The Glass Castle
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| The Glass Castle: A Memoir (book) | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Jeannette Walls |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Memoir |
| Publisher | Scribner |
| Publication date | 2005 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 288 |
| ISBN | 0743247531 |
| Preceded by | Dish: The Inside Story on the World of Gossip |
| Followed by | Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel |
The Glass Castle is a 2005 memoir by Jeannette Walls. The book recounts her and her siblings' unconventional, poverty-stricken upbringing at the hands of their deeply dysfunctional parents.
The memoir stayed on The New York Times Best Seller list for 100 weeks[1] and is now under development as a film by Paramount.[2] By late 2007, The Glass Castle had sold over 2.5 million copies, had been translated into 22 languages, and received the Christopher Award, the American Library Association's Alex Award (2006) and the Books for Better Living Award.[3]
Contents |
[edit] Characters
[edit] Jeannette Walls
Jeannette Walls is the author and the voice of the book, The Glass Castle. She wrote a memoir of her life through her eyes growing up from a child, into a talented young lady. Jeannette explains through her writing about the struggles she and her siblings faced due to their parents unrealistic ways of living. She described herself as too tall and not good looking which made it hard for her to fit in with all the moving around the Walls family did.
Jeannette writes about how she pulls herself out of that lifestyle and how she makes something of herself. Her mother Rose Mary Walls always found it very important to read and write so, when she moved to New York City, it wasn’t hard for her to get into school. She tells how she is a journalist through school and later becomes an author. She later contributes a lot of her time to MSNBC where she is a gossip columnist.
[edit] Rex Walls
Rex Walls was born in Welch, WV. He later joined the Air Force to get out of Welch. During his time in the Air Force, he met his wife Rose Mary. During the childhood of Jeannette Walls, he had a hard time keeping a job and created the chaotic situation that the Walls family constantly found themselves in. Rarely did he keep a job longer than a few months, using what little money the family had to fuel his addictions to drinking and smoking. Though his drinking was more important to the story, the narrator references how "he had been smoking four packs of cigarettes a day since he was thirteen" (Walls 278).
Throughout the book, The Glass Castle, he constantly battles his inner demons. He loves his family but is constantly putting them in harm’s way. At one time he even recruits his daughter into aiding him in his efforts of “earning money” by distracting a man with the thought of sexual favors from his daughter.
Though he has many faults, Rex was an educated man with extensive knowledge of Astronomy and Geology. It seemed like he wanted to keep his children in a learning environment, just not in the classical sense. His biggest aspiration was to “strike it rich” with the discovery of gold and build the family a home, one that he named The Glass Castle. He later dies in New York in 1994 from a heart attack. Jeannette recalls him claiming that he got into a fistfight with some Nigerian drug dealers and contracted a rare incurable disease.
[edit] Rose Mary Walls
Rose Mary is the wife of Rex and the Mother of Jeannette, Lori, Brian, and Maureen. She is an artist and in many instances of the book can be found painting creation after creation. She is a licensed teacher and is used as one in many instances. She has her sane moments amongst crazy ones early in the story, but moving more towards the end after the move to Welch, WV, she slowly starts to become childlike and immature in her actions. In the scene where Jeanette explains how she plans to move to New York, she breaks down not out of sadness that her daughter is moving away, but out of jealousy that she gets to live in New York. By the end of the novel, she chooses to be homeless as it is an adventure to her.During her stay in New York she had the opportunity to make her life better by moving in with either of her daughters ( Lori or Jeannette) but declined both of them, saying that she preferred being homeless, didn't mind sleeping on the churches pews, and enjoyed the "adventure" that came with being homeless. Also while her family was struggling for money, she owned Texas property from her relatives that was worth over a million dollars.
[edit] Brian Walls
Brian Walls is the only son in the Walls family. He is the third of four children. He and Jeannette are the closest out of all the siblings. They are like two peas in a pod; doing everything together. Though he is younger than Jeannette Walls, he always found it necessary to be the protector/Dad figure since their own father was a good for nothing drunk. Eventually Brian follows Jeannette and Lori to New York. He starts a family and becomes a cop in the NYPD.
[edit] Lori Walls
Lori Walls was the first of 4 children Born to Rex and Rose Mary walls. She grows up in the same way as Jeannette but not really buying into all of her parents plans as well as Jeannette does. Though she loves her siblings, she doesn’t seem a big fan of her parents or the way they have forsaken their family. Lori also saw the plans for the glass castle as a huge let down, one of many from her father. She later leaves the family home in Welch, WV to go to New York and becomes an artist. Lori became an Illustrator in New York city, where she still lives to this day.
[edit] Maureen Walls
Maureen is the last of the Walls children to be born and since the day she was born has been different from the rest of the family. She is blonde haired amongst the dark haired, and is considered the prettiest. All throughout the story, Maureen is hardly to be seen. As a baby she was carried around by the family, but as a young girl fully realizes the awful state in which the family and house are in and spends most of her times at friends' houses. All day, staying for dinner, and even sleepovers. By the end of the story Maureen turns violent and eventually runs away to California.
[edit] References
Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle. New York: Scribner, 2005. Print.
- ^ "Best-selling author to speak in Fremont". The Muskegon Chronicle, Susan Harrison Wolffis, June 03, 2008. http://blog.mlive.com/chronicle/2008/06/bestselling_author_to_speak_in.html.
- ^ "Pitt's Plan B inks deal with Paramount". M & C News, Jun 23, 2005. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/movies/news/printer_8949.php.
- ^ "Porter-Gaud hosts noted author Walls". Post and Courier, FYI, September 20, 2007. http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2007/sep/20/fyi16467/.
[edit] External links
- Dublins Womens Book Circle
- wikipedia
- gothamist
- "The Glass Castle" in-depth review
- Book Review and Discussion
- Conversations with Famous Writers: Jeannette Walls
- Q&A ABC Primetime with Jeannette Walls
- "Jeannette Walls". NotableBiographies.com. http://www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2006-Ra-Z/Walls-Jeannette.html.
- Diversity Conversation: Jeannette Walls and Nora Neill
- Booknotes The Glass Castle Study Guide
- Jeannette Walls Biography
- on MSNBC
- Jeannette Walls, author of "Glass Castle" 1/2
- Jeannette Walls, author "Glass Castle" 2/2
