Essay On The Glass Castle

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Recommended: Poverty and the physical effects on middle childhood

Carly Starkin
Psychology
Mrs. True
January 9th, 2014
Quarter Project- The Glass Castle
The memoir The Glass Castle stood out greatly to me when I was given synopses of our book choices for this project. I have a great interest in family dynamics and how a child’s upbringing could potentially affect him or her. I am also interested in mental disorders, although no particular disorder is specified in the book. Another reason why I chose this book was because I have a relative who has alcoholism and I have become increasingly interested on this terrible disease. Upon opening this inspiring memoir and reading the first few chapters, I was immediately drawn in.
The Glass Castle taught me one very important thing about children who are growing up in an extremely dysfunctional household- they do not always turn out as messed up as their parents or guardians. In fact, the author, Jeannette Walls, actually turned out extremely well. She is a successful writer and journalist and seems to be happy with her life. She has showed me that carrying around some serious baggage does not always stop a person from reaching the top. In the memoir, Walls’ parents are extremely selfish and have no morals. There is little to no love shown to Walls and her siblings, forcing them to mature faster than they should have. For example, she had to cook her own food at the young age of three. If I had known nothing about Walls’ success upon reading this memoir, I would never have assumed that she is a bestselling author and big-name journalist.
I do not think that Jeannette Walls wanted to share the story of her life with people for the purpose of entertainment. I believe her main focus was to give hope for people who are growing up impoverished or who have a...

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...nly parties of one. No one wants to hear about how horrible your day was. Instead, it is always a better conversation when a happy event is being discussed.
The Glass Castle definitely relates to psychology. Rex, the father, is an alcoholic. After learning about alcoholism in class, I certainly had a better understanding of why he kept going back to the bottle time after time. The mind of someone suffering from drug addiction or alcoholism is certainly a subject that is being studied in psychology classrooms and labs all over the world. The book is full of mental illness, some of which can be tied to nurture, some to nature. Jeannette Walls’ success can be tied to personal choice because she made decisions about her lifestyle that were not influenced by her upbringing. This is definitely a great book to discuss in a psychology class and I hope we get to do so.

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