Alcoholism In The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

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One in every twelve adults suffer from alcoholism in the United States, and it is the most commonly used addictive substance in the world. The World Health Organization has defined alcoholism as “an addiction to the consumption of alcoholic liquor or the mental illness and compulsive behavior resulting from alcohol dependency.” Reiterated themes encompassing Jeannette Walls’ father’s addiction to alcohol are found in her novel, The Glass Castle: a memoir, which displays instances of financial instability and abuse that hurt the Walls children for the rest of their lives. The Walls’, altogether, are emotionally, physically, and mentally affected by Rex’s alcoholism, which leads to consequences on the Walls children.

A substantial side effect to alcoholism is …show more content…

This can lead to frequent absences from work, unemployment, and misusing financial resources of the household and family. In Rex’s case in particular, he hurt the entire family: Distinctly, the Walls hold a short budget to begin with, but due to Rex’s constantly poor employment situation, and his control of Jeannette for alcohol money from their miniscule budget, the family is worse off than when they even started. Rex struggles to find employment due to alcohol’s effects: loss of work ethic and the pull to drink according to Drug Free. It doesn’t help that Jeannette gives in to Rex’s requests, but in the end they have even less money than they had. In addition to the financial hardships, the children tremendously suffer from their Rex’s behavior. As soon as Rex’s alcoholism hits it peak and the family grows well aware, Jeannette begins to adopt a trait called codependency. Codependency may be

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