One important symbol in The Glass Castle is Jeannette’s only personal possession: a clear crystal geode. She has had the rock since Rex told everyone they could bring only one thing one the move out of Battle Mountain. Jeannette couldn’t bring her entire rock collection, so she brought her one favorite geode. This rock has been almost everywhere with Jeannette, and represents all the places she has had to pick up and leave as a child. When Jeannette left for New York, she gave her geode to Maureen so she would always remember her history.
Until then, when I thought of writers, what first came to mind was Mom, hunched over her typewriter, clattering away on her novels and plays and philosophies of life and occasionally receiving a personalized rejection letter. But a newspaper reporter, instead of holing up in isolation, was in touch with the rest of the world. What the reporter wrote influenced what people thought about and talked about the next day; he knew what was really going on. I decided I wanted to be one of the people who knew what was really going on.
Because he is insignificant, small, a tiny crack in an entire castle of glass. A small blemish on a beautiful structure. The feelings expressed are ones of being insignificant and small, but there's a strange power to it too, perhaps the fact that the castle is made of glass is what proves this. The Glass Castle. For much of Jeannette’s childhood, Dad’s promise to build the Glass Castle represents both the family’s hope and Jeannette’s hero worship of Dad, but, as Jeannette grows older, the castle comes to symbolize his broken promises.