Uros Benacek Topics in Literature Creative Non-fiction Aubrey Cross 2-1-2015 The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle portrays joys and struggles of her childhood. As a narrator of the story, she describes her relationship with parents, the obstacles she and 3 of her siblings had to overcome to become the people they are now. Her first memory is when she was 3 years old she was cooking hot dogs and got burned by the fire. Even though she suffers extreme injuries fire becomes fixation for her who cannot stop playing with it and watching. The nature of her parents become clear after this incident. It is a home in which 3 years old are allowed to cook on the stove, and her parents broke her out of the hospital before doctors’ …show more content…
Rex who always promises his family things but never seems to fulfill them is both protagonist and antagonist. He is sympathetic because of his charm and playfulness but not so much when he is drunk. On the other hand Rose Mary is less sympathetic because of her self-centeredness. Because she wants to be an artist she declines jobs even if her family needs the money for food. After they move to Welch the racial differences become more apparent. The expectations are that the races will remain separate. Despite it Jeannette becomes friends with Danita, a black girl, which causes troubles with her grandma Erma and her uncle Stanley. Jeannette stands up for her opinion that races are not different from each other which upsets her grandmother. Moving from west to east coast bring more changes like harsh winter months. It impacts the Walls’ family happiness. Rex is not happy to return to the place where he tried to escape from his entire childhood and rest of the family is ready to leave as soon as they arrived. The house they stayed in needed a repair and was adding to a depression they were in. However Jeannette was the only one trying to fix it. It looks like everybody lost hope that their conditions will …show more content…
After the family moves to New York Maureen is being characterized as a child who needs most protection of all of the children. Her characterization is set apart from rest of the children because she can’t remember them living outside Welch. She is always asking questions about California and about dessert because she can’t remember them herself. All she can recall is lack of adventure and excitement by living in Welch. This kind of sets her apart from her siblings. When Maureen stabs Rose Mary, Jeannette blame herself and the family for not taking enough care for Maureen who needed it most. Maureen did time in jail and after her release she moved to California without saying goodbye to her