The Glass Castle-pt. 1

1. In the beginning of the book, Jeannette Walls is riding in a taxi through the city thinking she is over dressed, when she looks out the taxi window and sees her mom happily going through a dumpster. She then tells the taxi driver to turn around and bring her back to her apartment. Where she then called her mother’s friend to inform her that she would like to eat lunch with her mother- the only way her and her mother kept in contact. They met on Friday at the local Chinese restaurant. She told her mother that she embarrasses her and that she should just loan money from her. Her mother said no and told her that is the way she and Jeannette’s dad want to live. The rest is really just a flash back.. she was on fire that was her earliest memory. She was making hot dogs at the age of three and her dress caught on fire from the burner. The neighbor rushed her to the hospital because her father was gone with the car. She had severe burns and was wrapped up in the hospital for weeks. Her father came and picked her up and they ran out of the hospital-the “Rex Walls check-out”. A few days after she was home, she made herself some hot dogs on the stove. He dad came home in the middle of the night a few months later and got them all out of bed. He told them they had fifteen minutes to pack up everything they needed and they were getting out of there. It took them an hour but they were on their way. The cat began to throw a fit so Mr. Walls just threw it out the window. That night they stopped in the middle of the desert and they slept under the stars. They were always doing the “skedaddle” her father told her it was because they were being chased by the FBI but her mother told her that was just her fathers cover up for not being able to pay the bills. Her father liked to invent things. His greatest invention (or thought) was called “The Prospector” it was a tool that would be used for finding gold-which was hit mission in life. His other great invention was “The Glass Castle” which was a house that was to have a glass roof, thick glass walls and solar panels that would collect all the energy needed for the whole house, including appliances. They talk about how she had a sister born between her and her sister Lori-her name was Mary Charlene-but her dad did not like to talk about her because he was the one who found her dead in the crib. Lori asked Jean what she thought of moving around so much, and Jean responded by saying she liked it and asking what would happen if they were to stay in one place, Lori responded by saying “we would get caught.” They then lived in Las Vegas for awhile, Mr. Walls earned well until the dealers caught on to what he was doing when the family once again packed up and moved on. They went to live on the Pacific Ocean for a while, at least till they got sick of the city folks. They moved on to Midland where her mother fell in love with a Joshua tree, a tree that she just fell in love with. The mother found out she was pregnant with a third child. The children never believed in Santa Claus, they did not have enough money for them to. They rather just told the children that the other parents were liars and that the children are being brainwashed. One Christmas when they had no money and they were living in Midland in the middle of the desert, her father took each child out individually to choose a star that they wanted. He did this because nobody truly had claim to a star so they could just claim one as their own. They moved to the city of Blyth so that the baby would be able to be born in a city with things they would need. Jean started first grade and was an active participant. Other students called her a teachers pet and they followed her home one day and jumped her in the alley behind her apartment. The next day when they were waiting to do it again her younger brother came out to protect her, but instead they both got beaten up. At the very end her mother gives birth to a healthy baby girl at the hospital in which they check out “Rex Walls Style”.

2. My reaction to these pages would be that this family is brought closer together by the fact that her parents are so disfucntional. The parents do not always get along but atleast they love eachother as a family. I think that the father's drinking problem produces issues in the family but it doesn't tear them apart.