The Glass Castle: Characters

The characters personailites in The Glass Castle play a very important role in moving the story along. The kids are very influenced by their parents, which is why I wanted to decribe the parents personalities. There are many words to describe Jeannette's dad, Rex. He is short-tempered, believable, imaginative, brilliant, dishonest, and destructive, all at the same time. Rex does not have very many patience with his kids or wife. He is very belivable, dishonest, and brilliant because every time they move places, he is very quick to find a job. "Dad would get a job as an electrician or engineer in a gypsum or copper mine. Mom liked to say that dad could talk a blue streak, spinning tales of jobs he'd never had and college degrees he'd never earned. He could get about any job he wanted, he just didn't like keeping it for long" (Walls 19).

Jeannett's mom, Rose Mary, can be described as artistic, not very confident, and a truth teller. Rose Mary isn't very confident because she doesn't stick up for herself when Rex is bad-tempered. Rose Mary doesn't hide secrets from her kids. Her kids grew up not believing in Santa Claus because she told them is was a myth and there was no such thing. A quote to show that Rose Mary is artistic is, "In the meantime, Mom devoted herself to art. She spent all day working on oil paintings, watercolors, charcoal drawings, pen-and-ink sketches, clay and wire sculptures, silk screens, and wood blocks. She didn't have any particular style; some of her paintings were what she called primitive, some were impressionistic and abstract, some were realistic" (Walls 38).  With a creative mom, and a dad who has many personality traits, it's no wonder why their kids didn't have a normal childhood.