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Overwhelmed by order and restrictions, the heart craves chaos and freedom.

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Overwhelmed by order and restrictions, the heart craves chaos and freedom.

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This picture represents how someone can get overwhelmed by order. Some people hate being told what to do, and that includes Rose Mary Walls. As a result of her strict upbringing, Rose Mary has developed a hoarding obsession and ideologies that most people would not agree with.

When confronted for her silly fantasies, Rose Mary argues with a, "You're always so negative... You remind me of my mother-- criticize, criticize, criticize."

This quote accurately represents Rose Mary's mindset, where every day is an adventure with no responsibilities because being realistic makes you a party pooper.

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No matter how much you try, promises can still be broken.

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No matter how much you try, promises can still be broken.

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This photo shows an engraving of the word "promises" followed by a crack in the middle of it. It represents the common trend of promises being broken in this book.

On page 116, when Jeannette turns 10, she makes a request to her father, "Do you think you could maybe stop drinking?"
Soon after, her father attempts to battle his alcohol withdrawal by physically restraining himself to his bed. He then spends the next couple of weeks recovering.

Unfortunately, after his family gets rescued and taken care of by a kind stranger, he starts drinking again as a result of his failure. Jeannette explains her frustration, "I didn't feel like celebrating. After all he'd put himself through, I couldn't believe Dad had gone back to the booze."

These two quotes reinforce the idea of broken promises. Despite his efforts of physically restraining himself for weeks, Rex's pride gets in the way and he is forced to drink his sorrows away once more.

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All children deserve parents, but not all parents deserve children.

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All children deserve parents, but not all parents deserve children.

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The picture shows a child who is visually distressed. Meanwhile, there is a parent who is sitting in the background doing nothing to comfort them. This picture accurately depicts the relationship between Rose Mary and her children. She does nothing to feed them, comfort them, or bring them justice when a family member inappropriately touches them.

There are countless examples that show how unworthy Rex and Rose Mary Walls are of being parents. There is particularly one example in which Rose Mary prioritizes self-esteem over starving children. On page 186, Jeannette describes the time where she and Brian discovered a diamond ring. They wanted to sell it for necessities like food, house bills, and new clothing. However, their mother had other plans. Jeannette explains that, "She was keeping it, she explained, to replace the wedding ring her mother had given her, the one Dad had pawned shortly after they got married.
'But Mom,' I said, 'that ring could get us a lot of food.'
'That's true,' Mom said, 'but it could also improve my self-esteem. And at times like these, self-esteem is even more vital than food.'"

This quote shows just one of many examples of Rose Mary being a neglectful, selfish parent. Instead of providing for her children as a parent should, Rose Mary insists that it is her pride and self-esteem that is far more important than her starving children.

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Unconditional love makes way for acceptance if not forgiveness.

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Unconditional love makes way for acceptance if not forgiveness.

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This picture shows a couple of fingers representing a family and their love. Jeannette and Rex have always had a special relationship. Despite Rex's questionable and selfish actions, Jeannette reasons, "But despite all the hell-raising and destruction and chaos he had created in our lives, I could not imagine what my life would be like-- what the world would be like-- without him in it. As awful as he could be, I always knew he loved me in a way no one else ever had."

The quote is Jeannette's reasoning behind her love for her father. Though he was terrible at times, she could not imagine a life without him.

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A person's true colors will always show in time.

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A person's true colors will always show in time.

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This picture of an upset child at her mother represents the final straw for Jeannette, when Rex stole their savings to escape to New York. When her eyes are finally opened to his true colors.

When Jeannette finds Oz empty, she starts investigating. "I began looking through all the junk in the bedroom and finally found Oz on the floor. Someone had slashed him apart with a knife and stolen all the money. I knew it was Dad, but at the same time, I couldn’t believe he’d stoop this low.”

Despite how devious she knows her father can be, Jeannette had a soft spot for her father. Time and time again, she has witnessed his selfish, greedy, and unjust behavior. She knew that she had to hide their savings from him, yet she was so shocked when he actually took it. From then on, her eyes are finally opened to how selfish her father truly is.

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Hard work and perseverance helps you obtain your goals in life.

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Hard work and perseverance helps you obtain your goals in life.

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This picture of an ant lifting up a stick represents perseverance. The stick weighs more and is much bigger than the ant, however the ant is able to lift it up because of its perseverance. The children in the Walls family have endured through times of starvation, poverty, and negligence. In the end, they have still managed to obtain some form of success. Unfortunately for Maureen, though she chose a different path, in the end she also paved her own path in California.

Despite everything the Walls children have gone through, they have managed to create lives for themselves. On page 264, Jeannette contemplates, "All of us kids had our own lives by then. I was in college, Lori had become an illustrator at a comic-book company, Maureen lived with Lori and went to high school, and Brian... had become a warehouse foreman and was serving on the auxiliary force until he was old enough to take the police department's entrance exam."

This quote represents the paths that the siblings paved for themselves. That, as a result of saving up money to move to New York, Lori achieved her dream job, Jeannette was obtaining a degree to get a good job, and Brian was seeking to be apart of the police force.