The first impression of Jeannettes mother is very conflicting. It is hard to believe that she is describing her mother. When she describes her emotions and the way she sees her mother going through garbage, one wonders if she is talking about her mother or someone she just calls Mom. When she says how she is hiding in the seat, as to not be seen by her mother, it is possible to see that she is ashamed of her. But also the reader finds out that the woman she is referring to as Mom takes some form of enjoyment in her actions. Then Jeanette mentions that it is her big secret and that she has tried several times to talk to her mother and father and change their lives for the better. And later it is possible to see that they are the ones who voluntarily chose this sort of life and feel quite happy about it. She begins her memoir in this way, to give the reader the present side of the story. It also creates a wrongful impression, so that later this can be explained and add
ed to, in a form of her parents earlier life and behavior. For Jeanettes parents skedaddle means to hastily move away from one place to another or far away and it is used in a humorous sense. There are moments when it has to be done very quickly and it seems that the reasons should be discussed later as if anyone can come in one day and say we have to skedaddle, now. They constantly move in a search for a better place to live and for jobs. Her father has plans to perfect a gold mining mechanism and has high dreams of building a Glass Castle. In reality, he is drinking and gambling, spending the last money saved and at one point even stealing from his daughters piggy bank. The constant moving has a great influence on the children. They are unable to start a life anywhere and are always bullied at school. They see it as a form of adventure when they are younger but when they get older, they realize that they must find a way to move out and make their own lives possible.