Three Years Old Jeannette Walls Family

The Walls family consists of two parents and four children, totaling to six members in the family. Rex Walls is the father of the children, while Rose Mary holds the title of being the mother. Lori Walls is the oldest child out of the four. She is three years older than Jeannette Walls, who is one year older than her brother, Brian Walls. Maureen Walls is the youngest out of them all, being five years younger than her sister, Jeannette Walls. The Walls family spent a considerable part of their lives in 93 Little Hobart Street, Welch, West Virginia. The interview with all the kids took place in the house of the Walls family in Welch. The house is located in the poorest neighborhood of Welch. There was a leak in the roof over Brian Walls’ bed,

and water dampens his bed when it rained, so he often slept under an inflatable raft. One of the supporting pillars was also starting to buckle. (Walls 227) Rats would run around the house due to the unsanitary condition in the house. The children were often teased about living in trash due to such living condition. In order to find out more about the situation of the children, interviews were held with each individual child of the Walls family.
The first child being interviewed was Lori Walls. She is eighteen years old, living in Welch with her parents and her three siblings. She explained that there was once a scholarship opportunity sponsored by a literary society for one who creates the best work of art inspired by a famous literary artist, but it was eventually, like everything else in her life, denied and ruined by her father (226). She created a picture of Shakespeare with her younger sister, Jeannette Walls, in a time span of a week. At the end, however, her father returned home drunk and smeared off the mouth of the portrait of Shakespeare. Based on Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, at the age of Lori Walls, she is going through the stage of ego identity versus role confusion (McLeod “Erikson’s Physiological Stages). When she mentioned this experience of hers, she showed an expression of losing hope. She began to act nervous. When she was asked about the reason for her nervousness, she answered that she was nervous about her future. She stated that she did not know when the endless cycle of her current life will end. She is under the impression that she will never be able to escape the house and gain her own freedom. The interview then proceeded with another one of her memories. In the memory, her father, Rex Walls, stole the money that she and her sister, Jeannette Walls, earned to plan to move out of the house. Lori stayed up all night to wait for her father to confront him about his action of stealing the money that the children saved up in a piggy bank through their own hard work (228). Curse words that they have heard from their parents and the slashed pig attacked Rex Walls once he returned to the house. This incident further forced Lori to question her ability to pursue her desperate desires. In the ego identity versus role confusion stage, one’s identity is established. (McLeod “Erikson’s Physiological Stages). One will plan out his or her future during this stage; yet, constant denial of Rex Walls of the potentials of Lori Walls made her doubt her ability to establish a better life in the future. On a more serious note, the loss of hope could have possibly led to the suicidal commitment. During both incidents, Rex Walls evidently mentally abused Lori Walls. This statement was then further proven by the other children interviewed.
After the interview with Lori Walls ended, the thirteen-year-old Jeannette Walls’ interview followed.

To begin the interview, she described her plan to move out of Welch with her sister, away from her family. Like Lori Walls, she also put in a lot of efforts to escape the house of the Walls family. She explained that she has always loved her father, but she slowly began to realize that her actual father does not fit the perfect image that her young six-year-old self sculpted her father into. A smile showed up on her face for a quick moment, and soon got replaced with a regretful frown. Jeannette Walls revealed that she has always believed and looked forward to the promise made by her father to build a glass castle, as a child. When she became more familiar with reality, however, she realized that the promise was never going to come true. By one point, the foundation they dug for the glass castle was filled up with garbage (238). By that moment, she lost complete trust in her father. Based on Maslow’s 8-Stage hierarchy of need, Jeannette Walls, belongingness and love needs were not met because her father constantly broke the promise between Jeannette Walls and showed that he did not care about his daughter as much as he said he does. This confused Jeannette Walls’ self-identity in the stage of ego identity versus role confusion in the Erikson’s psychological theory, at the age of thirteen. Due to the lack of care that she received from her father, and the lack of

