Ricardo Luengas

AP. English
Mrs. Belmonte
Period: 3
The Glass Castle
Jeannette Walls
The 8 quotes:
1. But I could never enjoy the room without worrying about Mom and Dad huddled on
a sidewalk grate somewhere I was embarrassed by them and ashamed of myself
for wearing pearls while my parents were busy keeping warm and finding
something to eat (Pg.4)
In the beginning of The glass castle Jeannette begins her story with detail of how she
meets up with her mother. Through this quote the audience can conclude that her parents are
homeless. Jeannette tells the reader that she has been trying to help out her parents but that
her dad Rex doesnt allow her to help. Earlier that day she was with her husband whom
didnt know anything about her family, she saw her mother digging through the garbage can
searching for food. She claims that she was embarrassed and hoped that her mother wouldnt
see her or call her name out. Later she explains that she was embarrassed of her own self for
denying her past. The author decided to use this quote to give us a head of time. She makes
the reader think about how her life was while living with her parents. And what is supposed
ti tell people about my parents Just tell the truth, Mom said. Thats simple enough. This
conversation happens while at the restaurant after, after Jeannette explains to her mother that
she is embarrassed, again Jeannettes fore-shadowing gives the reader some sort of
description of the mothers personality, how she doesnt care that she is poor instead her
mother views as being in poverty some sort of happiness.
2. A few days after Mom and Dad bought me home, I cooked myself some hot
dogs. (Pg. 15)
This quote I feel is a special one because Jeannette decides to explain the story of the day
she got caught on fire. At first she describes how she and was hungry and didnt have any food
except sausages. She was 3 years at the moment of the accident. She was cooking her self-food
because her mother was too busy painting to cook for her 3 year old daughter, she explains that
this was not the first time she has made food for herself, in fact she said that she was used to it.
While she was standing on a stool the pan fell and she caught on fire, she describes how she felt
the burning flames kissing her skin. Her neighbor was kind enough to drive her to the hospital
where she was treated with food, she explains how she liked it because for once she didnt have
to fight or go a day without food. The days she was in the hospital she explains how her family
would come and visit, and how she could tell her family was on her way to her room due to her
fathers strong and loud personality. Jeannette describes in detail how her father fought with the
doctors and got Jeannette out of the hospital without the consent of the personal. This quote
helps us realize the kind of family the Walls are. Days after Jeannette left the hospital by force
her parents werent around and she was hungry so she decided to make food for herself again, he
mother said that she was proud that a little fire didnt get to her. At this point I was pretty furious
since her own daughter just suffered a severe accident and now she wasnt even concerned about
her daughter. After this accident Jeannette started playing with fire because she was fascinated
and liked the thrill that what hurt her couldnt hurt her anymore. Jeannette had a tinker bell doll
that she loved. She decided to set her on fire so she could feel what she felt. Her doll caught on
fire and was destroyed, her face was unrecognizable as well as her body structure, she decided to
Mummify her just like what she went through in the hospital. She described her doll as The
most beautiful Her innocent mind is proven through this because she didnt have a family who
was there taking care of her, instead she was taking care of herself.
3. We were always doing the skedaddle, usually in the middle of the night. (Pg. 19)
Jeannette gave us this quote to show how there stability was, she says that she will hear
her mother and father discussed about how people were after her dad. She uses a simile when
describing her family skedaddles she described it as moving around like nomads, this makes us
visualize how they were used to going around searching a place to call home. She describes
being a nomad as an adventure, she tells the reader how her father would find a job as an
electrician or engineer, or he would find the money doing odd jobs or gambling. Through this
quote we can tell that her family wasnt stable and that they didnt allow help because
Jeannettes father was the strong man in the house who could take care, and maintain there
children. Rose Walls mother is a rich women who doesnt get along with Rex because he is a
flea-bitten drunk The Walls kids would love being with there grandmother because they would
be in a nice luxury home, where they had food and clothing. But when their father would decide
to leave there mother would say There was nothing she could do. Later on in the story
Jeannette and her brother and sister tell their mother that she couldve done something that she
couldve left their father since she was rich, and even though her mother had enough money to
maintain her kids she never used it to feed her kids but she did use it to buy art supplies. When
Jeannette uses We were always doing the skedaddle, usually in the middle of the night. She
describes the family that never asked for help and never took care of their children. They were
always running away from the law that there dad would break.
4. We kids usually kept our hunger to ourselves. (Pg. 68)
This quote got me furious and I might have written some unnecessary words in the book
because they were kids who would go through the garbage can in school to search food and eat
it, they knew they couldnt tell their parents they were hungry because they would get the same
response that there wasnt enough money or her own mother would respond Its not my fault
that your hungry You think I like living like this? But there was in fact, the money was just
used to buy alcohol for her dad or art supplies for her mother. In school The walls family were
bullied, because of their torn clothing and there funky odor, every time the kids would tell their
parents what they were going through they would ignore the situation and tell them it was part of
growing up, I mean I like the fact that the parents were teaching them to not let anything affect
them but there kids, they need nurture, they needed love, they needed someone to maintain them
and have a strong stability. This quote gets to us in a passionate way because it appeals to our
emotion by thinking to ourselves what kind parents wouldnt care about their kids, and it makes
us kids wonder what kind of family and life Jeannette was living in. The way the author wrote
this quote makes the reader want to jump inside the page and help them out.
5. Yoo-Hoo! Brian, its me, sugar! Ginger! she called. Brian ignored her. (Pg. 79)
I think this a very hilarious but at the same time disturbing mainly because Ginger is a
woman who gets paid for having sexual fun with the men. It was Jeannettes bothers birthday
and his father decided to take him out to the grocery store where he could pick out one gift he
decided to pick out a comic book, his father then took his son with the companionship of Ginger.
