“I wanted to let the world know that no one had a perfect life, that even the people who seemed to have it all had their secrets.” The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a memoir about a young girl and her dysfunctional life. Jeannette and her family live a very tough life, constantly leaving to go somewhere new. However, along the way, Jeannette decides she wants to escape her family and move to New York. Throughout her life, she and her sister work on moving to New York to better their lives.
The Glass Castle will become a classic because it includes hard times of life, contains lessons from parents, and allows the reader to be inspired by Jeannette’s escape plan. “We were always doing the skedaddle, usually in the middle of the night.” (Walls 19) Jeannette and her family were running from the law. They would never pay the bills on time, and would constantly have to leave, as soon as someone expected money from the Walls family. The first time the did the “skedaddle” was when Jeannette was three years old. She was making hot dogs, on her own and was burned badly.
Her parents took her to the hospital, and she was there six weeks before the doctor started asking for money. One night, Rex Walls, her father, picked her up and ran away. Another hard time of life was when Jeanette’s mother had a miscarriage. “Mom never seemed upset about Marry Charlene’s death.Dad, however, wouldn’t talk about Mary Charlene.” (Walls 28) The family never talks about Mary Charlene but Jeannette believes that is why her father has a drinking problem.
“As we fought, they called me poor and ugly and dirty, and it was hard to argue at this point.” (Walls 140) Later on, when the family moves to 93 Little Hobart street, Jeannette is bullied because she can. .sually work out in the end. ‘What if they don’t?’ That just means you haven’t come to the end yet.” (Walls 259) Jeannette started to lose faith in her parents after they could no longer provide for her, and swore that she would make a better life for herself.
“I swore to myself that it (her life) would never be like Mom’s…” (Walls 208) Jeannette has the idea to move to New York to escape her parents, and pursue her dream of being a journalist. She decides that her older sister, Lori, will have to escape with her, because Jeannette would never leave Lori alone with her parents. The next day, Jeannette buys a piggy bank to start an “escape fund”. To make money, Lori would draw and paint posters for kids at school and sell them for a dollar fifty. Jeannette would babysit and do other kids homework. She made a dollar per assignment and and babysat for a dollar an hour.
