Themes
Forgiveness
One of the most important themes in The Glass Castle is forgiveness. People may some mistakes in many situations in their lives, by forgiving them you make yourself free of your anger, judgements and your bitterness. Jeannette and her brother and sisters are almost always forgiving their irresponsible parents. By forgiving the parents they open the way to love them.
Jeannette always forgives her mother and father for their mistakes and finds a way to welcome them back into her heart. Forgiveness decreases her anger and makes her general attitude to be more positive, optimistic and joyful. She is starting to forgive her parents when she is a three year old child and she burns herself because her mother doesn’t take care of her while she is cooking hot dog. When she gets back home after six days hospitalization, her mother is letting her cook again and saying “Good for you, you have got to get right back in the saddle.” (15)
She also forgives her father when she tries to learn how to swim and her father dropped her into the water and she is going to near drowning. She forgives him and thinks his purpose is inspiring her to learn: “I figured he must be right, there was no other way to explain it.” (66)
At the ending parts of the story when she meets her father for the last time she forgives him for “all the hell-raising and destruction and chaos he [has] created in [her life].” She says: “I could not imagine what my life would be like- without him in it. As awful as he could be, I always knew he loved me in a way no one else ever had.”(279)
Jeannette Walls always forgives her parents for whatever they are going through and show the readers if people refuse to forgive others, they relegate themselves to living in the past and never being in the present moment, where all the good things in life happen.
Alcoholism has harmful effects on family life
Alcoholism not only is a shattering disease for alcoholic person but also has destructive effects on entire family. Jeannette Walls in The Glass Castle illustrates how an alcoholic parent can totally disrupt family life and cause harmful effects that can last a lifetime.
Children who are growing up in an alcoholic home may develop emotional problems, such as anxiety and behavioral explosion. Jeannette’s father is an alcoholic man. She and her siblings experience high level of tension and stress because of their father’s alcoholism. They are living in the extremely unstable home environment. Jeannette’s little sister, Maureen, has frequent nightmares and when she is a young girl, she has a dependent personality and cannot take care of herself. She also has impulsive reactions. When she argues whit her mother, she suddenly gets confuse and stabs her mother. All of these evidences demonstrate that she has grown up in an unstable family under a lot of tensions due to her father’s alcoholism.
An alcoholic parent is irresponsible and doesn’t provide his or her children with basic children’s needs. In the Jeannette’s story this problem frequently is illustrated, she and her brother and sisters suffer from lack of enough food or suitable home.
Having financial difficulties is another issue that families of alcoholics have to deal with. The Jeannette’s family have to give up certain needs because her alcoholic father loses his job frequently and also spends large amount of money on alcohol.
The Glass Castle is the story of a family with an alcoholic parent and illustrates that alcoholism can have a detrimental impact on family. Alcoholism has a severely destructive path with effects and consequences that can potentially last a lifetime.
Some children lose their childhood innocence
One of the most attractive qualities of children is innocence, but Jeannette and her sisters and brother lose their childhood innocence. When they are little kids, they expose to poverty, starvation, alcoholic father and sexual assault.
Jeannette is a three years old kid when she cooks hot dog and she burns herself. Her mother believes “[she is] mature for [her] age” so her mother “lets [her] cooks for [herself] a lot”. (11) This shows that Jeannette has an unusual childhood.
Jeannette and her siblings have to leave behind their belonging and gather only one important thing when their parents suddenly decide to move to another city. Her father throws out her favorite pet from the car and when Jeannette gets sad and cries her mother asks her to stop crying and says, “Don’t be so sentimental.”(18)
Jeannette is a four years old kid while she is “pretty good with [her] Dad’s pistol, a big black six-shot revolver, and could hit five out of six beer bottles at thirty paces.”(21). Early exposure to weapon for a little child shows that the Walls children have lost their childhood innocence.
As a child, they have to worry for their mom to encourage and force her to work and help her in her duties as a teacher. They also have to regulate the money and force their father to limit his spending on alcohol. They have no food and have to get some food from the trash can in school while their father spends money on alcohol and cigarette. Jeannette and her brother and sisters live with their alcoholic grandmother, and she attempts to sexually abuse her brother. All of these tension and worries that the Walls children have shows they have lost their childhood innocence.
