A Title Analysis of “The Glass Castle”
Jeanette Walls’ father, Rex Walls, is a man of many promises and few deliveries. Early on in her childhood Jeanette’s father tells his family of his plans to build a glass castle for them to live in; a home that is beautiful and fragile, easily breakable.
The story of Jeannette’s childhood is one of chaos and dysfunction, incidents becoming increasingly concerning as the story of her life continues. The memoir shows Jeanette’s account of her childhood on how her dysfunctional parents’ choices impacted her and her siblings.
The title of Jeanette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle is fitting because what the glass castle represents for Jeanette changes throughout the book and symbolizes the tensions between the Walls children and their parents that Jeanette has to break through in order to mature and move on with her life.
The image of what the glass castle means to Jeanette changes throughout the story. It begins by being a connection between her and her father, the plans that they will one day complete together. “When Dad wasn’t telling us about all the amazing things he had already done, he was telling us about the wondrous things he was going to do. Like build the Glass Castle.” (Walls 25). Rex Walls thinks of himself as the perfect man, husband, and father. He seems to truly believe that he will fulfill all of his promises and plans that he voices to his children. He is the epitome of the phrase over promise and under deliver. This quote not only shows who Rex Walls is as a person but it shows the overall theme of the book.
Rex Walls does care for his family and wants to make all of these big dreams of his become a reality, but dreams are all that they ever were and would be. As a young child Jeanette does what many of us do; picture fathers as perfect, always correct beings. “In my mind, Dad was perfect, although he did have what Mom called a bit of a drinking situation.”(Walls 23). Later on in her memoir, when Jeanette has become and been aware of the poor treatment she endured from both of her parents. The more that Jeanette realizes the mistreatment she has received, the more she starts to act for herself. Getting a job, working for her school’s paper, planning for a future in New York.
Later, when she decides to go to New York to join her sister in order to have a chance at bettering her life, Rex once again brings up the idea of the glass castle, stating that since Jeantte’s sister has left for New York, Jeanette herself could have a bigger room in their castle. Jeantte then does something she has never done, tell her father what he does not want to hear; she does not believe that he will build the glass castle and she will be leaving for New York that morning. as soon as I finish classes, I’m getting on the next bus out of here. If the bus stops running, I’ll hitchhike. I’ll walk if I have to. Go ahead and build the Glass Castle, but don’t do it for me.” (Walls 238). This is a major moment of Jeanette as she often struggles with telling her father the truth throughout the book, which he seems to often take advantage of.
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This is a start of a new chapter for Jeanette, not only in the fact that she will be leaving for New York and taking a physical new chapter of her life, but also a new mental mindset has opened. The glass castle now only is a physical idea of Jeanette’s life, but it can too be seen as a representation of hope fdfdor Jeanette. When she is young it is seen as a glorious house that she and her family can one day live in together. A beautiful home full of life and happiness that her family would bask in.
As Jeanette grows older and more aware of her parent’s faults, the glass castle becomes less of a plan and more of a dream. Jeanette and her older sister begin to dream of leaving to go to New York, they make plans and start to save money, which is later stolen by their father. The glass castle changes from the idea that their father had promised to deliver on to one of a life away from the toxicity of their home life among their parents. New York becomes their new dream, their new hope, and in turn becomes their new glass castle.
When it comes time to move away from her family and to New York to pursue a new life, her father brings up the plans of the glass castle and, once again, over promises on a plan that he has no means to act on. Jeanette tells her father what he does not want to hear, and outwardly rejects the notion of the glass castle being built.
She then leaves for New York, to become a different kind of independent than she was at home with her parents. New York, a city of skyscrapers making it literally a city of glass, opens up new doors for the Walls siblings. It becomes a place they can create their new lives away from their parents, a place they can pursue jobs and education. New York becomes their new foundation, and though their parents do later join them in the city, it still is a place of their own.
The Glass Castle is a memoir about Jeanette Wall’s dysfunctional childhood. The memoir covers her life from a child to a successful adult, and shows the changes she undergoes such as physical location and mentality. The title of The Glass Castle is a reflection of a significant part of her childhood as well as a kind of metaphor that represents Jeanette’s dreams.
The memoir prompts reactions of sympathy for the children, dislike for the parents, and even awe at what Jeanette was able to do with her life in spite of her upbringing. It examines the chaos within and around the Walls’ household as well as the personal triumph that Jeanette experiences using her independence and strength she earned through her childhood. The glass castle represents a bubble created by Jeanette’s parents that she was enclosed in that she had to break down and out of, as well as a representation of Jeanette’s dreams and aspirations that gives her the motivation to keep on going.
