Comparative Film vs Book: The Glass Castle

Right away, the film presents David (Max Greenfield), the successful boyfriend of Jeannete (Brie Larson) who will become your fiancé. The married life of the two governs the majority of flashbacks the feature film, where usually a question from him or a dinner at which they attend demonstrates the need for an explanation of the journalist's childhood.

Later in the plot, the engagement announcement will again be the highlight, where it will generate the main conflict for the evolution of events.

In the book, there is a mention of a boyfriend, but nothing important. Jeannete marries him, a fact that we discovered only because she mentioned her second marriage, so you can see how much more important the guy was in the film than in the book.

Rex was not an alcoholic just because he served in the army, he was also marked by the death of his 9-month-old daughter. The couple's second daughter died in sleep and the one she found was Rex, who never fully recovered from it.

There is no mention of this daughter in the film.

Several places that the family moves to have been excluded from the film - not surprisingly, they were MANY. However, Battle Mountain and Phoenix were two lasting and important places that were completely off the list.

In Battle Mountain the family spent a long time in a reasonable house, where they lived important things for the plot and even had a suspicion of a case of Rex (Woody Harrelson), the father. However, Jeannete had a problem with a boy who liked her and the children, when they were threatened at home by him with a pellet gun, ended up using their father's real gun to scare the boy and the police were called. After the incident the family had to flee because an investigation would bring complications.

Just at that time they discover that Grandma on her mother's side died and left a house and half of land in Phoenix as an inheritance. That's where they go and live a relatively good life, since they also inherited money, and for a long time they look like a normal family. It was there that they formed bonds and made some reforms on their own and where the scenes where the father stops drinking and the attack on the mother, Rose Mary (Naomi Watts), happen. When the situation tightens again and they are completely broke, they go to Welch, at Rex's parents' house.

The film synthesizes all of this, going straight to Welch and skipping these places, in addition to justifying his father's return to alcoholism with his mother's death, and not a trip where he ends up with everyone's car and personal belongings.

Another interesting combination in the film was taking the time when everyone lived with Erma (Robin Bartlett), Rex’s complicated mother, which is when the harassment of Brian happens and the kids are thrown out of the house for fighting with her.

In the film, they go straight to the house that the parents bought, without living with their grandmother and the harassment happens only afterwards, when the parents return to Phoenix and leave the children there. In the book, at that moment, the trip is the same, but they lived there.

The point is, Brian is not the only one to experience harassment. Years later, when Erma was already dead, Father and Brother went to live in a house close to where the Walls family lived. Because they had running water, the children went to the Grandfather's house every Saturday to bathe. And on one of these visits, Jeannete suffers harassment, when her uncle starts to masturbate while rubbing her thighs. She leaves quickly, but, like the harassment against her brother, the parents treat it as banality.

Certainly one of the most annoying parts of the book, the Christmas that Rex destroys ended up trying a happy ending in the film. For the first time, to try to escape the terrible reality in which they lived, the family tries to celebrate Christmas by buying a cheap tree and second-hand gifts. The night was going well until Rex arrived drunk and set the tree on fire, destroying everything.

In the film, they celebrated a happy Christmas and only then did Rex “give” the stars as gifts to his children, a fact that happens when Jeannete was 4 years old, on a Christmas that they spent in the desert.

At a certain point, at about 14 years old, Jeannete tries to take over and take care of everyone. She takes a job and manages the money her mother receives for renting her share of the land in Phoenix to a company. It is at this time that she realizes how her father gives work, always taking everyone's money to drink and also at that time that her father uses her to hit.

In the film, all of that was cut, leaving straight for them saving money to leave the house.

The film shows a great difficulty for the daughters to leave home, which in reality did not exist. Lori did not have to flee to go to New York and Jeannete never hid her plans. In fact, when Lori was excited and planning all her steps in the new city, Rex stole the piggy bank with all the money, but that was it. She managed to get a babysitting service from where she left for the bus to New York.
In fact, Rex took Jeannete to take the bus and had a hard time saying goodbye.

Without a doubt, this is the most meaningless change in the film. While scenes like ruined Christmas and other absurd things that Rex did have been removed from the plot, a huge fight where Jeannete says she hates her father and her "bullshit" has been put on. This fight results in a long time without the two talking and is the reason why Rex gets sick.

In the book, there is none of that. Of course, Jeanette resents her creation a little, but she has never abandoned her parents and is always trying to help them. There are no fights (much less because of the sale of land that would have lifted them out of misery) and Jeannete withdraws a little just because she is minding her own business.

While David has an important place in the film, John, Jeannete's second husband, is completely forgotten. When she finally separates from David in the feature, she begins to live as a freelance and lives alone in a small and distant house, where she calls the family to celebrate Thanksgiving.

In the book, the ending doesn't change much, but the distant house belonged to John, where they lived and constantly did their personal touches.