Curly Red By Jeannette Walls: A Literary Analysis

Cruelty is a real and evident part of society, apparent in everyday workings. In the way that harsh racial slurs are flung from mouths of ignorant anger to the way the last meal is granted to a prisoner on death row. These cruelties are unique in their own way, but each of them stemmed from a kindness. The ignorance granted with the anger, and the picking of their own food are kindnesses that lead to a cruel event. Cruelty comes and flourishes in kindness, while kindness can create and feed cruelty. Two ugly beasts that cannot come without the other, as is evident throughout a numerous amount of short stories as well as the book written by Jeannette Walls titled, The Glass Castle. Cruelty is bred/conditioned into the children at a young age

through small kindnesses, and throughout their lives and these kindnesses continue to affect that person and the people throughout their lifetime.
Cruelty is an effect that is conditioned into people, whether at a young age or throughout the multiple kindnesses that are granted. In Jeannette Walls memoir, The Glass Castle, cruelty and kindness play a factor in the outcome of the story as well as the events that continue to reoccur throughout the book. Jeannette’s father, Rex, is an extreme alcoholic and toxic person and is the main source of the problems that occur throughout the memoir. Rex’s inability to drop his dependency on alcohol and unwillingness to change his cruel nature is nourished by the small kindnesses that are granted to him throughout his life time. The constant forgiveness given to him by both his wife and children feeds the cruelty that he inflicts on them. During one of the family’s summers in Welch, Jeannette was put in charge of the budget as her mother was gone for the summer in a another irresponsible escapade to ‘find herself”, leaving behind her children with little to no money to last an entire summer. After managing the budget with only a couple dollars a day, avoiding being raped which her father put her into that situation, stealing (and returning), and hanging on to every penny they had after loaning money to her father, Jeannette felt owed as she grew up. She saw her parents as irresponsible and in turn lost all respect for them; she loses respect even more when she is whipped because of the blatant disrespect she shows to her parents. Rex’s cruelty with the whipping to the drunken fits all were created and continued to happen due to the kindnesses granted to him. By ignoring and forgetting drunken rampages and the immensely large stream of forgiveness flowing throughout the broken crack of the crumbling family structure, conditioning Rex into thinking that every single drunken fit or cruel act will be forgiven. The kindnesses that are granted to Rex enable him to continue to thrive inside the toxic relationship and environment that he has created;allowing him to believe that forgiveness is a given and consequences are practically nonexistent. The benevolence that is granted to Rex time and time again lead to the toxic environment that Jeannette and her siblings were raised in.
Not only is cruelty conditioned into by forgiveness time and time again, the inhumaneness is pardoned with the benevolent act of not insinuating consequences upon the guilty party.

By not handing out punishment for the brutality and savagery that occurs, kindness is granted and in turn conditions that nothing bad will occur with whatever horrid act that is committed. In the short story, “Curly Red”, by Joyce Carol Oates this type of conditioned cruelty is evident. In the story, Lili Rose’s two brothers, Mario and Leo, towards the beginning of their lives raped a girl with a few of their friends. Instead of going to jail or facing any real consequences, the boys are let off and had no real consequences except for a stricter curfew and an inability to drive but otherwise the boys were left off easy. No court trial was ensued and the victim was given no justice;not even an article in the news. The lenient repercussions the boys received for their horrendous acts led them to believe that all of the blasphemous acts committed would go unnoticed and unpunished. The generosity granted led to even more brutal events than they could have imaged. Due to the mindset, the boys ended up murdering a negro boy for nothing more than the sickening thrill of it and had similar ideas that there would be no consequences for their actions. Eventually the guilt of knowing the atrocities that committed by her brothers; she turned them over to the police. In return she was greeted with isolation

and desolation from her family. The kindnesses that were granted to the boys, the absence of serious consequences, led to the brutal and savage murder of an innocent man, a incredibly cruel act, also led to justice for the victim of the families.
On the contrary, cruelty is also just a factor of everyday life and that there are no real reasoning behind why someone is cruel except for the sick satisfaction of it, and the same goes for kindness.

Like every action of emotion there is a story behind it and with cruelty or kindness it is the same; a purpose behind the initial action. In the short story, “Thank you Ma’am”, by Langston Hughes the story is started with a boy who initially attempts to rob a woman who in turn takes him to her house, and although she is a very rude lady she cleans, feeds, and bathes the boy before sending him off. The cruel actions that the boy initiated created kindness from the women who was cruel due to the rough life she had growing up. The reasoning behind the boy’s cruel actions were to feed his family, as well as himself in the wake of his parents. The cruelty is a feeble act but created a kindness for the boy, and for the women as well for she turned an originally negative encounter into a positive and potentially life changing events for the boy. Although it’s potential for cruelty to have no stimulation, and for kindness as well, there is more probability for the cruelty to have stemmed from kind acts as well as kind acts to stem from cruelty as each and every action have an intention or have come from equally impactful events within a

lifetime.
Although cruelty is a complicated and complex thing stemming and thriving within many environments, cruelty come from and flourishes within kindness as well as kindness can create cruelty. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette’s family’s actions and constant forgiveness and willingness to turn a blind eye created a toxic environment in which the father could thrive and continue to do toxic activity that was damaging to the infrastructure of the family. Granting ignorance is a devastating kindness that can destroy a family, allowing brutality and harshness can rip apart a family at the seams. Although cruelty and inhumane acts can stem from nothing more than an unrelenting itch, cruelty advances and thrives in kindness, while kindness can initiate and condition cruelty and wickedness.