Forgiveness In The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

Although most people would not be able to give someone so much forgiveness for such dishonorable acts, author Jeannette Walls and her siblings knew it was the only way out. Throughout the book The Glass Castle, Walls writes about hardship in life and overcoming most things through forgiveness and constant love for family. Therefore, it is evident that the memoir The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, makes it clear that being able to let go of things for the better is a tremendously important trait to possess when living with a dysfunctional family. These ideas that Walls shares throughout the novel heavily rely on the appeal of pathos and attaining sympathy from the reading through writing about all of the hardships she had to face at such

The girls decided to start a traveling fund before they left for New York. They got little jobs around the town they lived in and were payed little money for doing a lot of work. They put their time and effort into making that money so that they could start a new and enhanced life for themselves. However, as written in the memoir, Walls talk about how one night their piggy bank, Oz, was robbed and all of their hard work in earning money and dedication was a complete waste of time. She writes “One evening in May, when we’d been saving our money for almost nine months, I came home with a couple dollars I’d made babysitting and went into the bedroom to stash them in Oz …I knew it was Dad, but at the same time, I couldn’t believe he’d stoop this low.” (Walls 228) Knowing that their own father had stolen their hard-earned money for something like alcohol, and still being able to talk to and be around him shows a great amount of forgiveness. They forgave him and that allowed them to move on with their lives rather than sulking about what he had done. Walls’ yet again shows another amazing example of a traumatizing experience with having parents who were selfish and were more concerned about themselves and their own petty