Literary Analysis of The Glass Castle

 Jeannette Walls' Shame in The Glass Castle

 Introduction:

Before writing The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls lived with a secret. Shame of her past life was the secret that Jeanette kept, and she lived in fear of others learning her truth. She was ashamed of both her destitute upbringing and of her parents’ continued homeless lifestyle. She was afraid of who she once was and of where she came from, and because her parents followed her to NYC, she knew her past would eventually catch up with her . Not until the age of 40 did Jeannette finally tell the truth and free herself of her lifelong fear by writing her memoir.

Body:

Paragraph 1

   The writing of The Glass Castle was inspired by the scene which opens her memoir. In the first paragraph of the book, she is sitting in a cab on the way to an exclusive party. When the author looks out the window of the cab she sees her mother “picking” through the garbage. Though Jeannette had left her family behind years ago when she moved to NYC, her parents had caught up with her, and the secret of her past was soon to follow. Now she saw her mother only 15 feet away and she wrote,” I was overcome with panic that she'd see me and call out my name, and that someone on the way to the same party would spot us together and Mom would introduce herself and my secret would be out.” The past that Jeannette had tried to evade and erase was staring her in the face, and she felt that the new self she had created would soon be destroyed.

Paragraph 2

  Jeannette was so disturbed by the sight of her mother that she retreated from the party and returned to her home on Park Avenue. Rather than easing her mind and comforting her, her own apartment made her uneasy….what quote will I use?