Themes in the Glass Castle by 101GreenMachine

Chaos and Order

mlodonoghue11 — 2025-02-27 19:50:48 UTC

This image describes how Jeannette's life began with chaos throughout her childhood and teenage years and slowly she developed order in her life on her own. In the book on page 203 an example of order in Jeannette's life is when she would go to the Maroon Wave and she "loved the newsroom's purposeful atmosphere," as well as how they had "warm, dry offices." On the other hand an example of chaos in Jeannette's life is how they were always worrying about food. Jeannette says "we were always thinking of food and how to get out hands on it." This is not a normal behavior as most people dont ever have to worry about how to get food on a day to day basis and illustrates how Jeannette's childhood was so full of chaos and how she turned that around in her adult life.

Broken Promises

mlodonoghue11 — 2025-02-27 20:05:54 UTC

The image of a house burning down is symbolic of Rex always promising to take build his family a glass castle but this dream ends up being turned into nothing but a far away dream that will never happen. An example of this is how Rex tells Brian and Jeannette he would need to have a good foundation for the glass castle. From this Jeannette and Brian spent "a month we'd dug a hole deep enough for us to disappear into," the kids believed that once Rex would pour the foundation, he would begin working on the frame and they could help him with it. Although like many times before, the hole that Brian and Jeannette worked so hard to make in order to help Rex became and trash pit, Jeannette evven says "Brian and I watched, the hole for the Glass Castle's foundation slowly filled with garbage.

Poverty and Perseverance

mlodonoghue11 — 2025-02-27 20:35:11 UTC

The theme of Poverty and Perseverance can be represented through this picture as even though Jeannette and her siblings had an extremely tough childhood, they were still able to persevere and succeeding in life. An example of poverty in Jeannette's life would be the kids always digging through trash in order to get food Jeannette says how she was rooting through trash as well as she was "sure he was rooting through trash too." Although this was how they got their food, they found it shameful and never talked about it. Although and example of perseverance can be how the kids save money to move to New York. Even with all of the hurdles of Rex stealing their money and losing it all and working multiple jobs while also staying in school, Jeannette was able to join Lori in New York due to the great perseverance she had.

Self-Sufficiency

mlodonoghue11 — 2025-02-27 20:35:58 UTC

This image of a leaf and the sun can describe self-sufficiency as a leaf has the ability to create food itself and support itself as did Jeannette when she was younger boiling her own hot dogs in order to stave off her hunger because her mom was too busy with her art to make them food. Jeannette was able to grow up to be very independent due to her and her siblings always having to help feed and keep eachother safe. In the book Jeannette states "I could hear Mom in the next room singing while she worked on one of her paintings." This shows how Rose Mary could not have cared less if Jeannette was hungry or not and only cared about herself. This attitude from her mom forced Jeannette to become self sufficient if she wanted to survive.

Unconditional Love

mlodonoghue11 — 2025-03-02 03:57:14 UTC

This image depicts a run down home that can be thought of as very similar to the homes that Jeannette grew up in. After breaking the news of how she plans to move to New York, Rose Mary isn't happy that she gets to go and not her, on the other hand, Rex is sad she is going and tries to tell her to stay so he can make the Glass Castle with her but Jeannette refuses. Although Rex and Jeannette sometimes didn't get along and Rex did want her to move, he did say to her "If things don't work out, you can always come home... I'll be here for you. You know that don't you?" This shows that Rex will always love her and try his best to be there for Jeannette.

Disappointment

mlodonoghue11 — 2025-03-02 04:53:17 UTC

This fire is representative of how Jeannette's relationship with her father burned when he disappointed her and her siblings many times throughout their lives. An example of this is when Rex stole the kids hard earned money. This event, with a slow culmination of the other events, was the last straw and Jeannette stated after Rex was trying to charm her "he still considered me an ally," this shows that Jeannette no longer wants to play Rex's games and this burned their already dwindling relationship.