Is there a “right” way to parent? The two stories My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picoult and The Glass by Jeannette Walls are the stories of two very different dysfunctional families. In My Sisters Keeper, the Fitzgerald family’s eldest daughter, Kate, is going through leukemia treatment, while their other daughter Anna, the narrator, was born to donate body parts to Kate. Kate eventually becomes tired of treatment and wishes to die but cannot tell her caring parents that, and she request that Anna prevent them from making her donate a kidney to Kate by sueing them for medical emancipation. In The Glass Castle the wall’s family is constantly in poverty and on the run. Although the family gets many opportunities to settle down and start making a
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An example of how they differ is that the parents in My Sisters Keeper believe that their children must be protected and raised in a safe environment, while the parents in The Glass Castle believe that children raised in a dangerous environment grow up to be stronger and more self sufficient people. This is shown in My Sisters Keeper when Sarah states “My daughter, who trusts me to tell her when it's safe to cross the street, to cut her meat into tiny pieces, and to protect her from all sorts of horrible things like large dogs and darkness and loud firecrackers” (Picoult) while describing Kate. This shows that Sarah believes that the best way to raise her children is to closely protect them and micromanage everything they do, very similarly to the “checklisted childhood”(Lythcott-Haims 1:20) described in the TED talk How to raise a successful kids -- without over-parenting. This is in contrast to the parenting in The Glass Castle. The wall’s family believes that their children should be raised with little rules and intervention to allow them to be self sufficient in the future. An example of this is shown on page 62 when the narrator states “None of us kids got allowances. When we wanted money, we walked along the roadside picking up beer cans and bottles that we redeemed for two cents each. Brian and I also collected scrap metal that we sold to the junk dealer”(Walls). This shows …show more content…
I believe that they are Undemanding and Responsive which would make them Permissive. This is shown when it is stated that “Mom said She felt it was good for kids to do what they wanted because they learned a lot from their mistakes. Mom was not one of those fussy mothers who got upset when you came home dirty or played in the mud or fell and cut yourself. She said people should get things like that out of their systems when they were young”(Walls 59). This shows how the parents in The Glass Castle are undemanding of their children, and want them to learn how to be successful on their own. The parents in the Glass Castle are also responsive to their children. This is shown when the the narrator states “"You're going to learn to swim today," he said. He put an arm around me, and we started across the water. Dad was dragging me. I felt terrified and clutched his neck so tightly that his skin turned white. "There, that wasn't so bad, was it?” Dad asked when we got to the other side … when we got to the middle, Dad pried my fingers from around his neck and pushed me away … When I recovered, Dad picked me up and heaved me back into the middle of the Hot Pot. "Sink or swim!" he called out” (Walls 65). This shows how the parents in The Glass Castle are responsive to their children by showing Rex Walls teaching the narrator how to swim, therefore putting them in the category of
An example of how they differ is that the parents in My Sisters Keeper believe that their children must be protected and raised in a safe environment, while the parents in The Glass Castle believe that children raised in a dangerous environment grow up to be stronger and more self sufficient people. This is shown in My Sisters Keeper when Sarah states “My daughter, who trusts me to tell her when it's safe to cross the street, to cut her meat into tiny pieces, and to protect her from all sorts of horrible things like large dogs and darkness and loud firecrackers” (Picoult) while describing Kate. This shows that Sarah believes that the best way to raise her children is to closely protect them and micromanage everything they do, very similarly to the “checklisted childhood”(Lythcott-Haims 1:20) described in the TED talk How to raise a successful kids -- without over-parenting. This is in contrast to the parenting in The Glass Castle. The wall’s family believes that their children should be raised with little rules and intervention to allow them to be self sufficient in the future. An example of this is shown on page 62 when the narrator states “None of us kids got allowances. When we wanted money, we walked along the roadside picking up beer cans and bottles that we redeemed for two cents each. Brian and I also collected scrap metal that we sold to the junk dealer”(Walls). This shows …show more content…
I believe that they are Undemanding and Responsive which would make them Permissive. This is shown when it is stated that “Mom said She felt it was good for kids to do what they wanted because they learned a lot from their mistakes. Mom was not one of those fussy mothers who got upset when you came home dirty or played in the mud or fell and cut yourself. She said people should get things like that out of their systems when they were young”(Walls 59). This shows how the parents in The Glass Castle are undemanding of their children, and want them to learn how to be successful on their own. The parents in the Glass Castle are also responsive to their children. This is shown when the the narrator states “"You're going to learn to swim today," he said. He put an arm around me, and we started across the water. Dad was dragging me. I felt terrified and clutched his neck so tightly that his skin turned white. "There, that wasn't so bad, was it?” Dad asked when we got to the other side … when we got to the middle, Dad pried my fingers from around his neck and pushed me away … When I recovered, Dad picked me up and heaved me back into the middle of the Hot Pot. "Sink or swim!" he called out” (Walls 65). This shows how the parents in The Glass Castle are responsive to their children by showing Rex Walls teaching the narrator how to swim, therefore putting them in the category of