The Glass Castle is a memoir of the author herself and tells the heartbreaking, bittersweet and action-packed stories of Walls’ childhood. Her story revolves around the relationship she had with her family, mainly her father, and readers grow up with Walls through the course of the book.
As the book is written through the eyes of Jeanette at the time of her events, something that made the book that much more devastating was how Walls uses child-like innocence when describing traumatic events in a way that a child would perceive it. Within the book, Walls is sexually assaulted and molested, but having readers are forced to interpret the event through the eyes of a kid and fill in the blanks that Walls didn’t fully grasp at the time. This innocence makes the memoir all the more heartbreaking and readers are forced to empathize with walls.
This “sugarcoating” of traumatic events are a constant theme in this book. Walls as a child believe her dad is a hero; her family frames terrible events as a “family trip” or simply them having fun. Even though Walls wasn’t able to grasp the full magnitude of the situation, readers can, which may make the book a difficult read for some. Issues of assault, sexual abuse, parental neglect, mental health, and poverty are all common themes within the book and being able to understand how a child may interpret such manners is interesting, yet depressing. The “adventures” she takes part in are all mostly horrible, traumatic events, yet the unknowing and blindly happy Walls that narrates her story leaves readers no choice but to root for and pity Walls to a certain extent.
It is difficult to pinpoint a clear protagonist and antagonist, but it becomes somewhat clear throughout the memoir that her parents are the antagonists while the kids, Walls and her siblings, are the protagonists of this story. This is made clear through the portrayal of these characters. While readers, including me, are left marvelling at the intelligence, charm, and resilience of the Walls kids, we are left in suspense when the parents are in the picture. The Glass Castle also follows Walls to her early adulthood. Later in the memoir, when the Walls kids escape their abusive and destructive home to New York City, Jeannette attends college, gets married and finds work as a magazine columnist. Then, a familiar sense of suspense and fear creep up all over again when their parents follow them to Manhattan.
Overall, following Walls through her childhood and adulthood leaves all of us rooting for her and makes all of us all the more appreciative of what we have. There have been many times in the book where I’ve thought of my own parents, and I’ve learned to be that much more grateful for them. It’s not that we should take pity on Walls for her trauma and feel bad for her situation and her neglecting parents, but rather understand that sometimes, there is beauty in the struggle. Walls makes it very clear that although she did have a rough upbringing, she loves her family more than anything in the world. The relationship she had with her family and the struggles she had because of them is the reason why she is the person she is today. This beautiful message is concluded when Jeanette and her siblings have a toast to their father when everything is behind them. It truly, truly is a must-read.
