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Coming of age is something that everyone in their lives hits at a different point. The main character of the book and the author of the book Jeanette Walls practically writes a story about her coming of age and this is the main theme throughout the whole entire book. This is why I chose a picture of the book because metaphorically Jennette writing this book was her coming of age. People may argue that she had to come of age and become an adult faster because of the circumstances of her childhood. Jennette writing this book shows she’s fully taken her situation and made it something beautiful. She was able to tell her story. Finally becoming the successful person she knew she was meant to be. An example of how she came of age is at the beginning of the book when she sees her mother outside and she was in a taxi she hid herself to make sure her mothers didn't see her. Later that day she has dinner with her mother. Rosemary told her "your way to easily embarrassed your father and I are who we are except it." And she told her mom "what am I supposed to tell people the truth?" When Jeanette was growing up it was hard for her to accept that her parents were the way they were, especially when she started becoming more successful in her career. It is at that moment when Jeanette finally tells somebody that her parents were homeless and squatting we as the reader see her come of age. She finally was not embarrassed of her family/upbringing anymore as a successful woman and everything she had been through helped her become the person she was. Despite Jeannette hardships and coming from one of the most terrible backgrounds a child can go through she was able to make something of herself at the end of the day and not run away from it and instead embrace it and know and realize who she was at the end of the book nothing stopped her from she’s chasing her dream which is to become a writer. I believe Jeanette wants the reader to understand that no matter what happens in your life to not be embarrassed by it and when you can except it you understand yourself and you can come of age.

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Reality is something that’s hard to face sometimes so your mind essentially coddles the brain and makes fantasies. Some people get stuck in their own fantasies. We don’t want to do something or face something so badly that the fantasy is just easier to believe in, to the point where you can’t understand the difference between reality and fantasies. The theme of fantasy versus reality goes hand-in-hand with Rex and Rosemary. The kids absolutely know what reality is and they do everything they need to do to survive because they know their parents are living in a fantasy. The picture of the family on the beach represents that Rex and Rosemary think they have this happy family or are living the best life out of any family. Rex and Rosemary are in their own fantasy and believe that they are raising their kids in the absolute best way any kids can be raised. An example of the theme of fantasy vs reality is when the kids bring up problems to Rosemary like getting sexually assaulted she can’t admit it to her self that it’s real so she comes up with stuff such as “ sexual assault was a crime of perception”. Rosemary is so out of touch with reality that She can’t admit that there are problems in the world and always comes up with different excuses to justify everything. Another example is when Rosemary doesn’t want to teach anymore and says why can’t she live her life the way she wants to. Rosemary believes in her heart that she already raised her kids enough even though they were still not in high school yet and wants to have this fantasy that she will become the best painter ever and that just because she isn’t dedicating all her come to painting. She has a "terrible" life because she can’t do the things she wants to do even though if she teaches she makes money for her family. Rex is somewhat in touch with reality because he knows he can't get caught by the "FBI" they will put him in jail which is true, and social services could take away his family which almost happened. but due to his drinking problem, he has these fantasies that he’s the best dad ever and that he provides for his family when he’s in that state of mind. Both Rex and Rosemary seem to have their demons in mental health issues and due to that, they are easily able to escape their fantasies and not be in touch with reality. The author is showing the reader that not being able to differentiate fantasy from reality can be a hard thing to do and sometimes people never get out of their fantasies. The theme of fantasy versus reality I believe just applies to the parents because the kids were absolutely in touch with their harsh reality even though it was hard to admit especially to people that they were an extremely poor family. The kids knew this but it was always an unspoken rule to a knowledge Rex and Rose Mary were stuck in their fantasies.

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When bad things happen you can have it destroy your life or you can accept it and move on. Towards the end of the book, we begin to see the theme of acceptance when the kids move to New York. Moving to New York that wasThe Walls kids realizing that they couldn’t stay with their parents forever. Especially when they began to save for New York. After Jeanette has a terrible fight with her father she accepts that her life is always going to be like that if she stays with her parents so Jeanette and Brian decide to make a fund to leave because they can’t handle their lives anymore. Although it was hard for the parents to accept that their kids would be better off without them. The picture of the bus riding when the sunset metaphorically shows acceptance because all the Walls kids had to ride on that bus into their new life to New York sometimes with acceptance you can have great things which is what happened to the kids. The second the kids got on the bus it seemed that they were ready for new beginnings. The theme of acceptance is heavily showcased when is Jennette leaving for New York. Her father could not accept it and didn't even try to get Jeanette to stay by telling her it was a scary world and she wouldn't be able to handle it out there. It is made apparent for the reader to see Rex didn't want to accept his little mountain-goat was ready to leave. Jennette tells the reader that she knew she would "never be coming back to Welch" with her parents and at that moment we see her accept that her life is going to be different now and it was going to be on her own from now on. The author shows the theme of acceptance because she wants us to know that because she accepted that her life is changing she was able to make good things out of it. She chose acceptance that even though her life is bad she could still make something out of it.

