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The Glass Castle : Book & Film Review
- Vanessa Saenz
- 5 hours ago
- 7 min read
-- Hi readers, it's been a while... I've been busy preparing for the Battle of the Bands 2025 with the rest of our radio community. I finally found the time to do this special blog that I've been thinking about for quite some time. For some background, I read The Glass Castle in my freshman year of high school. It was actually ranked among the top 20 most banned and challenged books in the U.S between 2010 and 2019. It still faces troubles in various U.S school districts, it's not universally banned nationwide. With that said, I was fortunate enough to still read it during the time and age I was because it gave a lot of new perspective on my life. You must be thinking, "Why should I even care about this story anyway?" Well, not only does it teach resilience and determination, it sparks important, true conversations among others, and to top it all off, it's beautifully written and emotionally powerful. I encourage you, the readers, to view the book, and if not, to at least watch the movie because it does bring some of those stories to life visually. I would also like to give a trigger warning, there is talk about sexual assault during the "spoilers" category.
Lastly, stay tuned for next semester as @lachurrosstories is back full-time! --
The Glass Castle is a memoir, a true story about an abnormal family. The author and, of course, main character, Jeannette Walls, retells the story of how she and her three siblings (Lori, Brian, and Maureen) learn to take care of themselves alongside her alcoholic father (Rex) and free-spirited/artistic mother (Mary). The book was published in March 2005.
Reason for the title? Jeannette's father promises to find gold and build his family the Glass Castle, a large, self-sustaining home made from glass. As you may have guessed, that did not happen.
Book:
The book is told chronologically, beginning with Jeannette’s earlier memories and going into her adult life.
Her father, Rex, is incredibly brilliant and is so creative. He introduced the idea of having their house one day be a glass castle. He had the blueprints and always talked about what things they could add, and hopefully, eventually, built it. (hence the title). However, his deep flaws were alcoholism and not being able to keep a job to provide for his family. Her mom, Rose Mary, is an amazing artist who resists traditional responsibilities like parenting and cooking.
Jeannette's family is constantly moving across the southwestern United States, barely having any time to call one place home, except around her preteen years, when they finally stayed in Welch, West Virginia. It’s been said that they have moved at least 20 times. They lived in extreme poverty, most of the time, they didn’t even have food, electricity, or any proper shelter. With that said, a few other things to keep in mind are how they experienced neglect, hunger, and emotional trauma. I believe during this time, Jeannette and her siblings would rely on each other the most and become closer; they were all they had to each other. At first, they didn’t attend school. They would “learn” by reading books their mom gave them, and real-life experiences their father put them through. Once they did go to school, way later on, they would go through so much bullying.
As Jeannette and her siblings grew older, they began to reject their parents’ lifestyle and worked toward independence. The Walls siblings would work around their high school time and save up for one another to leave. One by one, whoever was the oldest at the time would leave the house and live their life away from Welch and from their parents. For example, Lori was the oldest, so she left first, then it was Jeannette and Brian. Maureen was the youngest, so it’s believed that she
experiences more trauma from the time she has to stay to save up on her own. After all those years, Jeannette and her siblings all became successful in New York, while her parents eventually chose to live homeless in New York.
Before I say the ending of the book, there are a lot of other details that the book has, but I’ll be explaining them through the eyes of the film instead. It became a repeating thought that I had to remind myself how this was a true story, and these were real characters at one point in time. That in itself says a lot.
Film:
The movie adaptation starts in her adulthood and bounces back and forth to her childhood. In other words, switching between past and present. The film came out in 2017.
In the present-day timeline, Jeannette is a successful writer living in New York City, as hinted at in the book. At the moment, she’s engaged to a wealthy investment banker. After a fancy dinner with some of her partners' clients, she takes a taxi home. As the taxi stops at a red light, that is when she sees her homeless parents on the sidewalk. This sort of opening scene intrigues the audience about who they exactly are to her and how they even came to be that way. While the book started out with this same scene, in the film, it actually painted a picture of how exactly Jeannette viewed her mother.
