The Glass Castle by Vanessa Gutierrez

Broken Promises

321vanessagutierrez — 2025-02-27 19:47:44 UTC

I chose this picture because it shows a child looking at their drunken father who is clearly passed out. While the children were growing up Rex was a horrible alcoholic and would waste his money on alcohol instead of providing for him family. On Jeanette's birthday she asks Rex “Do you think you could maybe stop drinking?”, Rex agrees to stop drinking for Jeannette. Rex begins to detox and this lasted for about six months. Rex goes back to drinking after the family trip to the Grand Canyon.

Acceptance

321vanessagutierrez — 2025-02-27 19:47:44 UTC

This picture to me reperesents growth but in order for growth you need acceptance. You need to accept the things that are holding you back. If Jeannette never accepted the truth about her father and how he was not as great as she believed he was when she was younger. Jeannette would have not been able to get to where she is now. Jeannette says “He was my father, and I loved him, but he was also a man who could not take care of himself, let alone a family." This is when Jeannette finally accepts the fact and realized her father was not reliable or responcible.

Forgiveness

321vanessagutierrez — 2025-02-27 19:47:44 UTC

I chose this picture because it reminded me of when the family went swimming together. In the scene where the family goes swimming in the waterhole Rex threw Jeannette in the middle to force her to try to learn how to swim. Jeannette was the last of her siblings to learn how to swim. Jeannete was angry but then said “I figured he must be right, there was no other way to explain it.” Jeannette figured since he was her father and she always looked up to him he must have been doing the right thing. This also kind of shows how much she believed he cared about her.

Poverty

321vanessagutierrez — 2025-02-27 19:47:44 UTC

This picture is how I imagined the shack where the family lived in. Jeannete said "When other girls came in and threw away their lunch bags in the garbage pails, I'd go retrieve them." This just shows how diffcult it was for her growing up. As well shows how poor her and her family were that they had to go to those extremes to get food or simple nessesities.

Disappointment

321vanessagutierrez — 2025-02-27 19:47:44 UTC

This picture represents Jeannette and Maureen's relationship as siblings. Growing up Jeannette felt the need to take care of her. Once Maureen moves to California Jeannette is really the only sibiling who visits her. Jeannete says "I'm sorry, Maureen," I said when the time came, "sorry for everything." I think that they were closer to each other since Jeannette had been taking care of Maureen since she was born. Which shows how she took it up as her own battle of take care of maureen.

Unsympathetic

321vanessagutierrez — 2025-02-27 19:47:44 UTC

I chose this picture to represent the scene in the bar where Rex took Jeannette to accompany him scamming people playing pool. This was Rex's way of making money for his family. “I’m sure he just pawed you some”. Rex said this once Jeanette and him got back in the car after Jeanette went upstairs with some random guy in the bar after getting Rex’s “blessing”. Instead of apologizing to his daughter for putting her in that position he just splits the money he made that day. This shows Rex not really caring about what happens to his daughter and is willing to endanger her to get money.