Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
Road to NowhereWhen you go on a road trip across the United States, you usually want to see the major attractions: the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, the French Quarter, the Statue of Liberty. The W...
Genre
A memoir is different from an autobiography. Memoirs are often like novels: they've got scenes, dialogue, fancy language with lots of similes and metaphors. An autobiography, on the other hand, is...
What's Up With the Title?
Dad should have been a plumber instead of an electrician, because he is an expert at pipe dreams. He has a lot of big plans, like building a majestic palace for his family called the Glass Castle....
What's Up With the Epigraph?
Dark is a way and light is a place,Heaven that never wasNor will be ever is always true-- Dylan Thomas "Poem on His Birthday"Dylan Thomas also wrote "Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night," which w...
What's Up With the Ending?
Some people might be bitter if they grew up with parents like Rex and Rose Mary Walls. Jeannette starved on a regular basis. She had to raise her siblings because her parents didn't. Her dad once u...
Tough-o-Meter
The Walls family should call their various homes "base camp," because they're more like a camp than a home. They give new meaning to roughing it, living in places without plumbing or electricity. C...