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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Jeannette plan to do after high school?

2. What does Jeannette try to talk her mother into doing to make hers and the children's lives better?

3. How does Erma differ from Grandma Smith?

4. Who is Dinitia?

5. How do the Walls children get along socially at their new school in Part 3?

Short Essay Questions

1. What plans do Lori and Jeannette begin to make for themselves at the end of Part 3?

2. Rex is largely absent from the family after they move to Welch. What has he been doing during this time?

3. Why does Rose Mary decide to hang on to the diamond ring that the children find in the woods rather than selling it for much needed money? What does this say about her priorities?

4. What are Jeannette's feelings towards her parents by the end of the book?

5. How does Rex, despite all of his problems, show his devotion to Jeannette during her college years?

6. What happens when Jeannette makes an attempt to fix up her family's ramshackle home in West Virginia?

7. What happens to the family's money when Jeannette is put in charge of managing it while her mother is gone?

8. What events help form Jeannette's desire to be a professional writer?

9. What changes does Jeannette make in her life after her father dies?

10. What has the author found with her second husband that she did not have with her first?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Rose Mary tells Jeannette, as an adult, that her values are "all confused." What does Rose Mary mean?

1) How does Rose Mary view Jeannette's life and career?

2) What are Rose Mary's values like and how do Jeannette's differ?

3) What values or ideas do you think that they agree on? What is important to both of them?

Essay Topic 2

Life is hard for the Walls family wherever they go. However, in different places it is hard in different ways. Compare their lives in Phoenix, Battle Mountain, and Welch, answering each of the following questions about each location:

1) What are the family's basic living conditions like?

2) What is Rose Mary's emotional condition like and how does it affect the rest of the family?

3) Discuss Rex's emotional condition as well.

Essay Topic 3

One of the most prominent themes of this book is that of forgiveness. Despite living in such difficult circumstances, and despite being the innocent victims of their parents' selfishness and poor decisions, the Walls children continue to welcome their parents into their lives, particularly as adults. Discuss the theme of forgiveness in "The Glass Castle". Cite examples from the book of how the author is able to forgive others, and herself as well. Consider:

1) How does Jeannette show that she forgives her parents, both as a child and an adult?

2) What is it about Jeannette's personality that allows her to show forgiveness?

3) How does the author's unusual upbringing actually help to develop this quality in her?

(see the answer keys)

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