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They say love is the most powerful thing on earth. No matter what you can do for someone so much they can disappoint you so badly but because you love them unconditionally nothing can change your love for them no matter how terribly they messed up or how terribly they treated you in the past. We see many instances of unconditional love from the Walls kids to the parents in The Glass Castle. The picture showing a broken heart with a Band-Aid over dele it’s the theme that no matter how many times the kids were let down by the parents their life was never going to change. The theme me is more showcased at the end when Jeannette, Brian, and Lori were willing to do anything for them even when they grew up and became successful. When all the kids went to New York. The parents were extremely poor and decided to go to New York and even though the kids were struggling and barely making it by with the minimum-wage jobs and going to school Lori decided to take them in as well as Maureen at the time. Lori couldn’t handle having both of her parents there in eventually kicks out Rex but she knows he will be with Brian so he isn't left homeless but even when Rosemary begins to get a handful and unbearable for Lori, Jennette asks Lori why she deals with all this and she tells Jeanette that because she’s my mom meaning that even though she was treated so badly she still loves her mother enough to want to take care of her despite her mother never did the same for her. Although this theme isn’t showcased a lot throughout the book we see it at the end again towards the very end when Rex is terribly sick, even though all the terrible things Rex did to Jennette she still wants to see him because she loves him and even brings him liquor within the last few weeks before he dies. At Thanksgiving no matter what the parents put the kids through they were still a big happy family despite the trauma the kids love their parents so much they were still never willing to talk bad about them even when Jeanette get successful or even at Thanksgiving dinner when they were having it with all the families they wanted the memory of their father to be happy and peaceful and because they had that unconditional love for their father they were able to depict him as a good Dad even though in some cases you could say he was a bad father. I believe that the author shows this theme that of unconditional love because no matter what happened in the past she and her siblings unconditionally love their parents. Love is something so beautiful and a really deep connection you can have with somebody especially your parents when you love someone so much you want their last memories to be seen as best as possible. Unconditional love is a strong thing and when you love someone you’re willing to do whatever it takes do you have them in your life

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In life, we are given the choice to do things ourselves or have others do things for you. The Walls kids chose to do things for themselves. The Walls kids are no strangers to self-sufficiency. All four of the Walls kids Lori, Brian, Jennette throughout the entire book that they were self-sufficient. Maureen in the end decides to leave for California making herself more sufficient at the end of the book. The picture of a girl cooking a meal shows a little girl cooking by herself with no help. This shows the theme of self-sufficiency because no matter what those kids were willing to survive on their own in the end because they were self-sufficient they were able to survive. An example of self-sufficiency is when Jeanette at three years old cooks hotdogs and catches fire. Jeanette says “ I was on fire… I was wearing a dress to cook hotdogs.” This girl, at three years old, knew that if she was hungry she had to make her own food. Because of the kids and their due diligence they were able to provide for their own lives especially when it came to food they even made frosting one time out of but butter and sugar to eat because they were so hungry and they knew that if they didn’t do it no one else was going to do it for them. Their parents were off doing whatever it may be at a very young age they were taught that they had to fend for themselves because they knew some days they would starve if they didn’t do anything about it. Even the parents seem to have self-sufficiency just for themselves when we see that Rosemary eats the candy just for herself and Rex only which uses the only money he has on alcohol. Due to the siblings being able to support each other and have enough self-sufficiency for their own self they were able to survive. I believe the author is trying to tell us that no matter what you can do anything for yourself if you put your mind to it when things are hard and you really want something so badly you find a way to do it. This in fact could be the main theme of the book because the Walls kids had no other choice than to have Self-Sufficiency.

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Life throws so many curve balls at everyone at some point in their life. Sometimes things happen unexpectedly. Sometimes we make promises for the future because at that moment we can’t do certain things, but later on, it can be done. Rex made one promise to his kids and it seemed to himself to build “a glass castle”. Metaphorically it could mean a better way of living but to the Walls, it was their dream house. A house that benefited all of the family. At some point, they were going to have this extremely beautiful house because Rex promised it. The picture of a literal Glass castle is something Rex and especially Jeannette dreamed of pretty much their whole life. They begin to make some progress building it by digging a hole, but eventually gets filled with trash representing the castle/promise is not going to be built/filled but we don’t know exactly if it will happen. The theme of broken promises is showcased through the book in many instances, the glass castle is the main promise being broken because the kids' whole life they were told that they were going to have this magnificent house and finally have everything they could dream of. It wasn’t till the last chapter of the book that as the reader we are shown this glass castle isn’t going to happen. “We never built the Glass castle,” Rex told Jeannette Hs last days of living. “No. But it was fun to plan.” says Jeannette. At that moment Rex tries to admit that the promise was broken. At some point, it seems that Jeanette knew that this promise was never going to be fulfilled but wanted her father to know it was okay that the promise was broken. She doesn’t try to make Rex feel bad about it. Sometimes promises cannot happen and that’s okay and I think that this theme can relate to real-life that some promises cannot be fulfilled just like the glass castle no matter how much you try and sometimes things just aren’t meant to be.