responsibility that the father is taking with his promise, Jeannette would question her self-worth. At the young age, the child will being to question who would give her love if her own father could not. Also, at the young age, she will being to think that keeping promises are not important if his father does not even keep the promise that he makes. This is especially relevant to Jeannette because her love and admiration towards her father began to make her think for a period of time that everything her father did was right. After the discussion of the promise to build a glass castle, she also disclosed an incident when she witnessed her father physically abusing her mother, and putting her life at risk. She witnessed the incident with all her siblings. During the incident, her mother was beaten up, then dangled out the window. When the children tried to stop their father, they were pushed away with violence (71). This incident has the potential of confusing the values of the children, in which will cause poor decision making in the future, as adults. This also left the safety needs of the children unsatisfied because the father had the potential of injuring the family during the incident. It also foreshadowed the potential violence in the family as well, in which puts the long-term safety needs of the children in danger as well. In conclusion of both interviews with Lori Walls and Jeannette Walls, the parents were not taking responsibility for the mental health of the children. Lori and Jeannette Walls both have the maturity to have the desire to move out of the house. The mental damage of the children is one of the main causes as to why the children want to move out of the house.
Brian Walls is the only male out of the four children in the Walls family. He is twelve years old. As a boy, he was molested by his grandmother when he lived in the house of his grandparents (146). The children worked together to defend themselves from their grandmother, and also explained to their parents about it, but their parents yelled at them for disrespecting their grandmother. At the age of twelve, Brian Walls is going through the stage of industry versus inferiority and also the stage of ego identity versus role confusion (McLeod “Erikson’s Physiological Stages), in which the child forms self-identity and confidence. This incident of sexual assault will confuse the self-identity of Brian Walls. This also leaves the esteem needs (Maslow “Maslow’s Eight Stage Hierarchy of Needs”) unsatisfied. Then, while showing an expression of embarrassment after mentioning this incident, he continued on with talking about the time when his father dropped him off for school, and noticed that he did not have a lunch bag. His father questioned him, without realizing that there has been no food in the house for a while. His father blamed his mother for the issue instead of realizing that he is a big part of the issue (78). The lack of responsibility of the father, Rex Walls, left the children’s physiological needs unsatisfied (Maslow).
Maureen Walls, being the youngest child in the Walls family, gave an interesting perspective.

She often has nightmares. She mentioned the memory of when she was five, and she was too terrified to sleep because she was worried that a rat was coming to get her (156). This fear was caused by the sanitary condition of the house. This fear of Maureen Walls demonstrates the unsatisfactory of the safety needs in Maslow’s 8-Stage hierarchy of need (Maslow). Another example of Maureen Walls’ safety needs(Maslow) being endangered was when a boy named Billy fired his BB gun to destroy the glass window of the house of the Walls. That incident terrified Maureen, and she said she began howling during the occurrence (88). She commented that she was too young to remember much details, but she does remember the fear that it brought to her. This endangered her safety, in which is a part of the necessary needs that humans should be able to meet. The safety needs, in this situation, is evidently not met. Putting such a young child in danger is a situation that should be dealt

with.
Childhood experiences such as poverty, abuse and neglect is shows a link to poor mental and physical health outcomes in adulthood (American Psychological Association “Beyond early diversity”). If the children continue to live under the condition of which they are living in, it will further worsen their mental health. The neglect and mental abuse on top of the poverty that they are experiencing will cause them to make poor decisions in life, such as suicide, or addiction to drugs or alcohol. The conditions will become more severe than what they are experiencing now. Multiple Walls children expressed their desire to move out the house, and they should have the right to gain freedom from the family that is restricting them.
The children should be put into a foster care because giving them resources like food and reduced classes will only allow the parents to continue to take control of the children. The parents will continue interfere with the food and money provided for the children. This will trigger a possibility that the children might not be able to receive the support provided to them. Also, based on the interview, the children’s issue with the family is mainly mental abuse. In order to solve the issue, they will have to be removed from the source of mental damage, in which are their parents.