# data[].attributes.body
The hazy point at which fire and smoke reaches into the air fascinates Dad who calls it “a place where no rules apply, or at least they haven’t figured ‘em out yet.” It is this intermediate realm that the family inhabits, that Jeanette’s parents seek to inhabit, where the rules are grey and they can therefore define their own way of living and being. For a time, living “on the edge” seems to work for them. But once they settle down for good in West Virginia, their more “orderly” lifestyle leads, ironically, to greater turbulence.

# data[].attributes.body
Even during their hardest times, Rex and Rose Mary Walls refuse to become charity cases. They do not even accept help from their children in their late adulthood. The value of being self sufficient descends mainly from Rose Mary Walls, whose upbringing in an incredibly disciplined home leads her to forgo the rules when she becomes a mother. Her children, she insists, must learn how to be self sufficient and strong. They should not rely on society or doctors or anything else to help them through life. Even when they fall ill or injure themselves, Rose Mary prefers to treat the wound at home rather than cater to what she considers a false need to visit the hospital.
"Why should I cook a meal that will be gone In an hour when I can do a painting that can last forever"

# data[].attributes.body
Unconditional love is another theme, one that is closely related to forgiveness. Though she is anxious to get away from her parents and the life they have made her suffer through, Walls still loves her parents. She is disappointed when her parents follow her and her siblings to New York, and yet she loves them enough to want to help them better their living conditions. She never turns her back on them, though she certainly has enough reasons to do so. The only time that she pushes her father away is when she graduates from college and does not invite him to her commencement. She is afraid that he will show up drunk and begin to argue with the valedictorian. She carries some guilt inside of her because of this and later apologizes to Rex. But that is the only time she comes close to faltering in her love, especially for her father.
"Dad please come we need you."

# data[].attributes.body
The Glass Castle is the story of Jeannette Walls’s development from childhood into adulthood. It’s a story, therefore, of her growing up—a bildungsroman. Walls presents growing up as a process of recognizing one’s childhood illusions as just that—illusions—and instead coming to see “how things really are.” Growing up, then, as Walls describes it, involves disillusionment, the loss or recognition of the non-reality of childhood dreams and ideas.

# data[].attributes.body
Walls's early life and the struggles her and her siblings faced while growing up in the presence of a psychologically unstable mother and an alcoholic father. Although Walls expresses an undying love for her parents, signs of abuse and neglect are obvious. As Walls matures throughout the book, the light she saw her parents in begins to dim. What was once everyday life to her, began effecting more than just her physical appearance, it effected her in a psychological and emotional way. Walls wrote this book to conquer a more personal issue: facing her past, and also in hope of connecting with her readers in more than just a literary sense. “As we fought, they called me poor and ugly and dirty, and it was hard to argue the point. I had three dresses to my name, all hand-me-downs or from a thrift store, which meant each week i had to wear two of them twice. They were so worn from countless washings that the threads were beginning to separate. We were also always dirty. Not dry-dirty like we’d been in the desert, but the grimy-dirty and smudged with oily dust from the coal-burning stove. Erma allowed us only one bath a week in four inches of water that had been heated on the kitchen stove and that all of us kids had to share.”

(Page 140)

# data[].attributes.body
Some people might be scared off by scars, but others find scars intriguing. Jeannette's second husband makes her realize that her scars make her an interesting person, not a damaged one. He sees her as "textured" and "interesting," and he suggests that the scars mean that Jeannette "was stronger than whatever it was that had tried to hurt [her]" (5.1.8).