The Glass Castle First Half

I have just finished half of the book, The Glass Castle. It is about a girl who is in a family where the dad is always drunk and gone, he is very flakey, and the mom can't speak up for herself. This family moves around a lot and this book is the story of Jeannette Walls' life.

The book begins, when Jeannette is three years old. They are living somewhere in the south. It is in the late 50s. Her earliest memory is when she is making her self a hotdog when her dress cathced fire and she is badly burned. This book im mediately shows the repeating pattern of something that is a big deal being downplaid by Jeannette, because these things happen to her all of the time. Three year olds shouldnt be making their own hotdogs, so his shows the absence of her parents thoroughout her life, and the fact tat awful things keep happening to her, but she doesn't notice them as something wrong.

Her family moves around all of the time. They lived in Nevada, California, Poenix, Welch and many other places. They kept moving because her dad is in trouble with the law, and the kids think its okay. (Just another example of something that is taught to be okay, but isn't). When the kids were young, it was fun and adventurous to kep moving around. But their life was unstabble, they were always the new kid, and when they got older, the began to not like it so much, when they are being bullied and left out. Their house setting was always temperary and they never had enough food to eat, with the dad always drinking and not having steady jobs and the mom not having a job. It became normal to them, to have to eat food that was thrown away, or no food at all. Her enviroment was unsteady, and not okay, but she always felt that it was.

Jeannette is a smart, loving, wise and caring girl. But she is surounded with so uch struggle and hardship. Some of her internal conflicts are struggling with her love for her dad, knownig whether or not he a good person to be around. Another problem is she doesn't know that her living conditons aren't okay. When they were living in a house without a roof over the kitchen she didn't know somehting was wrond. When she was touched inapropriately by her uncle, nothing was done about it. Some external conflicts are having no food, always moving, benig bullied, no mentor to look up to and trying to take care of her siblings.

Some of the people that impacted Jeannette were her dad, mom. Her dad impacted her the most. She loved him and he loved her, but he was flakey. He was always drunk and leaving for days at a time. He said that as soon as he truck it rich, he would build a glass castle, but he never did. He was always teacher her things and buying her gifts, but then a minute later, he would burn down the christmas tree and disapear for days, acting like nothing happened when he returned. This became okay to Jeannette. And in no way is this okay. Her mom never stood up for them or gerself. She let her dad pressure her. When she tried to stand up to him, he tried to run her over. She truely tried to be a good mom, but then things would get to her. One night they found she was keeping a chocolate bar to herself, when none of them had food. All of these things were simissed as though nothing had happened.

Overall what I noticed was that Jeannette's problems aren't recognized by adults, so she never learns to recognize them and things that are unjust keep happening to her.