The Glass Castle by Henry Gonzalez

Self-Sufficiency

hngon907 — 2025-03-03 04:53:23 UTC

"You poor people!" she exclaimed. "Are you okay?" "She asked us where we were going, and when we told her Phoenix, she offered us a ride." "As soon as she dropped us off, Dad disappeared." "I waited on the front steps until bedtime, but he didn't come home." The Walls family car broke down eighty miles away from phoenix, which Rex wanted to hitchhike, until suddenly a woman was told what they were doing. She offered them a ride, but right as they got to their destination Rex disappeared. Rex seemingly left, as he was bothered and angry. He received help to get to where they needed to, showing he wasn't able to provide for the family. The Walls family was raised to be self sufficient, not to recieve help from anyone, so the one time Rex did he broke off.

Dreams Vs. Reality

hngon907 — 2025-03-03 04:54:40 UTC

"Dad," I said, "you'll never build the Glass Castle." "Are you saying you don't have faith in your old man?" "Even if you do, I'll be gone. In less than three months, I'm leaving for New York City." Throughout the memoir, Rex's whole goal was to build them a home they called the glass castle. Jeannette early on had faith in her father, trusting her in everything he said. As the story went on, she began to lose faith until she accepted it wasn't going to happen as she packed her bags ready to leave to New York City. Rex and Jeannette had the dream of building their home, the glass castle. Only Jeannette accepted their reality that it wasn't going to happen, so she proceeded to leave.

Disappointment

hngon907 — 2025-03-03 04:55:57 UTC

Lori said, "Ding-dong the witch is dead." Brian and I started snickering. Dad wheeled around and gave Lori such a cold, angry look. He glared at us. "You kids. You make me ashamed. Do you hear me? Ashamed!" "You're ashamed of us?" "Lori called for him." An example of disappointment, goes both ways, from Rex point of view he's disappointed in them for making fun of their mother's death. Rex later on is disappointed in Brian for joining the police force. Jeannette was semi-disappointed, as her mother, Rosemary owned land worth over a million, which absolutely shocked Jeannette. The reason it shocked and disappointed in her, was they lived in poverty, hungry, and this whole time they could've lived a whole different life if she had just sold the land.

Escape

hngon907 — 2025-03-03 04:56:48 UTC

"I'll never get out of here," Lori kept saying. "I'll never get out of here." "You will," I said. "I swear it." "I believed she would." "Because I knew that if Lori never got out of Welch, neither would I." "Take Lori instead of me," I said. "And at the end of the summer, buy her a bus ticket to New York City." "Mrs. Sanders agreed." Lori, the oldest one of the children wanted to leave the family, leave Welch, as she was tired of her parents act. Her final straw was Rex stealing their money from a piggy bank they used to save up. Mrs. Sanders gave Jeannette a job, to baby sick her two toddlers , as they were moving, but made a deal with her. Rather than receive two hundred dollars, she would pay for a ticket to take Lori to New York City. Lori leaving, was her escape from her family and Welch.

Parental Neglect

hngon907 — 2025-03-03 04:57:20 UTC

"I was hungry, Mom was at work on a painting, and no one else was there to fix them for me." "Good for you," Mom said when she saw me cooking. "You've got to get right back into the saddle. You can't live in fear of something as basic as fire." Jeannette during this time, just recently came out of the hospital with burns. She previously tried to boil hot dogs but later caught on fire at the age of three. The quote connects to the parental neglect, as it shows Rosemary couldn't be bother to care for her child. After the last incident, it wasn't a bother to her that she is trying to boil hot dogs again, but actually encourages her to try again and not live in fear. Another instance, later on in the memoir, Rosemary was hiding a chocolate bar from her kids as they were going hungry showing parental neglect.

Acceptance

hngon907 — 2025-03-03 07:56:25 UTC

"By the following summer, Mom and Dad were heading into their third year on the streets. They'd figure out how to make it work for them and I gradually came around accepting the notion that whether I liked it or not, this was how it was going to be." Jeannette accepted their parents living conditions, she's tried providing for them but they had enough of them. They're whole life they lived this way and they are going to continue it as Rosemary says "They make it too easy to be homeless. If it was really unbearable, we'd do something different." Rex and Rosemary figured out a schedule on where and when to get free food. Later on they live in abandoned homes, staying that way, and the rest of the kids accepting their parents weren't going to change.