The Thought of Leaving

“I stared at the plans. “Dad,” I said, you’ll never build the Glass Castle.”
“Are you saying you don’t have faith in your old man?”
“Even if you do, I’ll be gone. In less than three months, I’m leaving for New York City.”
“What I was thinking was you don’t have to go right away,” Dad said. I could stay and graduate from Welch High and go to Bluefield State, as Miss. Katona had suggested, then get a job at The Welch Daily News. He’d help me with the articles, like he’d helped me with my piece on Check Yeager. “And I’ll build the Glass Castle, I swear it. We’ll all live in it together. It’ll be a hell of a lot better than any apartment you’ll ever find in New York City, I can guaran-goddamn-tee that.” (pg. 238)

Jeannette, like her sister has made the decision to leave Welch and pursue her dream of living in New York City. At this point in her life she has realized that her father does not keep the promises he makes. She knows that even if he promised that he will build the Glass Castle it most likely will not happen. I think Jeannette’s father, Rex, realizes that if Jeannette leaves then his main supporter will be gone. Because of this realization Rex tries everything he can to persuade Jeannette to stay in Welch. He tries to show her that she will be happy finishing school at Welch High, and can go to the neighbouring state university. Now that she was leaving he felt abandoned, and most likely realized that he let his family down. We can understand why Jeannette wants to leave, she spent many of her years in school rifling through trash cans looking for food, doing the “skedaddle” in the middle of the night from hospitals in order to avoid paying the bill, or waiting for Dad to come home after another night at the bar. Rex Walls was an alcoholic who felt that a simple life was too ordinary for him, but whose big dreams he promised for his family never seemed to come to life. The title of the book refers to a great glass house that he was going to build once he made his fortune from finding gold and becoming rich. Yet despite his many flaws, Jeannette never speaks badly of the person he was. Rather seeing him as a father she loved and admired, while being profoundly disappointed by him. As the children grew older, Rex seems to be away from home more often, draining the family’s resources that his young adolescent son and daughters worked for. When the children confront him about his disloyalty to the family, he becomes offended because he used to pride himself on being able to provide and protect them. Despite the many attempts to become and stay sober, Rex always returned to alcohol.