Summary of the Memoir and Brief Essay by Anna Quesenberry

Why I Selected This Memoir

I selected this memoir because in some ways I can relate to the author. At points in my life I have also turned to journalism as an outlet, when I needed an outlet to help me avoid certain things that were happening within my own life. Until reading this memoir and analyzing it so thoroughly I never thought that it could be a common pattern of journalists. Although it does make sense that a journalist, someone whose job revolves around documenting lives and events that you are in no way a part of, would choose this profession because they are trying to distance himself or herself from something in his or her own life. I think that for Walls writing her column on the New York “elite” was a way for her to distance herself from the life she once lived. I was fascinated by this memoir because it served as a confession for Walls and was her way of coming out about her past and telling the truth about her upbringing. This must have took an incredible amount of courage, but ultimately I believe that it was a very therapeutic process for Walls and left her feeling like a huge weight was lifted off her shoulders. 

Summary

The Glass Castle is memoir written by Jeannette Walls that gives readers a look inside the lives of an unconventional family of who face hardships beyond what most families are forced to bear. It is the story of Jeannette Walls overcoming these hardships and making a better life for herself. This story was Jeannette Walls’ way of publically unveiling the truth about her upbringing and coming to terms with her past and her parent’s choices.

Walls begins her story as an adult living in New York City. She sees her mom wearing rags and rooting through garbage while she rides in a cab on the way to a party. She feels ashamed, yet she hides from her mother for fear of having to explain the situations to others. Walls then takes the reader back in time to one of her earliest memories of being hospitalized after she suffered third degree burns while cooking hot dogs on the stove at the age of three. Walls casually discusses her mother and father’s hands-off approach to parenting. She brings readers along for the ride of adventures that she and her family embark on growing up as the family moves to various mining towns in the west.

Her story portrays her mother and father as eccentric but loving parents. Growing up Jeannette remains optimistic even during the toughest times in Welch, Virginia. She and her siblings create a plan to escape to New York. At the age of 17 Jeannette heads to New York City to live with her older sister and shortly after her younger brother and sister join them. There the Walls children finish school, find work and live independently with better living conditions than they were accustomed to growing up in their parent’s care, the parents who soon following their children and end up living on the streets of New York for years before the father’s alcoholism claims his life.

In The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls takes a depressing reality and puts an optimistic spin on it so that readers can truly see into the lives of each character. Readers are able to understand the motives of Rex and Rose Mary Walls, while cheering on their children in this tale of optimism and determination overcoming the odds.  

Brief Essay

The life events that Jeannette Walls describes in her memoir “The Glass Castle” are not only interesting, they also serve to drive home the points that Walls makes about poverty and these qualities make it a memoir that will be reread decades from now. Poverty is something that is often misconstrued. Some people believe that homelessness is “a result of drug abuse and misguided entitlement programs,” while others feel that it is a result of “cuts in social-service programs and the failure to create economic opportunity for the poor” (305). However Walls would say that the causes of poverty in some cases, is that “sometimes people get the lives they want” (305). She describes this in her memoir by recollecting a discussion she had with her favorite professor at Barnard University. I believe that in some cases this is true. After reading “The Glass Castle” I am able to better wrap my head around the reality that some people are truly happier living on the street than they are working 9-5 jobs, paying a mortgage and utilities, as was and is the case for Rex and Rose Mary Walls.

Walls understands the reality of living in poverty because for the first quarter of her life Walls’ family lived in poverty. She understands what it is like to try to stretch $5 to feed a family of four for days (250). She knows what it’s like to go to sleep hungry, rummage through cafeteria garbage cans for lunch, and to nearly freeze to death in the winter living in a shack without any heat. She also knows what it’s like to have her life transformed completely after much hard work and persistence. She lived the American dream and as fellow classmates, Steven and Meshell note in Discussion Post #2, Jeannette embodies the “optimism” and resourcefulness that fuels the American Dream. She manages to remain optimistic and finds ways to get through even the dreariest of times and overcome obstacles that most children are never forced to endure.

Walls can attribute her accomplishments in life to the struggles that she endured growing up. She uses symbolism to describe this in the first part of her memoir when she compares her own life to the Joshua tree. “It’s the Joshua tree’s struggle that gives it its beauty” (45), Jeannette’s mother tells her, as is true with the Walls’ family story. Their struggles as depicted in the memoir are what make their family’s story beautiful. Jeannette, Lori, and Brian’s optimism, ambition and determination helps them move from their childhood stricken by poverty to their thriving adult lives. Yet they are able to appreciate their lives so much more after having experienced the struggles that they did growing up.

Although the same determination can be seen in their parent’s lives, which is demonstrated by the choices that they make. Walls’ parents, Rex and Rose Mary Walls, are determined to live their lives the way they choose. They refuse to conform to society norms and would prefer to live in poverty and be homeless, than to live traditional lives. For years Rose Mary struggled trying to make ends meet to support her family. She worked as a teacher but her heart was never in it. “It’s time I did something for myself,” she said. “It’s time I started living my life for me” (260). So when her kids moved to New York City and she was no longer responsible for them, Rose Mary was free to do what she wanted. She and her husband ended up moving to New York City as well, but instead of getting jobs, and starting new lives like their children had done, Rose Mary and Rex chose to live on the streets and live their lives the way they saw fit. “They went to plays and operas and concerts in the parks, listened to string quartets and piano recitals in office-building lobbies, attended movie screenings, and visited museums… “You can’t just live like this,” I said. “Why not?” Mom said. “Being homeless is an adventure” (304). Rex and Rose Mary are happier living homeless in New York City than they were living in Welch. Back when they were living in the shack on Little Hobart street, there were days when Rex would not come home and Rose Mary would not leave the couch. In New York City they found a large group of people who were just like them. They finally felt like they belonged and they thrived there. This shows that poverty is sometimes a choice. It sort of makes sense as to why so many people make these types of life choices that result in them living in poverty.

Walls describes her parents in a way that is neither good or bad. She touches on why they are the way they are. Perhaps eccentric Rose Mary never truly grew up; perhaps Rex’s addiction and his past haunted him to the point where he was unable to function well in society. Regardless, Walls demonstrates in her memoir that even those living in extreme poverty can be happy and for many it is a choice, but for those who choose to overcome the obstacles in front of them, with determination and optimism is can be done.

References

Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle: A Memoir. New York : Scribner, 2005. Print.