Sisterhood is a relationship between two or more women, often women who share the same parents. Usually, sisterhood is a relationship in which the siblings are equal, but this statement does not always hold true. “The Glass Castle” a memoir by Jeannette Walls, shows this. By using the symbol of gifts Walls is able to demonstrate to the reader that in her fathers eyes, Lori and Jeannette are not equal. Walls comments on this truth throughout her book. There are three particular instances in which this is the most apparent. At the beginning when she is still a child, when her sister is trying to get money to go to college, and finally when she herself is going to college.
Walls begins her comparison with Lori at a young age. When Walls turns ten her father asks her what she wants for her birthday. Walls asks for something that she believes to be able to “change all…show more content… In Lori’s instance Walls presents herself as nothing more than a third party observer. She mentions trying to help and when her father diabolically ruins their piggy banks she claims to want to “knock him over the head” (Walls, 145) but when her father gives her the gift she proudly “[pays[ what [she] owed on [her] tuition” (Walls, 167). Walls makes the connection between her sister and herself distant in this case by separating them in the placement of her story.
“The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls tells her story in her eyes. Her story centers about how she loves her father and that despite what he may do to others he always has her best interest at heart. Despite the fact that Walls has three other siblings it is only with her that this is true. This is the most true in relation with her older sister Lori. Walls is able to show the reader the difference in how her father treats her and her older sister Lori by using the symbolism of
