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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 is the high school guidance counselor's advice for Jeannette?

2. What does Rex tell Jeannette when he takes her to the bus station in Part 3?

3. Where does Maureen spend most of her time during her adolescence?

4. Where is Jeannette finding food during the family's first winter in their new home in Welch?

5. What is the condition of the Wells' house like when spring comes in Part 3?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What is Rex's mother, Erma, like, and how does she differ from Grandma Smith?

4. Describe Jeannette's reaction when her mother comes to her, begging her and her new husband to buy some property in Texas that abutted her own.

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

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

7. Why does Rose Mary quit her job, and what is Jeannette's reaction?

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Throughout the book, Rex has difficulty holding a job and fully realizing his responsibilities, yet he does love his children and expresses it as best he can. Describe the dysfunctional yet caring relationship between this father and his children. Discuss examples of both times he failed his children, as well as and in which he was able to 'come through' or express his love for them in a meaningful way.

Essay Topic 3

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?

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