The Glass Castle

"You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humor in anything, even poverty, you can survive it." --Bill Cosby

The above line perfectly characterizes one of the central themes of Jeannette Walls’ memoir, “The Glass Castle”. It is important to be able to laugh, even in the direst of situations; one must find light in the darkest of times. In “The Glass Castle” humor is used extensively to alleviate the tensions that accompany poverty and assuage any negative feelings thereof.

In this memoir, Jeannette (the main character) is raised in poverty, living a nomadic lifestyle running from bill collectors with the rest of her family. Her father has a gambling problem and drinking problem, using much of the family’s (very short supply of) money to fuel his two vices. Despite her father’s shortcomings, he is generally a good man and shows a great deal of love and affection for his children. One way that he expresses his love is via his use of humor in situations that would not be typically considered comical. For example, when Jeannette was thrown out of a moving car because the door spontaneously opened, her father ran over to her and said, “You busted your snot locker pretty good”, hoping to cheer her up and give levity to the situation. His tactics proved effectual, for Jeannette ran back to the car and joked to her mother and siblings about her broken “snot locker”. In this instance, her father truly made the best of a bad situation by taking it lightheartedly and using humor to help his daughter forget her pain. Often that is what humor can be used for—forgetting pain, be it physical, emotional, or both.

The previous example offered humor as a remedy for physical pain; contrastingly, here is an example for the alleviation of emotional pain: Throughout her childhood, Jeannette referred to her family’s moving habits as “skedaddle”. Each time that her family would have to sporadically move due to financial dangers, they would play “skedaddle”, as if moving were a game or an adventure. “Skedaddle” is used as a playful euphemism, giving a lighthearted feel to a quite serious predicament. Here, the use of such a humorous and jubilant term also gives levity to the situation. The children are able to forget about their family’s struggles and poverty by turning it into a game. This is reminiscent of children playing “eviction” in the streets during the Great Depression of 1920s America.

Aside from direct humor and laughter, it is also important to keep a positive attitude when life gets difficult; much of the time, without a good outlook, it is impossible to push forward. Such a positive outlook is infused with creativity when Jeannette’s father gives his children starts for gifts. One Christmas, he was unable to afford gifts for the family, so he took them outside and let each of them pick out a star, forever to be theirs. This was a clever way to avoid negative feelings around Christmas time, and to keep their spirits high. He was using his easygoing and lighthearted nature to help his family temporarily forget the hardship of their lives.

Throughout Jeannette's childhood, her mother and father's optimistic views helped her get by. Not only did their "games" and "adventures" help the children, but it also helped the parents as well. Her parents needed positive reassurance perhaps even moreso than the children did, because if the parents were unable to remain hopeful and cautiously optimistic, the children would have suffered much more. Without the laughter and (false/ignorant) joy to help her cope with her situation, Jeannette would have never been able to escape from the economic snare that she was born into.