Forgiveness In The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

One of the most prevalent and profound themes in The Glass Castle is forgiveness. Throughout their lives Jeanette, Lori, Brian, and Maureen have all had to forgive their parents numerous times. When they forgave their parents it allowed them to all move forward and create lives that were secure and successful.
Walls’ first memory creates the pattern of forgiveness that she would be forced to establish when dealing with her parents. She was cooking hot dogs by herself when she was three and was burned badly when the skirt of her dress caught fire. In the hospital she told the doctors that “ Mom says I’m mature for my age,” I told them “and she lets me cook for myself a lot.”(Walls 11). Even though Jeanette was too young at the time to realize that her parents were in the wrong she was forgiving them just by acting as though it was no big deal and not unnatural.
As Walls grew up she began to be more aware of her parent’s faults and more conscious of the fact that she was always having to forgive her parents for situations that shouldn’t have happened in the first place. She had to forgive her parents for “..always doing the skedaddle”(Walls 19) and for the sense of instability that this provided through much of her siblings and her lives. Walls had to forgive her parents for the …show more content…
They had all worked hard for many months and had managed to save up a decent amount so that Lori could move to New York and have a better life. Their Dad broke into the piggy bank and took all of the money and then asked Walls if she knew what had happened to the money. This was one of the few times that Walls confronted her Dad and held him accountable asking “Why are you doing this to us, Dad?” I asked. “Why?” (Walls 229). Walls forgave her Dad but it took longer and was only after both she and Lori had moved away from home and established a better