Walls, Jeannette

A guide to studying Jeannette Walls' "The Glass Castle," containing a summary and analysis, facts about the work, discussion of themes and symbols, and review questions.

"When Sallie tries to teach young Eddie to be more like their father, her daredevil coaching leads to an accident, and Sallie is cast out. Nine years later, she returns, determined to reclaim her place in the family. That's a lot more complicated than Sallie expected, and she enters a world of conflict and lawlessness. Sallie confronts the secrets and scandals that hide in the shadows of the Big House, navigates the factions in the family and town, and finally comes into her own as a bold, sometimes reckless bootlegger"--Provided by publisher.

A true-life novel about Lily Casey Smith (the author's grandmother) who at age six helped her father break horses, at age fifteen left home to teach in a frontier town, and later as a wife and mother runs a vast ranch in Arizona where she survived tornadoes, droughts, floods, the Great Depression, and the most heartbreaking personal tragedy--but despite a life of hardscrabble drudgery still remains a woman of indomitable spirit.

Memoir of journalist Jeannette Walls about her dysfunctional family that at times soared high--her father, when sober, would teach her and her siblings about geology, physics, and zest for life, but when drunk was destructive; and her mother, a "free spirit," hated the idea of domesticity. As a result, Jeannette and her siblings raised themselves and made their own prosperity, even as their parents became homeless.

The author recalls her life growing up in a dysfunctional family with an alcohol father and distant mother and describes how she and her siblings had to fend for themselves until they finally found the resources and will to leave home.

Two motherless sisters, Bean and Liz, are shuttled to Virginia to live with their Uncle Tinsley in a decaying mansion. When school starts in the fall, Bean easily adjusts and makes friends, and Liz becomes increasingly withdrawn. Then something happens to Liz and Bean is left to challenge the injustice of the adult world.