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Jeannette Walls and siblings triumph despite impossible obstacles
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It seems like Jeannette Walls has everything that both a successful and happy person could possibly want: a thriving journalism career, a beautiful farm in the state of Viriginia, and a loving husband. As a journalist for MSNBC, she is confident, poised, and professional making the whole thing look well, easy. Ms. Walls's life has been anything but easy however. She and her sibilings have lived through poverty and being ostracized by members of their own family, their schoolmates, teachers, and by several members of the community in which they grew up in West Virginia. Ms. Walls's memoir, The Glass Castle, tells their painful but heartfelt story.
The Glass Castle begins with Jeannette Walls all grown up and living in New York City on Park Avenue. One spring evening, she is all dressed up and on her way to a party when she sees her homeless mother rummaging through garbage on the street. Embarrassed and fearful that her mother will recognize and acknowledge her, Ms. Walls orders the cab driver to take her home. A few days later, she meets her mother at a restaurant where she once again offers her mother financial assistance and to make her life better. Her mother once again declines stating that she is doing fine and that her daughter is the one who needs help. Dejected, Ms. Walls asks her mother what she is supposed to tell people about her family and her past. Her mother answers, "'Just tell the truth...That's simple enough'"(Walls 5).
Ms. Walls follows her mother's advice and truthfully details both the harsh and heartbreaking reality of her childhood starting with her serious burning accident at age three and continuing with the family's constant moves throughout California and the Southwest in order to avoid bill collectors and what her father called "the gestapo". Her father was a very intelligent man who knew a great deal about science and mathematics. He would also invent machines ( such as "The Prospector") that he felt would make life better. He gave his children the dream of building a glass castle where they would live and always be happy. Unfortunately, her father was also an alcoholic who could not hold down a job very long, was very destructive, and who caused his family to have to do "the skedaddle" countless times due to owing many a great deal of money. Her mother was also very intelligent, and she encouraged her children to be creative by reading, painting, and enjoying nature. She was also an enabler and more interested in painting tapestries and writing stories that she would never try to sell instead of raising her children. Ms. Walls, her older sister, and her younger brother took care of each other and protected each other. Her younger sister was often taken care of by other families in town.
Ms. Walls's memoir continues by detailing her family's brief settlement in Arizona after her maternal grandmother died and then finally to Welch, West Virginia where her father's family lived. She recounts the abuse she and her sbilings suffered by her paternal grandmother, the ridicule inflicted by their classmates, teachers, and other members of the community; and how the building of the glass castle was continually delayed. Amidst the poverty, heartbreak, and destruction burned an intense determination and resolve for the Walls children to survive, grow up, and make better lives for themselves. They all worked and saved money despite forseen and unforseen obstacles. They made plans to move to New York City where Ms. Walls's older sister wanted to be an artist and Ms. Walls a writer. They supported each other and never gave up on their dreams. They persevered despite their parents' destructiveness, lack of effort, and eventual homelessness.
At the end of this memoir, you realize that no matter how hard your life may be, you can beat even the most difficult odds through hard work, dreaming deeply, and never ever giving up. The Glass Castle is heartbreaking but triumphant. It is triumphant but also bittersweet. It is a truly realistic account of one woman and her siblings' struggles to overcome impossible obstacles and emerging on the other side successful.
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