The Glass Castle

A person’s childhood or past should not define who they are or become. In the narrative text, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls expresses the life of homelessness, neglect, and poverty in her childhood. The author uses characterization, imagery, and epiphany to convey the truth that the difficulties in your past should not have to alter who you become in the future. Walls uses characterization in her text to describe her parents’ personality and who they were to her during her childhood. Jeannette’s mother, Rose Mary, was portrayed as a mother who did not want to be a mother. She was usually neglecting them to spend her time with more enjoyable things like painting to be an artist or writing to become an author. Throughout the text, she is self-centered and doesn’t act like any normal nurturing mother would. When her husband lost his job, her children were starving for food and be willing to eat anything, then Brian discovers she was sneaking herself large Hershey bars without offering any to her hungry children. Then she attempts to justify herself, “I can’t help it. I’m a sugar addict, just like your father is an alcoholic.” (174) Mary Rose usually made herself the victim, especially when she pitches a number of excuses to make herself seem less guilty. Another example of her selfishness is when Brian and Jeannette find a two- carat diamond ring that was worth more than their house. Rose Mary decided to keep the ring to replace her pawned wedding ring even after the kids argued it could get them a lot of food, and replied to them, “self-esteem is even more vital than food.”(186) Jeannette’s father, who adored her very much, was Rex Walls. Rex Walls was a dreamer just like his wife, but instead he believed he would someday strike gold with his invention, “The Prospector.” He favored Jeannette most out of his three children and even had a pet name for her, “Mountain Goat.” They also dreamed together about building their dream house in a large desert, the