirit enabled her to do what she wanted by painting first and putting the progress evaluations aside. All Mary tended to enjoy in life was painting, but because she “lay wrapped up in blankets on the sofa bed, sobbing about how much she hated life” (207) after refusing to go to school, she proves to be a nonconformist. Mary refuses to listen to the deadline at work causing her to be unsuccessful in her job. She resists conforming to societal norms and wants to live a free spirited life with no requirements. Moreover, Mary is unwilling to follow through with her priorities and is upset about

Rex chooses to roam around spending all of his money and his days getting drunk at bars avoiding his family. Rex does what he wants to do; he does not prove to be a successful father figure. Rex’s idea of success is invested in building the Glass Castle, providing a home for his family that is their own permanent living place. His success is prohibited due to the fact that he continuously does what he wants to do. Rex depends on his children, mainly Jeannette, for money to supply for his alcohol yet claims, “’[he] need[s] money to make money’” and questions, “have I ever let you down,” implying in his mind that he has not. Jeannette continuously caves in and gives her father money because “[she] thought it was [her] faith in Dad that had kept him going all those years. [She] was about to tell him the truth for the first time, about to let him know that he’d let us all down plenty, but then [she] stopped. [She] couldn't do it”(210). Rex’s success is unattainable because he has let the family down by disappearing from his family and drinking and not focusing on his responsibilities as a father figure. By spending all of his money on what he wants to do, he is further and further away from his own