Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Passage Analysis- The Glass Castle

" I wondered if the fire had been out to get me. I wondered if all fire was related, like Dad said all humans were related, if the fire that had burned me that day while I cooked hot dogs was somehow connected to the fire I had flushed down the toilet and the fire burning at the hotel. I didn't have answers to those questions, but what I did know was that I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire. It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes. " (Walls 34)

This passage presents the most important theme of this novel: Fire. Fire resurfaces frequently and as Jeannette Walls suspects, it follows her around becoming a fixture in her life. This passage is important because it was the first time that she had thought of fire as a cause for her dilemmas. This passage shows that most importantly, she realizes that her life is unpredictable and her status transient. Fire is sudden and damaging and capable of changing the trajectory of one's life in an instant, which is why I find this passage also disturbing. Her parents' beliefs in refusing to coddle their children and guide them, they often present them with challenges, some life threatening, that the children are forced to handle. This neglect in parenting disturbs me, to imagine a mother and a father to disregard their children in such a way that Rosemary and Rex had, lets me realize the severity of this dysfunctional family. The very first, and perhaps the most pivotal fire inspires Jeannette's first memory of being burned while cooking hot dogs at the age of three. Though she suffers extreme injuries, fire becomes a fixation for her, who cannot keep herself from playing with it and watching it. If either of her parents were to guide her and educate her about fire from the first incident, it would have prevented later and more severe complications. Jeannette's early experiences with fire foreshadow the combustive events to follow her in life.