The promise...Throughout her life, Jeannette's parents did everything in their power to keep the spirits of their children high. Though they didn't always follow through in providing for their children, they continued to make promises to them. One day, Rex Walls made a promise to his daughter to build her a glorious Glass Castle one day.
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Becomes merely a dreamAs her dad's drinking developed, his plans to create this luxurious glass castle diminished, and eventually came to a halt. Jeanette and her father dug a hole outside their house in Welch, a place for the glass castle, he said. However, eventually the hole became a place for the family to dispose of their trash. As the hole began to fill up more and more with trash, the less she believed in these promises once made by her father. As her hopes of building such a castle with her father shattered further, she took more initiative in making her own dreams become a reality.
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'Dad,' I said, 'you’ll never build the Glass Castle.'
'Are you saying you don’t have faith in your old man?'
'Even if you do, I’ll be gone. […] As soon as I finish classes, I’m getting on the next bus out of here. If the buses stop running, I’ll hitchhike. I’ll walk if I have to. Go ahead and build the Glass Castle, but don’t do it for me.'
(Walls 238)
At the beginning of the novel, Walls has what some would describe as a "go get 'em" attitude - always hopeful and cheerful, never giving up, but as the plans of the glass castle began to crumble in Welch, her cheerful attitude slowly diminished. Walls is left with the lost hope of truly creating this noteworthy castle, and from there on out focuses on how she will improve her life for herself, and no longer rely on her parents to do that for her. The fact that her father broke the promise that he made her truly devastated her, and it motivated her to finish everything that she starts from that time of her life until the end.