In the film, they still portray how brilliant her father is, but still an alcoholic and unstable. As well as her mom, she still has artistic scenes, but with neglect and disappointment of her motherly role.
What sets the film apart from the book, as I said before, is how it can get very emotional and has reflective scenes. It focuses more heavily on the emotional reconciliation between Jeannette and her father. Watching the film, I can actually see how close they both were, more than the rest.
Cast List (younger and adult versions):
Jeannette Walls, played by, Ella Anderson and Brie Larson.
Lori Walls, played by, Sadie Sink and Sarah Snook.
Brain Walls, played by, Ian Armitage and Josh Caras.
Maureen Walls, played by, Eden Grace Redfield and Jack Haven.
Rex Walls, played by, Woody Harrelson.
Rose Mary Walls, played by, Naomi Watts.
(left to right) via Pinterest: @r_georg, @n/a, @homeschoolmommoviemavin, @mafab
Trailer and First 10 Minutes:
Family's Perspective:
These are direct quotes from Jeannette. She explains for each family member what their thoughts were on her retelling their family life story to the whole world, and with the film coming out as well.
Lori Walls (oldest sibling): "My older sister, Lori, she finds the past more painful than I do. She couldn’t understand why the heck I’d want to revisit it".
Brian Walls (brother, middle): "Brian remembered the stories the same way, but with a different emphasis".
Maureen Walls (youngest sibling): “My kid sister, was the most, to be frank, she was the most damaged. She didn’t fare so well, but she was fine about the book as well".
Rose Mary Walls (mother): “Mom says she sees things differently. She doesn’t disagree with anything".
Rex Walls (father): “I think somewhere in the cosmos Dad is grinning ear to ear, busting his buttons.” He died before the book was published.
Backstory:
Jeannette started working at the school newspaper in the seventh grade because it was the only club that didn’t require money to join. This led her to her interest in journalism.
It took Jeannette to see her mom on the streets and her second husband encouraging her to tell her life story, for her to actually be able to write and expose her life to the world.
Spoilers/Not so "fun" facts...
When Jeannette was just three years old, she suffered severe burns while cooking hot dogs on the stove and spent several weeks in the hospital recovering.
Her father, Rex, repeatedly threw her into the deep end of a natural sulfur spring to teach her how to swim.
During her early childhood, her father also taught her how to handle guns and throw knives.
There is a backstory in the book, but there's a scene for this in the film. Erma Walls, Rex's mother, is an angry racist woman who made the Walls siblings' lives in Welch a nightmare. She sexually abused Brian Walls. After the confrontation, it was revealed that she had inflicted similar abuse on her own children.
Similar to the above bullet point, Uncle Stanley, Rex's brother, was kind to the Wall siblings until her later molested Jeannette when they visited his house.
Maureen Walls stayed back because she was the youngest. She tried to do school like her sibling by attending college, but she dropped out. She tried to stab her mom during this time. She spends time in a mental institution and moves to California.
In the end...
Rex Walls died in 1994 from a heart attack. Rose Mary Walls, had been living near Jeannette in Culpeper, Virginia. However, she passed away in 2021. It's rumoured that Lori Walls is still successful in New York and now an artist in Manhattan? Her brother, Brian Walls retired from the police force and is living in Brooklyn. There is not much info on where Maureen is or how she is doing. As for Jeannette, she still lives on a farm in Virginia with her husband, John Taylor. She continues to write and has published other books.
Key Difference:
The book presents a raw, rich detailed, and deeply reflective portrayal of Jeannette's life. I feel as if in the book , she showcased her strength as she confronts the harsh realities of her upbringing. In contrast, the film delivers a more emotionally-driven and emphasizing themes of love, forgiveness, and family bonds, while softening or leaving some of the more troubling aspects of her story. She kept more of the "dark truths" out of the film. With all this said, I do think the book portrayed a deeper picture of their true story. While the film is emotional and actually serves as representation, it doesn't do the hard truth justice.
— tune in for more stories from time to time during summer2025 (maybe) and, again like i said, next fall semester! #lachurrosstories
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