The book the glass castle was based on a family with dealing with poverty, dealing with an alcoholic father and a mother who had a free spirit not wanting the responsibility of a family.Children were very much neglected by their own parents dramatically.The Walls family were moving constantly without having a stable home.Rex Walls is their alcoholic father who when he was sober he was the best.Mr.Walls taught his kids physics, geology and how to live life fearlessly; when he was not too busy drinking his life away.Although he seemed like a very kind man when he was sober from alcohol but he became a monster when he was under the influence.Mr.Walls would beat his children but especially abuse his children's own mother physically.Their mother Rose Mary Walls did not want to have the responsibility of a family.She saw herself as a free spirit.Therefore their children had to face many hardships to survive.They taught themselves everything they needed to know to the survive.Brian, Jeannette, Lori and Maureen did not have anybody but each other.They finally wanted to change their life around and to not live how they were living and to not feel the hurt and pain they were feeling because of the lost of love and care that their own parents have not given them.They all found themselves in New York City sometime later and started to live their own life with their own happiness.Although they changed their lives their parents never did.Their parents wanted to continue their ways and be homeless unlike them they did not let their past determine them or hold them back.