One of the most important themes in The Glass Castle is forgiveness. People may some mistakes in many situations in their lives, by forgiving them you make yourself free of your anger, judgements and your bitterness. Jeannette and her brother and sisters are almost always forgiving their irresponsible parents. By forgiving the parents they open the way to love them.
Jeannette always forgives her mother and father for their mistakes and finds a way to welcome them back into her heart. Forgiveness decreases her anger and makes her general attitude to be more positive, optimistic and joyful. She is starting to forgive her parents when she is a three year old child and she burns herself because her mother doesn’t take care of her while she is cooking hot dog. When she gets back home after six days hospitalization, her mother is letting her cook again and saying “Good for you, you have got to get right back in the saddle.” (15)
She also forgives her father when she tries to learn how to swim and her father dropped her into the water and she is going to near drowning. She forgives him and thinks his purpose is inspiring her to learn: “I figured he must be right, there was no other way to explain it.” (66)
At the ending parts of the story when she meets her father for the last time she forgives him for “all the hell-raising and destruction and chaos he [has] created in [her life].” She says: “I could not imagine what my life would be like- without him in it. As awful as he could be, I always knew he loved me in a way no one else ever had.”(279)
Jeannette Walls always forgives her parents for whatever they are going through and show the readers if people refuse to forgive others, they relegate themselves to living in the past and never being in the present moment, where all the good things in life happen.
Alcoholism has harmful effects on family life
Alcoholism not only is a shattering disease for alcoholic person but also has destructive effects on entire family. Jeannette Walls in The Glass Castle illustrates how an alcoholic parent can totally disrupt family life and cause harmful effects that can last a lifetime.
Children who are growing up in an alcoholic home may develop emotional problems, such as anxiety and behavioral explosion. Jeannette’s father is an alcoholic man. She and her siblings experience high level of tension and stress because of their father’s alcoholism. They are living in the extremely unstable home environment. Jeannette’s little sister, Maureen, has frequent nightmares and when she is a young girl, she has a dependent personality and cannot take care of herself. She also has impulsive reactions. When she argues whit her mother, she suddenly gets confuse and stabs her mother. All of these evidences demonstrate that she has grown up in an unstable family under a lot of tensions due to her father’s alcoholism.
An alcoholic parent is irresponsible and doesn’t provide his or her children with basic children’s needs. In the Jeannette’s story this problem frequently is illustrated, she and her brother and sisters suffer from lack of enough food or suitable home.
Having financial difficulties is another issue that families of alcoholics have to deal with. The Jeannette’s family have to give up certain needs because her alcoholic father loses his job frequently and also spends large amount of money on alcohol.
The Glass Castle is the story of a family with an alcoholic parent and illustrates that alcoholism can have a detrimental impact on family. Alcoholism has a severely destructive path with effects and consequences that can potentially last a lifetime.
Some children lose their childhood innocence
One of the most attractive qualities of children is innocence, but Jeannette and her sisters and brother lose their childhood innocence. When they are little kids, they expose to poverty, starvation, alcoholic father and sexual assault.
Jeannette is a three years old kid when she cooks hot dog and she burns herself. Her mother believes “[she is] mature for [her] age” so her mother “lets [her] cooks for [herself] a lot”. (11) This shows that Jeannette has an unusual childhood.
Jeannette and her siblings have to leave behind their belonging and gather only one important thing when their parents suddenly decide to move to another city. Her father throws out her favorite pet from the car and when Jeannette gets sad and cries her mother asks her to stop crying and says, “Don’t be so sentimental.”(18)
Jeannette is a four years old kid while she is “pretty good with [her] Dad’s pistol, a big black six-shot revolver, and could hit five out of six beer bottles at thirty paces.”(21). Early exposure to weapon for a little child shows that the Walls children have lost their childhood innocence.
As a child, they have to worry for their mom to encourage and force her to work and help her in her duties as a teacher. They also have to regulate the money and force their father to limit his spending on alcohol. They have no food and have to get some food from the trash can in school while their father spends money on alcohol and cigarette. Jeannette and her brother and sisters live with their alcoholic grandmother, and she attempts to sexually abuse her brother. All of these tension and worries that the Walls children have shows they have lost their childhood innocence.