Glass Castle: The effect of Chronic Alcoholism

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As Jeanette Walls reveals this unraveling tale of her childhood she spares little to no detail from scrutiny, least of all the faults she finds in her father. As the reader enters the scene of her earliest memory the irrational thought process of her mother is instantly brought to light. A toddler catches herself on fire while attempting to cook hotdogs and who is to come to the rescue?
Her mother rushes her to the emergency room and her severe burns are treated. However, when the rest of her family enters into the scene the complexity of her perplexing story intensifies. With unkempt siblings and parents who hold bizarre morals a complex family architecture emerges. A structure revolving around Jeanette’s parents distrust for authority figures and disregard of societal norms. After almost six weeks in the hospital the family decides to check Jeanette out “Rex-Walls style” and Rex runs out of the hospital with his little girl in his arms to the idling car in waiting with the rest of the family inside (14).
As their epic of a shifty nomadic lifestyle unfolds the intense bond between Jeanette and her father becomes unmistakable. She is the classic daddy’s little girl and relishes the small adventures she takes with her father along with the fantastical daydreams regarding the development of their ever elusive Glass Castle. However, she is slowly ripped from her flawless view of the monster slaying father whom she idolizes as his severe dependence upon alcohol surfaces. This stark reality takes its first hit when the young boy, Billy Deel, shows Jeanette his father passed out and soiled from intoxication and then claims their fathers’ similarity by saying “I know your daddy ain’t nothing but a drunk like mine” (83). This ...

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...ailments concludes in the book Jeanette comes to terms with the belief of some people enjoying life a different way. While learning how to dance between turbulence and order from a very young age their lives took a drastic toll from their father’s affliction. Their nomadic life could have continued in its blissful and whimsical state so long as balance was maintained between the order and turbulence. However, with a mental ailment on the mother’s behalf which rendered her incapable of stability the father’s addiction was the weight holding the family in their downward spiral. Without this chosen means of escape by Rex a different life would have befallen the children of the Wall’s family and while it would never have been ideal or picturesque they would have been able to continue in a happy and whimsical manner.

Works Cited

Walls, Jeanette. "The Glass Castle"

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