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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 event leads to Rex's becoming (temporarily) sober in Part 4?

2. What does Rose Mary tell the kids when they complain about their living conditions?

3. Who brings Rose Mary to Thanksgiving dinner?

4. What happens when Jeannette goes swimming in a public pool?

5. How does Rex put Jeannette in a potentially dangerous situation in Part 3?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do the Walls parents fail to protect their children from Erma?

2. How does Rose Mary view her and Rex's living situation in New York? How do the other members of the family see things differently?

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

4. How does the condition of the Walls family home worsen during the spring in Welch?

5. Why does the owner of the paper that Jeannette works for talk her out of taking a job at his newspaper?

6. After the incident between the children and Erma, what does Jeannette begin to wonder about her father?

7. Describe Rex and Rose Mary's living arrangements and lifestyle in New York.

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The relationship between the author and her parents is a very complex one. She is both fond of them and attempts to understand their behavior, and is shocked that they are able to be so childish and neglectful in providing for even the very basic needs of the children. Discuss this relationship with consideration to the following questions:

1) Discuss examples of the neglectful behavior described in the book. How are the parents negligent and how are the children able to get by in spite of this?

2) Relate examples of the positive experiences that the author has with each of her parents, and what she considers to be some of their positive characteristics.

Essay Topic 2

The title of the memoir is significant in its symbolism as something unfinished, or unrealized within the author's family. Discuss the title and its significance, considering the following:

1) How does the glass castle represent the unrealized dreams of the family, or the things that the family may never have?

2) What does the glass castle mean to Rex? How does it represent Rex's unrealized potential?

2) Why do you feel that the author chose this title? How does it relate to the memoir as a whole, and to her feelings about her childhood?

Essay Topic 3

Rex's alcoholism is a major theme in the memoir. Although he occasionally is able to stop drinking for a short time, inevitably he returns to it. What personality traits and aspects of his background seem to contribute to his tendency toward alcoholism?

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