Then after eating they went to the Green lantern where Rex and ginger got into a room where
Brian waited outside. Brian tells Jeanette that he read his comic book while Rex and Ginger were
in the room together. After his father and ginger had fun, ginger came out and declared that she
loved Sad Sick (the comic book) so his father told him that the Gentleman thing to do was give
it to ginger. Jeanette later asks her brother if he found out any information about what happens
inside the Green Lantern. He replies merely by saying that they make a lot of money and that
ginger should be able to by her own book. This got me thinking, so his dad wastes his money
that he earned for his family on ginger and then makes his kid give up his birthday gift to a
complete stranger who just had sexual intercourse with his father; yeah he sure is a gentleman.
This quote makes the point of her fathers attitude and way of living; he didnt care about his
children he cared about having fun.
6. I stared at the plans. Dad, I said, youll never build the Glass Castle (Pg. 238)
This is one of the most powerful quotes because Jeannette was the only one that trusted
and supported her father, with her saying this, the author can tell that she has grown up. This
conversation happens when Jeannettes sister left to New York. This quote makes the author
seem tough because she was finally standing up to her father, as well as her own self esteem
because her father couldnt trick her no more, she had opened her eyes and notices what type of
person he really was. The Glass Castle represents Rex's hope for the fantastic life in which he
can provide for his family and please his children, the perfect family he thought. Rex laid out
plans for the Glass Castle, and he included everything the family couldve wanted including the
children's rooms, but he never actually builds the castle. For a long time Jeannette believes that
he will but she gives up on the hope. The mountain goat that once was Rex favorite child was
now gone. Jeannette was the only child given a nickname by her father. They had a special
relationship that the other children could not share with Rex. Additionally, the nickname
represents the willingness to be independent and strong as well as the strong connection that was
never lost but slowly meant nothing to Jeannette.
7. That night, they slept on a park bench. They were homeless. (Pg. 254)
This quote stood out because there family had just been together eating, and their parents
decided to be homeless, they didnt allow Jeannette to help them out that day, she wanted them
to stay with them so that they could be together but they didnt allow that to happen, it was an
adventure they said. Once a month they would call, of course they were still homeless but they
would find soup kitchens and shelters where they could sleep, but they still didnt want help
because it was all a fun way of living for them. This got me thinking of how I would feel if my
parents were in that situation, but I could understand the thinking of the Walls kids, they knew
they couldnt let their parents stay in the house drinking, smoking being a Burdon, they had
grown and now were living great financially and emotionally because they didnt have their
parents taking their money away. Now the kids were free.
8. Dad calling Maureen a sick puppy, the runt of the litter, who shouldve died at
birth. (Pg.274)
This quote is just There are no words to describe how intensive this quote is. Maureen
was the smallest of the children; she was never around the house Maureen spends most of her
time in the homes of her friends, eating meals with them, or sleeping over there house. Her
brother and sisters bring Maureen to New York at the age of twelve, but she returns with her
parents after a short period of time but attacks her mother with a knife when her mother tries to
kick her out but she stayed there until Maureen was sent to a mental hospital for a year, and after
she is released, she buys a one-way bus ticket to California. Maureen was described as a drug
addict, Jeannette blamed herself because she made a promise to her sister that she would always
take care of her at the age of 7 and she failed to do so. This quote demonstrates the life Maureen
went through, she never had love, only the love of friends.
The Quote of the book:
9. Mom stared at the ceiling, miming perplexed thought. I got it. She held up her
glass Life with your father was never boring. (Pg. 288)
I choose this to be the quote of the book because this was a family reunion and they
were remembering Rex Walls. The life of the walls was never great, they lived on the streets and
at some point they even lived in the dessert. There was a pause when they were doing a toast to
Rex because they couldnt really remember anything nice of him, the kids were bullied and lived
in harsh conditions due to their fathers behavior and addiction to alcohol, this quote sums up the
whole story because life has to be filled with happiness, yes of course the walls didnt have a
good stability but that made the kids achieve something, Lori became a artist, Brian a cop, and
Jeannette the most amazing writer.
Reflection Letter:
I really enjoyed this book because the author used a lot of description which painted a
picture in my head of the circumstances in which Jeannette was living in. Her mother was a rich
women who inherited a lot of land and money and she never even once tried to help her children,
she didnt even bother to tell them that the grandmother who they loved dearly, who helped them
out, who gave them all they needed was dead. Her father when sober was the most amazing
fatherly figure, but when drunk will be abusive with his wife and children he was dishonest and
never paid attention to the well being of there children. Her mother was just easy going who just
cared about her art and nothing else, when her children asked her if she could find a job she
would snap at them telling them theres more in life to money, she never cooked for her children,
their own children would go on the streets to fin cans so they could sell them and get money out
of it so they can get some food. The walls children learned to fend for themselves they learned
to cloth and protect on each other. And thats what made this story so powerful. There was a
point in the story where Jeannettes father bet on her. She was willing to give up her daughter to
some horny mamafreaker, his daughter almost got raped and he didnt do anything, Jeannettes
life was filled with sadness in my opinion, but some sort of way the walls children managed to
achieve happiness while leaving with their parents. This book was amazing and I would
recommend it to more people because the author uses just more than the average description to
obtain her point, but she appeals to so many kinds of emotions, like when we find out that
Maureen the littlest of the family tried to kill her own mother, how she never received love, how
she never even interacted with the family, or when Lori finally escaped from that hell whole they
called home, how after saving up money for months, there father took it away so he could buy
himself beer. I really did enjoy this memoir because its content was the most outstanding, and the
writing took you into the world of the author.