“The Glass Castle,” by Jeannette Walls, is a memoir about the struggles of a young girl and her siblings growing up under very dysfunctional family circumstances. Rex and Rose Mary Walls, Jeannette’s mother and father, find themselves continuously short on cash and food, and usually unable to provide well for their children. Regardless of these destitute living conditions, Jeannette and her three siblings, Lori, Brian, and Maureen, find themselves able to flourish as individuals and escape their life in poverty despite the struggles their parents cause for them.
Constantly on the move, the Walls family travels from town to town, ranging from living in the desert in Phoenix, to Battle Mountain in Nevada, Welch, West Virginia and even California …show more content…
Rex and Rose Mary pushed their kids to be self-sufficient, arguing that to get through life they couldn’t rely on anybody else except themselves. They refused welfare in fear of becoming “charity cases,” refused medical help if their kids were sick. This standpoint, however, could easily be mistaken for neglect by the parents, as the kids were deprived of basic necessities like food and clothing, and were rarely kept track of. Walls explains that “[she and her siblings] could go pretty much anywhere and do just about anything we wanted. Mom believed children shouldn’t be burdened with a lot of rules and restrictions.” (Walls 59) The theme of nonconformity is touched on several times throughout the memoir as well. Pushed especially by Rose Mary onto her children, she believed her children weren’t meant to be like the rest of society. This view just pushed Jeannette and her siblings further away from the lifestyle Rex and Rose Mary attempted to make seem normal, and made them want to leave Welch even more. Forgiveness and unconditional love are also expressed throughout the book from the children towards their parents. Despite their parents’ inability to provide well for the Walls children, they, Jeannette especially, found themselves forgiving their mother and father anyways. Rex was an alcoholic, and despite his horrible drinking habits and his tendency to disappear for days at a time, Jeannette found herself wanting to forgive him. When Jeannette and her siblings move to New York, they feel the urge to help their parents out of love as they struggle to make it in the city. The constant reference back to these themes of forgiveness and unconditional love shows how Jeannette holds no bad feelings towards her mother and father even though she was deprived and
Constantly on the move, the Walls family travels from town to town, ranging from living in the desert in Phoenix, to Battle Mountain in Nevada, Welch, West Virginia and even California …show more content…
Rex and Rose Mary pushed their kids to be self-sufficient, arguing that to get through life they couldn’t rely on anybody else except themselves. They refused welfare in fear of becoming “charity cases,” refused medical help if their kids were sick. This standpoint, however, could easily be mistaken for neglect by the parents, as the kids were deprived of basic necessities like food and clothing, and were rarely kept track of. Walls explains that “[she and her siblings] could go pretty much anywhere and do just about anything we wanted. Mom believed children shouldn’t be burdened with a lot of rules and restrictions.” (Walls 59) The theme of nonconformity is touched on several times throughout the memoir as well. Pushed especially by Rose Mary onto her children, she believed her children weren’t meant to be like the rest of society. This view just pushed Jeannette and her siblings further away from the lifestyle Rex and Rose Mary attempted to make seem normal, and made them want to leave Welch even more. Forgiveness and unconditional love are also expressed throughout the book from the children towards their parents. Despite their parents’ inability to provide well for the Walls children, they, Jeannette especially, found themselves forgiving their mother and father anyways. Rex was an alcoholic, and despite his horrible drinking habits and his tendency to disappear for days at a time, Jeannette found herself wanting to forgive him. When Jeannette and her siblings move to New York, they feel the urge to help their parents out of love as they struggle to make it in the city. The constant reference back to these themes of forgiveness and unconditional love shows how Jeannette holds no bad feelings towards her mother and father even though she was deprived and