https://padlet.com/401183/y6xgosx9gze3 Themes and quotes from the best-selling memoir by Jeannette Walls en-us 2019-10-09 15:02:15 UTC 2026-01-30 20:44:31 UTC hello@padlet.com 401183 https://padlet.com/401183/y6xgosx9gze3/wish/395654925 "The hospital was clean and shiny. Everything was white- the walls and sheets and nurses' uniforms-or silver- the beds and trays and medical instruments. Everyone spoke in polite, calm voices. it was so hushed you could hear the nurses' rubber-soled shoes squeaking all the way down the hall. I wasn't used to quiet and order, and i liked it." (p. 11)

The quote above and photo below represent the opposite of the home life that Jeannette did not have. Instead of everything being clean and having meals 3 times a day, Jeanette's home life was chaotic and wild. They constantly moved from place to place and Rex was drunk most of the time. While Jeannette was at the hospital, she experienced order, and liked it. This is represented by the way she lived when she resided in New York.]]> 2019-10-09 15:13:03 UTC https://padlet.com/401183/y6xgosx9gze3/wish/395654925 401183 https://padlet.com/401183/y6xgosx9gze3/wish/395655247 "I didn't feel like celebrating. After all he put himself through, I couldn't believe Dad had gone back to the booze." (p. 123)

The photo represents Rex's drinking problem and the quote represents Jeannette's disappointment with her father after he promised to stop drinking for Jeannette's birthday gift. This is one of the biggest promises broken in the memoir. ]]> 2019-10-09 15:13:29 UTC https://padlet.com/401183/y6xgosx9gze3/wish/395655247 401183 https://padlet.com/401183/y6xgosx9gze3/wish/395655374 "All we had to do was find gold, Dad said, and we were on the verge of that. Once he finished the prospector and we struck it rich, he'd start work on our Glass Castle." (p. 25)

This quote and photo represent fantasy vs. reality because Rex and Rose Mary were living in a fantasy world, were Rex said he would build a brilliant castle like the one shown below and Rose Mary said she would be a famous painter. Rex would take the money that he made to pay for the prospector to find gold instead of buying food for his kids. Rose Mary was so sure she would be a famous painter that she refused to find a job to make money for the family. The kids suffered the reality of being hungry and dirty all the time.]]> 2019-10-09 15:13:41 UTC https://padlet.com/401183/y6xgosx9gze3/wish/395655374 401183 https://padlet.com/401183/y6xgosx9gze3/wish/395655767 "We might enroll in school, but not always. Mom and Dad did most of our teaching.... He also taught us the things that were really important and useful, like how to tap out Morse Code and how we should never eat the liver of a polar bear because all the vitamin A in it could kill us" (p.21)

This quote and photo represent non-conformity because Rex and Rose Mary did not raise their children in a socially acceptable way, and most of the time the children would run free in the desert and sleep under the stars. They did not traditionally school their children, which is not conforming to society either, but the Walls children were very intelligent nonetheless. Besides teaching them the basics like reading and math, they taught their children how to tap out morse code and shoot a gun. ]]> 2019-10-09 15:14:09 UTC https://padlet.com/401183/y6xgosx9gze3/wish/395655767 401183 https://padlet.com/401183/y6xgosx9gze3/wish/395656312 ""Pervert!"" I yelled and kicked at the man's hand. Brian came running into the room with a hatchet he kept by his bed, and the man bolted out the door. Dad was out that night, and when mom slept, she was dead to the world, so Brian and I ran after the man ourselves." (p. 103)

The quote above highlights a frightening moment in Jeannette's life where she and Brian were left with no choice but to defend themselves after a man wandered into their house and molested Jeannette. With Rex being gone most of the time and Rose Mary off in her own world, the children had no choice but to be self-sufficient and to protect themselves from extremely dangerous situations. The photo below represents Jeannette's weapon of choice that night.]]> 2019-10-09 15:14:54 UTC https://padlet.com/401183/y6xgosx9gze3/wish/395656312 401183 https://padlet.com/401183/y6xgosx9gze3/wish/395656669  “But despite all the hell-raising and destruction and chaos he had created in our lives, I could not imagine what my life would be like-what the world would be like-without him it it. As awful as he could be, I always knew he loved me in a way no one else ever had.” (p. 279)

The photo represents the relationship between Jeannette and her father, while the quote is Jeannette's own words about her father a few weeks before he died. Even though Jeannette is disappointed in her father's actions, she still has a soft spot for him and realizes that she will miss him when he's gone. Even when he is dying, Rex still calls Jeannette "Mountain Goat", a nickname given to her since she was young, to show his own affection. ]]> 2019-10-09 15:15:24 UTC https://padlet.com/401183/y6xgosx9gze3/wish/395656669