The Glass Castle Theme

In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Wells, many hardships and themes of struggle are present. The story explains the story of Jeannette, her siblings, and her unusual parents. Jeannette and her family are constantly moving around and living in less than adequate situations. Jeannette’s mother, has mental health problems. Her condition makes the children have to grow up and help provide for the parents. Additionally, her father, is an alcoholic. His behavior is violent and puts the family through a lot of struggles. While growing up, Jeannette did not have any good friends to confide to. She was constantly met with bullying and the act of trying to fit in. Jeannette and her siblings were not brought up like a normal family. They were taught to
That was the day that my grandpa passed away. Every single part of that date is engrained in my memory. My parents had driven up to Wisconsin, and my older sister Lauren drove home for college to stay with me. It wasn’t out of the normal for my parents to quickly leave, so I didn’t think much of it. I remember going to hang out with Tatum, my best friend of the time. It was a nice day outside, so of course we were outside playing on the trampoline and doing all our weird routines like we always did. Her family, who was like a second family to me, decided to go out to eat so they brought me along. We went to La Charitas. I remember how Mrs. Teeple pulled out a funny card game for us to play, and I remember Tatum cutting out faces in her tortilla, making us all laugh. When we got back to the house we saw that my sister called, so I said bye to the Teeples and walked one minute down the road to my house. Lauren, who is one of the most emotional in the family, was left with the task of telling me that my grandpa had passed away. I had just grabbed a snack of chocolate cheerios as she started to tell me the news. I didn’t know how to react, so I ran into the basement directly to the furthest corner I could find. Lauren tried talking to me, but I wanted to be by myself. One of the hardest things I have ever done was talking to my dad on the phone after finding out. He called to tell me the plans, that he was coming home to get us, and
As I found out, I struggle with it. I distanced myself for family, from the world, because I was afraid of this new revolution that my family is all going to die at some point in my life. Instead of talking about it, or letting my emotions go through the stages, I held everything in. I held all my emotions until I exploded. Every since my grandpa’s death, I have dealt with my emotions this way, and it’s constantly a learning experience to try to improve myself. Little eleven year old me, has taught me to express my feelings. I had so much repressed emotions from grieving, that it had lasted me years, and escalated how I dealt with any stress or conflict in my life. I try to be more open, and not shut out everything in my life. I know I’ll always have some ounce of regret for never saying my final goodbye, but I’ve since been able to move on. On December 30, 2013, I journaled an entry to my grandpa, it