The Glass Castle Themes

The Glass Castle is the story of Jeannette Walls’s development from childhood into adulthood. It’s a story, therefore, of her growing up—a bildungsroman. Walls presents growing up as a process of recognizing one’s childhood illusions as just that—illusions—and instead coming to see “how things really are.” Growing up, then, as Walls describes it, involves disillusionment, the loss or recognition of the non-reality of childhood dreams and ideas. This process of disillusionment is one…

Constantly on the run from bill collectors or minor run-ins with the law, Jeannette’s family finds shelter in houses and towns across the country, while Jeannette continues to seek the one place where she can feel most “at home.” In The Glass Castle, this search mirrors Jeannette’s process of growing up: Jeannette idealizes her grandmother’s house in Phoenix, for example, as well as her father’s plans for the Glass Castle. Yet part of…

The hazy point at which fire and smoke reaches into the air fascinates Dad, who calls it “a place where no rules apply, or at least they haven’t figured ‘em out yet.” It is this intermediate realm that the family inhabits, that Jeanette’s parents seek to inhabit, where the rules are grey and they can therefore define their own way of living and being. For a time, living “on the edge” seems to work…

To whom and to what should one be responsible? While Mom and Dad clearly shirk much of their responsibility as parents, the book reveals that they are actually acting in accordance with their non-conformist beliefs—which they see as a higher responsibility. In some cases, the book equates responsibility with self-sufficiency, as Mom and Dad encourage Jeannette and her siblings to look out for themselves rather than rely on anyone else. On the other hand, her…