PART THREE - WELCH

SECTION TWENTY-SIX (Pages 235-238)

Summary

Lori writes regularly to the family, and it's obvious that she loves New York. She is living in a hotel for women, working as a waitress in a German restaurant, and taking art classes and fencing lessons. She loves how artists sell their paintings on the sidewalks and orchestras and even individuals play their music in the open for everyone to hear. Jeannette loves the whole idea of New York, too. She is determined to become on of those highfalutin' writers who work at one of the world famous New York papers.

In the middle of her junior year in Welch, Jeannette goes to the guidance counselor to discuss New York colleges. However, the entire time she is there, the woman, Miss Katona, tries to convince Jeannette she is making a mistake. After all, Welch is Jeannette's home! What's more, she says, To leave West Virginia, even to leave Welch, will be unthinkably disloyal, like deserting your family. Jeannette ponders all the guidance counselor said on her way home from school. However, instead of coming to the same conclusions, it suddenly occurs to her that she could spend her senior year in New York and leave Welch in under five months. When she tells Mom and Dad about this plan, Dad just gets up and leaves the house without a word. Mom begins to cry and tells her to go and that it's a good plan. Jeannette tells her not to be upset, to which Mom responds, I'm not upset because I'll miss you. I'm upset because you get to go to New York, and I'm stuck here. It's not fair.

Jeannette calls Lori, and she approves as long as Jeannette gets a job to chip in on rent. Brian likes the idea, too, and he begins counting off the days for Jeannette, just like she had done for Lori. As for Dad, he has barely spoken to her since she had announced her decision. Then, one night that spring, he asks her to look at something. He pulls out the old blue prints for The Glass Castle and tells her how he's going to reconfigure the layout so Jeannette's room is bigger now that Lori is gone. His hands are trembling as the two of them look at each page he has saved. However, Jeannette tells him, Dad, you'll never build the Glass Castle . . . even if you do, I'll be gone. Dad wonders, Are you saying you don't have faith in your old man? He goes on to swear that he'll build it. Jeannette ends the conversation very succinctly, . . . as soon as I finish classes, I'm getting on the next bus out of here. If the bus stops 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. Dad immediately rolls up the blueprints, leaves the house, and scrambles down the mountain.

Notes

The attitude of the guidance counselor is typical of those who are content to remain within the sphere they have always known - the home where they have grown up. In Jeannette's mind that is all well and good, but she has never really known a stable, loving home, so she has nothing to leave behind. She feels no loyalty to Welch or even her family. As for Mom and Dad's reactions to her plans, both want her to stay for selfish reasons. Once again, it's all about who will care for them. Dad must know how Jeannette's loyalty has protected him all these years and now it will be gone. Mom's feelings are just plain jealousy. She doesn't want her daughter to achieve what she never was able to.

SECTION TWENTY-SEVEN (Pages 239-241)

Summary

The last few weeks before she leaves for New York, Jeannette goes from feeling excited to feeling nervous all in a matter of minutes. On the last day of school, she goes to say good-bye to Miss Bivens. Her teacher tells Jeannette that she a feeling that the girl will do all right up there. However, she asks Jeannette who's going to be editor of The Maroon Wave. She is thinking of enticing Brian for the staff, and Jeannette laughs that people might think the Walls family will be starting a dynasty.

Mom gives Jeannette an old suitcase that had held her dance shoes, and Jeannette fills it with clothes and her bound copies of The Maroon Wave. She wants to leave everything behind that represents her past, so she gives Maureen her rock and tells her how to shine it up. Mom announces that she won't be seeing Jeannette off the next morning, because she is a late riser, she knows what Jeannette looks like and what the station looks like, and farewells are so sentimental.

That night, Jeannette barely sleeps. Then, Brian wakes her, saying, No more joking about it. Only two hours until you leave for New York. Jeannette leaves the house with her suitcase and finds Dad on the front porch smoking a cigarette. He takes her suitcase and walks her to the station. Maybe it makes him feel like he's behaving like a father should. At the station, he warns her that life in New York may not be as great as she thinks, and then he gives her his favorite jackknife. As the bus pulls in, Jeannette hugs her dad and realizes that he has actually shaved for her. The familiar smell of Vitalis, tobacco, and whiskey surrounds her. He says, If things don't work out, you can always come home. I'll be here for you. You know that don't you? She thinks that in his own way he would be, but she's never coming back.

She tells herself that when she gets on the bus, she won't look back, but she turns anyway and waves at Dad who is standing there lighting a cigarette. She wonders if he is reminiscing about the time he left Welch at the age of seventeen and whether his favorite girl will come back or if she will make it out for good. He grows smaller and smaller and he is gone.

Notes

The reactions to Jeannette's leaving home and Welch are varied and interesting. Miss Bevins declares that Jeannette will be a great success. Mom can't be bothered to even see her off, perhaps because she truly cannot handle hr daughter leaving home or because she is just always selfish. Dad is finally there for her when she needs him to be, but the reader gets the sense that it is a gesture that is almost too little, too late. Nonetheless, he makes the effort for his favorite girl. Maybe he isn't really a lost cause. Something in Jeannette's heart says it may be so, as she turns and give him one last wave.