The Glass Castle

A theme of The Glass Castle is to live a good life you must be responsible. In the beginning of the novel, Jeannette Walls was very carefree and just went with everything her parents said or did.  You can see this in a quote: "We did have our scratchy army-surplus blankets, so we spread them out and lay there, looking up at the field of stars. I told Lori how lucky we were to be sleeping out under the sky like Indians. "We could live like this forever," I said.
"I think we're going to," Lori said" (Walls 18).
As you can tell, Jeannette was always very happy as a child, even when she had to run away with her parents in the middle of the night and leave all her friends and toys. This was because she did not understand that her parents were not capable of providing a safe life to her. She thought it was all just one big adventure. But as the book continues, and Jeannette grows up and has to start supporting herself and her siblings, she gradually realizes that her parents are not responsible and have no idea of how to raise children. This quote is when Jeannette confronts her mother about their poor living conditions: "We needed to take drastic measures. I was twelve by now, and I had been weighing our options, doing some research at the public library and picking up scraps of information about how other families on Little Hobart Street survived. I had come up with a plan and had been waiting for the opportunity to broach it to Mom..."Mom, we can't go on living like this," I said.
"It's not so bad," she said...
"We haven't had anything to eat but popcorn for three days," I said.
"You're always so negative," she said. "You remind me of my mother-criticize, criticize, criticize" (Walls 187).
The theme really becomes more defined with that quote, because Jeannette herself realizes that since her parents will not be responsible, they would be stuck in their broken-down house forever. The theme emerges when Jeannette reaches adolescence and they start living in Welch, because Welch was such a poor place to live in that it really opened Jeannette's eyes.

This Glass Castle Article is about Jeannette Walls answering questions about her life and her book. She talks about some key parts in her book and also mentions some things that are not written in the book.

This video is Jeannette Walls talking about how her book has impacted her life and the power within.