The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls provides a clear view her life as a child. The author is a journalist who is currently the MSNBC gossip columnist. While she was delving into celebrity’s lives for her column, she was hiding her own past, afraid that she would lose credibility, friends, and her professional status if the truth was known. The truth that Walls was afraid to reveal is a childhood of extreme poverty. Her parents refuse to go on welfare, so there are often times when there is no food in the house for their family of six. She walks into the kitchen one day to find her sister, Lori, eating something out of a cup. Knowing there was no food in the house, Jeanette questions her about what she is eating. Her sister tells her it is margarine (half a stick was the only thing in the refrigerator) with a little sugar, that kind of tastes like frosting.Along with the poverty, her parents display a frightening lack of responsibility toward their children. At the age of three, Jeanette is cooking hot dogs on the stove, dressed in a ballerina tutu that her grandmother has given her. She is hungry and her mother hasn’t cooked a meal because she is busy painting, feeling it is far preferable to “create a painting that will last a lifetime rather than cook a meal that will be gone in fifteen minutes.” Jeanette is burned so badly that she requires skin grafts and the doctors tell her she is lucky to be alive. Within days after coming home from the hospital she is at the stove cooking hot dogs again because her mother is painting and there is no one else to fix food for her when she is hungry. Her mom sees her and says: “Good for you...You’ve got to get right back in the saddle. You can’t live in fear of something as basic as fire.” Walls describes this incident and others in a neutral way that it leaves it up to the reader to judge her parents actions. The author describes the intelligence and creativity of her parents who encourage their children to read and learn, despite their casual attitude towards parenting. Wall writes without bitterness, though the reader can feel the pain of deprivation; the lack of basic necessities, as well as the lack of nurturing and protection that most children are given. makes the reader admire her resilience and ability to move beyond regretting the lack of the happy childhood that most of us feel we all deserve.

In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls shares the riveting story of her childhood. Her parents - father Rex, a career dreamer, inventor, and frequent drinker, and mother Rose Mary, an artist and devoted wife and mother, constantly live on the edge. Due to Rex's questionable business dealings and both parents' thirst for excitement, the family, including Walls and her three siblings, is repeatedly on the move, often in the middle of the night to avoid detection from creditors. Money is usually tight, but somehow the family always manages to scrape by and bounce back from the worst circumstances. Rex and Rose Mary have a positive attitude, a zest for life, and pride, and they've instilled these values in their children. Even in the direst circumstances, the family members hold their heads high, and Rose Mary always helps everyone to see the bright side of the situation. While the well-written descriptions of abject poverty are heartbreaking, they are viewed through the innocent eyes of a child who knows of no other world, and is willing and eager to ride along life’s adventures, with nothing but love for her family, and only an occasional passing wistfulness at having to leave people, places, and frequently, possessions, behind. Because Walls shows no ill-will toward her parents for raising her in this way, the story is surprisingly uplifting and inspiring. For readers facing life’s usual obstacles, The Glass Castle provides a fresh perspective.