The Walls family is as far from average as possible. At many points, Rose Mary and Rex Walls’ actions are borderline abusive. Somehow, however, the Walls children grow up to become respectable, caring people. Although reckless, the parenting style of the Walls family benefits the children in unexpected ways.
From an early age, the Walls children are expected to take care of themselves. Rex and Rose Mary are strong supporters of self-sustainability. Unlike most families, the Walls have little to no rules for their children. Rose Mary believes that it is “good for kids to do what they wanted because they learned a lot from their mistakes” (Walls 59), which is reflected greatly in the way she raises her kids. This independence shatters any innocence the children had, but quickly teaches them self-defense. Brian and Jeanette are frequently bullied in their schools because of their poverty. Instead of relying on their parents, the siblings either figure out how to fight back or simply
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endure the assaults. Ultimately, Jeanette realizes she cannot rely on her parents to improve her life. This same realization leads Lori to move from Welch to New York. Lori, Jeanette, and Brian could have never succeeded in New York City if they had not first survived off their own independence in poverty. Despite the lack of formal schooling the children receive, they remain exceptionally intelligent.
When Rex is sober, he makes educating his children the highest priority. Rex finds a learning opportunity in almost every situation. He is constantly teaching the children about physics and astronomy. Jeanette clearly inherited her father’s intelligence. When she is in public school, Jeanette is almost always far more advanced than the other children. Jeanette often dismisses formal education, arguing that she “[doesn’t] need a college degree to become one of the people who knew what was really going on” (Walls 250) and that awareness itself is sufficient. However, Rose Mary and Rex wholeheartedly support their children’s education. When Jeanette informs her parents that she is going to drop out of college because she cannot afford it, they help pay the difference, despite their dire financial situation. Regardless of their flaws, Rose Mary and Rex sincerely want the best for their
children. The Walls children never have anything handed to them, forcing them to work for everything they want. The lack of support is mainly due to the fact that the parents are unable to provide for the kids. The children often have to provide their own food, picking through the garbage to find their next meal. At one point in Welch, Jeanette was the only one in the household bringing in money after her mother quit her teaching job because she had “more important things to do” (Walls 218). When Lori decided she wanted to go to New York, she and Jeanette dedicated all their time to saving money. They knew Welch had nothing to offer them; therefore, they used dedication alone to change their lives. Not even adversities such as their father stealing their savings deterred them from their goal. Without their incredible work ethic, the Walls children would have never gotten anywhere in life. The unorthodox living style of the Walls causes the children to be more compassionate. While living in New York City, Jeanette makes a conscious effort to help as many homeless people as she can. Unlike most citizens, the children understand the arduousness of poverty, as it has often been their reality. Their childhood is full of broken promises brought about by their impoverishment, like the building of the Glass Castle, yet they are almost always followed by forgiveness. Jeanette is especially tolerant toward her father despite the letdowns. Although she begins to lose this patience, Jeanette eventually absolves her father “despite all the hell-raising and destruction and chaos he had created in [her] life” (Walls 279). This forgiveness reflects the loyalty the Walls are raised on. The other children show this acceptance as well. Brian is able to remain even keeled when Rex breaks into his booze cabinet. Lori lets Maureen and her parents stay at her apartment. Maureen, however, does not share the same resilience because she was not raised like the other children. She spends her whole childhood in Welch, missing the lessons that went with living in the desert as well as the harmony the family had before they moved to Welch. Although their childhood was difficult, the Walls children were able to enter adulthood as good people because they were taught morals. While unusual, the Walls’ parenting style definitely has its benefits.
