The Glass Castle
Jeannette Walls
Memoir
Just Right
261
1) Jeannette decided to go to college. So she asked Lori's friends where to go and they told her that Columbia was the best so she got into Barnard (the sister college). She moved out of Lori's apartment and got to stay in one on the west end in exchange for watching the landlady's kids. One day Jeannette's mom called to say that she and Jeannette's father were moving to New York to keep the family together (Jeannette and Lori had already invited Brian and Maureen up). When they first moved to New York they stayed at a boarding house but they couldn't afford their rent. Then, they moved to a dilapitated apartment building but Mr. Walls set the place on fire so they had to move in with Lori 'for a few weeks'. Weeks became months and Mr. Walls was driving Lori crazy so she eventually kicked him out and he lived with Brian while Mrs. Walls still lived with Lori. Eventually, they drove both Brian and Lori so crazy they both got kicked out and ended up homeless. They claimed that they liked it that way and refused to change. After the winter, Mrs. Walls told Jeanette that her father had tuberculosis.
2 ) Right now I really like this book. Although at times it can be very difficult to continue to read because of all of the hardships they have to put up with throughout the book, it was very interesting and always kept me reading. The book is very fast paced and crams a lot of important events into one chapter, possibly because she was a reporter and had to put a lot of information into one article. I like that style because I often get bored when there is a long description of a setting and very little dialogue. This doesn't have that much dialogue but what isn't dialogue is a description of an event, not usually what something looks like.
3) One theme that I noticed in the book is working hard. Because Jeannette worked hard all the time, in school and out she managed to live a better life when she grew older. If Jeannette hadn't worked hard at various jobs and at saving money she may have ended up homeless with her family, constantly on the run from the police. She wouldn't even have wrote this book. However, Jeannette and her siblings continued to work hard no matter what, even when their father stole their savings to escape- and then denied it.
4) My favorite character at this moment is Jeannette because she tries really hard to make her way in life and keeps trying to do better so that she ends up very well off. Also, even though she loves her parents very much, she doesn't let them (at this point it would actually be more like make them) live with her because they would probably make her lose a lot of money and ruin her apartment. I also like that she ignores what people say about her and would always stick up for her family with her brother by her side.
5) My least favorite character is Mr. Walls, Jeannette's dad. I don't like him because he didn't try hard enough to quit drinking and he would disappear for a while and then come back and destroy something while looking for his wife so that he could fight her. I also didn't like him because he stole his family's money. He would try to steal their paychecks and would wheedle money out of Jeannette for alcohol and cigarettes. He even broke their piggy bank that was full of money for Lori's escape to New York and denied doing it. Lastly, he didn't try that hard to give his family a good life. Maybe he liked being poor and constantly moving, but the kids didn't. Also, he never tried hard enough to keep a job and would often give up after losing one so that his family wouldn't have food. One time he bought a nice car instead of buying clothes or repairing their broken-down house.
6) I think that Mr. Walls will die of tuberculosis. Then I think that the family will drift apart. On the bright side, I think that after Mr. Walls' death Mrs. Walls will get a job and possibly stay homeless- because she wants to. Lastly, I think that Jeannette will find a guy that she loves and is unlike Mr. Walls but similar to herself. I think that they will move to a nice house somewhere and have a couple of kids. I think that they will only get together during the main holidays (thanksgiving, christmas, etc.). I think this because I was flipping through the book and I saw a section called 'Thanksgiving'.
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