The Glass Castle Themes by Ty-Ty

Adversity

idontneedaname2020 — 2025-02-27 19:47:17 UTC

This picture of Sisyphus reflects the adversity that the Walls face throughout the story because it is reminiscent of the continual struggle to succeed and prosper that is shown, especially Jeannette's. Jeannette, throughout the book, tries to improve life for her and her family through small actions, such as attempting to paint their house, helping gather money, getting jobs, and even telling her mother that she may have to leave Rex Walls. The story itself is abundant with adversity through every experience that they face. For example, as children, the Walls were bullied by other students in Welch, and displayed their ability to overcome adversity by finding a way to fight back and scare them away. Repeatedly throughout the book Jeannette and her siblings get sexually assaulted, and every time, they overcome the trauma of such an experience despite their lack of support from their parents.

Neglect

idontneedaname2020 — 2025-02-27 19:53:22 UTC

The photo above reflects the Walls children's living conditions and how they were frequently dressed raggedly and hungry. The entire book, the Walls children are neglected by their parents, having to dig through the trash for food on many occasions, eating rotten chocolate bars out of the trash, and getting in trouble for eating margarine from the fridge. Multiple times, the children got sexually assaulted by family members and their parents sided with their attackers, unable to understand why their children were traumatized by the events. In the very beginning of the book, we see the neglect of Jeannette from her mother, who had decided that painting was more important than feeding her daughter and leaving her to feed herself - which ended up with a three-year-old Jeannette lighting herself on fire. Child Protective Services repeatedly showed up at the Walls family's door, leaving the children to lie about their situation to get them to believe they were being fed and clothed properly. Rex repeatedly chose alcohol over getting the finances needed to take care of his children. All of these actions are examples of the neglect the Walls children are subjected to throughout The Glass Castle.

Family

idontneedaname2020 — 2025-02-27 19:54:01 UTC

The image above represents the multiple times that Jeannette and Brian aided each other and kept each other safe when their parents wouldn't. Throughout the book, there is an importance placed on family and looking out for each other, specifically between the Walls children. In multiple instances, the Walls children are keeping each other safe and defending themselves. One example of this is whenever perverts sneak into the childrens’ rooms and Rex, Brian, and Jeannette all fight them off. There are multiple segments of the book that include Brian and Jeannette fighting adversaries to defend their family name and each other, leading to a strong reliance on each other as siblings. Family is also a theme because even as an adult, away from her parents, Jeannette was repeatedly terrified of her identity as a member of the Walls family being discovered simply because of how her parents acted.

Poverty

idontneedaname2020 — 2025-02-27 19:55:16 UTC

The image above of an impoverished slum reflects the theme by mirroring the area of Welch that the Walls lived in for over half of the book's duration. Throughout The Glass Castle, the Walls are well below the poverty line. More specifically, the Walls parents refuse to be helped out of poverty, denying welfare due to them being “handouts” and carrying a very “fend for yourself” ideology with them. Once the children make a living for themselves, they continue to refuse aid, preferring to remain impoverished. Repeatedly, the family would starve and end up being forced to dig through the garbage for scraps of food. At some point in the book, Jeannette ate pure margarine when there was nothing else to eat, and Rose Mary, her mother, was incredibly upset with her for it despite the state that they were in.

Self-Reliance

idontneedaname2020 — 2025-02-27 19:57:43 UTC

The image above is a statue of the spirit of reliance, which shows a man who made a job for himself just as Jeannette made herself a job. The Walls children, in The Glass Castle, are constantly relying on themselves. In the start of the book, we see this as Jeannette makes hot dogs for herself at the age of three, and at the end, we see her becoming a journalist through her own hard work. All of them learn how to take care of themselves throughout their lives. Central to the story is that Jeannette learned not to rely on her parents to help come to her rescue, but instead to rely on herself to ensure that she is saved. For example, Rex tosses her out into a hot spring at a young age to teach her to swim, telling her either she can swim, or she would sink, and in the end Jeannette swims and is proud of herself for doing so. When faced with Dinitia Hewitt and her friend group bullying her, we see Jeannette realize that her parents won't be of any assistance to her, and that she must figure out how to handle them on her own.

Broken Promises

idontneedaname2020 — 2025-02-27 19:58:32 UTC

This photo of a man drinking is reflexive of how often Rex Walls would drink and then break his promises to himself, his wife, and their children. Examples of this are riddled throughout the book, from the little things such as him promising Jeannette that he would leave alcoholism behind and returning to it anyways, to the Glass Castle being abandoned because they simply couldn't make it. The Glass Castle is an example of broken promises because its foundation is slowly filled with garbage, symbolizing how they had so many promises and dreams to their children but ruined them all through their behavior and their refusal to take care of others before themselves. Rose Mary breaks her promise to her family to teach repeatedly, consistently leaving her teaching jobs to paint instead. Another example is when Rex broke Oz, his daughters' piggy bank. They were using Oz to save up money to leave for New York City and escape their impoverished lifestyle, and their father demonstrated, by stealing their savings for alcohol, that he cared more about his addiction than his children's futures. Alcohol is a massive catalyst in the story for the breaking of promises.