As much as Walls loved her father, she realized he would “never build that Glass Castle. But we had fun planning it.” (279) Rex told them that special kids could have “those shining stars, he liked to point out, were one of the special treats for people like us who lived out in the wilderness.” (39) Walls really felt special when her mother said, “life’s too short to worry about what other people think. Anyway, they should accept us for who we are.” (157) This vicious cycle proves to the reader that Walls never had a way to escape from her parent’s cruel ways; she grew up thinking like her parents did. This cruel way of thinking made Rex feel good about himself while making Walls’ feel special. The idea of the Glass Castle gave Walls a sense of hope that her dad would stay true to his word, but the impracticable idea of a house of glass symbolizes just how unstable the Walls’ foundation was. Walls said, “As awful as he could be, I always knew he loved me in a way no one else ever had.” (279) Rex never had the stability to protect her and she knew he would endanger her. Walls’ father Rex had extraordinary power in convincing Walls that he only wanted the best for her, even while causing her to
In the Lilies of the Field by William E. Barrett, Homer and Mother Maria both display straightforward, hardworking, and stubborn character traits. Firstly, Homer and Mother Maria both display a straightforward personality by being brutally honest about their opinions. For example, when Mother Maria asks Homer to build a chapel, Homer speaks his mind by telling her he does not want to build it. Mother Maria shows her straightforward behavior during Homer’s stay at the convent. One morning, when Homer sleeps in late, Mother to becomes extremely upset and is not afraid to show how she feels about him. Secondly, both Homer and Mother Maria display a hardworking spirit. Homer is a hardworking man because after finally agreeing to build the chapel,
Every day the safety and well-being of many children are threatened by neglect. Each child deserves the comfort of having parents whom provide for their children. Throughout the memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls explains the childhood from being born into the hands of parent who neglect their children. Many may argue that children need to grow with their parents; however, the removal of children is necessary if the parents disregard the kid’s needs and cannot provide a stable life for their children.
In Frank Beddors, “The Looking Glass Wars” a lot of things happen that are bad. There are lots of good things too. The story is about the “Myth” of Alice Liddell stepping through a looking glass into Wonderland. The topic of this essay is the Truth of the story. The purpose of this paper is how Loyal or devoted some people are to white imagination
This is a pivotal moment in Rex and Jeanette’s relationship. Throughout Rex’s drunken escapades Jeanette has been the only one to fight on behalf of Rex and say that he is still trying to do what is best for his family, so it’s important that Jeannette be the one to confront Rex about his drinking problem and how it is affecting their family. Even though other members of the family, like Brian, allow their frustration to show and have come close to confronting Rex, I don’t think that anyone else could successfully do so except Jeannette. This is because she has shown incredible and unwavering support for her father over the years and when Rex gets the impression that Jeanette’s support is starting to waver he knows that what he’s allowed his drinking to become, is deeply and negatively affecting those around him.
Rex has many good traits that show he can be a good father when he isn’t drinking. One of these traits is that he never gives up hope. He promises his family that he will build them a house called the Glass Castle, a place where they can finally settle down in one place and stop skedaddling. Jeannette describes the Glass Castle as “a house completely made of glass and had solar cells on the top that would catch the sun’s rays and convert them into electricity for heating and cooling and running all the appliances”(25). One other positive thing he does for them is that he teaches his children important skills like swimming, self-defense and how to read and write. In one part of the memoir, Jeannette and her father are at the Hot Pot, a sulfur spring in the hills and Rex uses a teaching method that would make him seem crazier than he really is. He throws Jeannette in
In many ways, he made his kids’ lives harder than it already was. He was always drunk and spending their money on himself. Rex was also always running from authority. This was one of the reasons they moved around so much. One summer Rose Mary decided to go back to school to get her teaching certification again and leaves Jeannette in charge of the money. After only a week Jeannette has given Rex $30 after being guilted into it. Rex swindles a man in a game of pool and wins back the $30; he does this by using Jeannette as a distraction. After this experience Jeannette feels betrayed and used by her father. When Jeannette explains to her father that the “creep attacked [her] when [she] was upstairs” her dad shrugs it off by saying “I knew you could handle yourself.” (213) After Lori and Rose Mary got home from being away for the summer, Lori and Jeannette decide to start saving money so they can leave their parents and move to New York. One-day Jeannette comes home to find out that their piggy bank had been broken into and all the money was taken. Later they realize that Rex had taken the money and when they confront him about it, he denies it. Out of the four kids, Jeannette was closest to her father, but by the time she moved to New York she didn’t want anything to do with him or her mother. Many events that happened with her father were very hard, but made her stronger and more of an independent woman. Her father
The boundary between turbulence and order, a zone said to have no rules, like the Walls family. They didn’t live life like everyone else, there were no set rules they made or followed, and for the most part, the Walls family didn’t even follow the law. The Walls children’s life was built upon not having their parents tell them what to do and what not to do. Throughout the memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette endured many situations where she and her family are either pushing the boundary or are more on one side of it. Put simply, the Walls family epitomizes the line that separates chaos and control.
