Jeannette's father Rex had been in the Air Force and was a skilled laborer, though due to alcoholism, insubordination, and other reasons, he could never hold onto a job for longer than six months. Her children often had to beg her to go to work in the morning. However, Rose Mary Walls never kept a teaching job because she'd rather be painting and felt that teaching was a betrayal of her true calling. As conveyed in the movie, Jeannette's mother was a licensed teacher. She was soon back to cooking hot dogs by herself.ĭid Jeannette's parents have any job skills?

She remained in the hospital for several days recovering from her burns until her father showed up and took her home against the doctor's wishes. A neighbor drove them to the hospital, where Jeannette was placed on a bed of ice. Her mother, who was too busy painting to make her lunch, ran in and wrapped her in a blanket. Jeannette was trying to cook her own hot dogs on the stovetop when the gas flame caught her dress on fire. In this sense, he correlates to Max Greenfield's wealthy accountant character David in the movie, despite the character being polished with fiction to play up the contrasting worlds.ĭid Jeannette really set herself on fire while trying to make her own lunch on the stove as a three-year-old?

Born and raised on Park Avenue, Goldberg contradicted her own alcoholic father and impoverished upbringing. Not exactly, though he's intended to be a streamlined version of her real-life boyfriend at the time, Eric Goldberg (who she ended up marrying).

Jeannette the glass castle