Pieces of the Puzzle - The Glass Castle

"I began to feel like I was getting the whole story for the first time, that I was being handed the missing pieces tothe puzzle, and the world was making a little more sense." (Walls, page 205)

It is almost laughable how analogous this statement is to past event in my life. When my father was diagnosed with cancer, it was, of course, kept a secret from me. I was ten years old, so it was understandably assumed that I would not be able to handle the unimaginable: death of a family member.

For my parents' sake, I think their plans of telling me at a later date were in vain; my older sister didn't have a normal twelve-year-old IQ, and she had the whole situation figured out in seconds. Naturally, Holly understood where my parents were coming from and only hinted to me the truth - me, with my horribly underdeveloped brain.

But when I was "handed the missing pieces of the puzzle," the "world [definitely started] making a little more sense." I was devastated that my father was ill, but I had mixed feelings. I felt naive, lied to and fragile - as if I could easily be broken and therefore had no right to be told the truth. And if anything, this thought changed me. I became suspicious and I found it hard to believe anything that my parents told me. I was always thinking, "is there more to this than what they're telling me?"

I can confidently say that I completely undertsood what Jeannette was feeling. Though I did feel lied to, fragile, and all of those other mixed emotions, I began to understand the world a bit better. I became more mature, and I understood that from this point on in my life, I would have to grow up. I would have to look after myself and my sister, and in the end, it would only be the two of us that had one another. In The Glass Castle, this scene allows Jeannette to go under a considerable change; from that point on, she too grew up.

I am not saying that my parents are like Jeannette's, and for that, I'm grateful. What I am saying, however, is that this scene in the book made me realize - everyone can relate to Jeannette. Everyone has been lied to; though it may have been something simple, when you finally grasp the truth it changes you. It may be a positive change, or it may be a negative change. We may not have a disfunctional family like Jeannette, but we all have lied, kept secrets, and have been lied to. In the end, it's really just a vicious cycle.