Rex knew that Jeannette was deserving of a better life than migrating place to place every once in a while and eating commodity foods. By pretending to make plans to build this utopian house for her, he kept her imagination and her faith in him alive and taught her to keep looking forward in life. However, as Jeanette grew up that did not cut it anymore. “What I was thinking was that you don’t have to go right away, and I’ll build the Glass Castle, I swear it. We’ll all live in it together. It’ll be a hell of a lot better than any apartment you’ll ever find in New York City, I can guaran-goddamn-tee that,”(Walls 238). After Jeannette turned her father’s offer down, he knew that she had her mind set on going to New York.With two of his children leaving him, Rex was heartbroken, but he understood that they would have a better life there than they would have by staying in
Children these days have a variety of needs, often being surrounded by the ideas of freedom and security. While some people seek complete freedom from society’s rules, others seek the comforts of security that a normal life provides. Children’s preferences on freedom and security are reflected from their Mom and Dad’s parenting style. In The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, the characters Brian, Lori, and Jeannette show that while growing they would rather have security over freedom because they repeatedly find themselves in a state of danger due to their parent’s lack of security. For example, if Jeannette’s parents were accountable while Jeanette was in proximity to fire she would not have been traumatized and severely burnt. Another reason the children want security is Rex is an excessive alcoholic who is very dangerous to be around while he is under the influence of hard liquor, they would rather a father that responsibly handled alcohol. Rex’s surplus of expenses on booze led the family into poverty because instead of using the family’s rare profit to pay off bills Rex uses it to buy alcohol and items that were not a necessity to their survival. Therefore, their parents struggled to give even the simplest things for them such as food and clothes.
Even though things were good with Rex and Jeannette , but “ He did have what mom called a little bit of a drinking situation”(23) which wasn’t that big of deal to Jeannette in the beginning, but due to his habit of changing jobs, more so losing them, and having the same excuses for losing them creates doubtful feelings in Jeannette’s mind. which exhibits a bit of concern in Jeannette about her father’s doings. One time the walls family went to the church but Rex wasn’t himself for he was drunk, so he started insulting the people at the church, which just shows his miserable state every time he drinks. He then goes out of hand by insulting Jeannette, “ I didn’t like dad when he talked like that” (p;114), first time Jeannette feels negative towards
...nd recover from sorrow and grief. Throughout the memoir, there have been lots of ups and downs in Jeannette’s family thanks to Rose Mary’s bipolar disorder. At first, I often blamed Rose Mary for bringing an unpleasant childhood to those four Walls children since Rex Walls does not behave appropriately due to his alcohol abuse, but Rose Mary is actually a victim and patient of bipolar disorder, whose conditions have not only been largely ignored in the memoir, but also greatly influenced her ways of thinking and behaving.
They loved them so much even though the parents didn’t deserve it most of the time. That is unconditional love. They grew up very poor and were often forgotten about. There dad was an alcoholic who disappeared for days at a time, and bouncing from job to job. When he was home and drinking he “turned into an angry-eyed stranger who threw around furniture and threatened to beat up [their] mom or anyone who got in his way”(23). Most of her memories of her dad are him being drunk, which turns him abusive and rude. They don’t have much money so she looks at is as good opportunity for her father to stop drinking. Jeannette never only sees her dad as an alcoholic like she should, she still cherishes his love. Along with her father’s drinking problem, her mother’s lack of rules and parental skills are out of the norm. She believes "people worry.... “people worry too much about their children. Suffering when they are young is good for them”(28). Her mother believes that they can learn on their own, showing that she does not care about the hardships her children are constantly dealing with in their environment. With this negligence the children are often forgotten about as well. Jeannette was put in many situations where she thought her parents “might not come back for her or they might not notice she was missing”(30). That is not how a child is suppose to feel about her parents yet she constantly
Jeannette and her siblings were left without a proper education due to the fact of their parents' weird way living. The Walls children were always moving from place to place because of Rex and Rosemary. Parent interaction in their children's educational learning has a big effect in the ending. If a parent is involved, asks about their child's schoolwork, how their day was, etc., the child will do better in school because their parent actually cares. On the other hand, if a parent rarely shows interest in their child's school studies, the child may believe that they do not have to try hard in their studies because the parent will no...
...ndurance of poverty, as we witness how Walls has turned her life around and told her inspiring story with the use of pathos, imagery, and narrative coherence to inspire others around her (that if she can do it, so can others). Jeannette made a huge impact to her life once she took matters into her own hands and left her parents to find out what life has in store for her and to prove to herself that she is a better individual and that anything is possible. Despite the harsh words and wrongful actions of Walls’ appalling parents who engage her through arduous experiences, she remained optimistic and made it through the most roughest and traumatic obstacles of her life at the age of three. Walls had always kept her head held high and survived the hardships God put upon her to get to where she is today; an author with a best selling novel to tell her bittersweet story.