Parenting Skills In The Glass Castle

Decent Essays
Intro: In the memoir The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Rex and Rosemary Walls used poor parenting skills when raising their children. They didn’t keep their children safe from many of the bad things that happened in the book, that could have been easily prevented. Many things that showed their poor parenting skills their abuse towards their kids, and the fact that their kids felt they had to get away from them. Their parents contributed to their childrens success, but not in a good way. Body 1: The kids went through a lot of abuse, even if it wasn’t phyiscally. The feeling that your parents would leave you behind, is not something a child should feel. The parents didn’t do much to support their children in anyway either. They barely got

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The book the Glass Castle represents how a person can achieve the American dream. It shows how someone born and raised in poverty can still make the american dream a reality just like the Walls children did. Despite her past, Jeanette Walls was able to forgive her parents, and achieve her dream. The memoir can inspire people no matter who and where they came from, they still have the possibility of achieving their dreams and…

    • 752 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout Jeanette Wall’s memoir The Glass Castle, the author utilizes diverse and creative language, diction, and style to convey themes about nonconformity and self-sufficiency, while teaching strong lessons on individuality, endurance, and strength. Although both of Jeanette’s parents, Rose Mary and Rex, are irresponsible, selfish, and reckless, they did instill valuable life lessons and reflect meaningful sentiments onto their children, Lori, Jeanette, Brian, and Maureen. Rex Walls creates false pretenses to replicate a lifestyle of wanderers or explorers and to make up for insufficient income; however, he inspires young Jeanette radically and becomes a catalyst for her hopes, dreams, and uniqueness. The parents manage to teach their kids to be thoughtful, intelligent, brave, and hardworking, despite suffering and unfavorable conditions.…

    • 999 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The memoir, The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls brings the reader back in time to when she was very young and recalls her life experiences that deal with poverty, dysfunctional parents, and the choice between family first or herself. The Glass Castle reveals that Wall lived a large portion of her life on the run due to her adventurous, yet troublesome parents. Overtime, Walls discovers that life has more to offer if she gives herself a chance to experience the real world. Because of her parents’ influence, Walls grew up assuming that her parents’ views on society and the way life should go was inspiring, but now that she is grown and she makes choices for her own good. The memoir gives off a deep, meaningful feel to the reader.…

    • 1173 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Individual vs. Society In our society today, what is considered good parenting includes showing love and compassion to children, making sure to provide for their needs and to teach them good moral standards to live by. On the contrary, not loving a child, making choices that lead to not being capable to provide, and not teaching them socially acceptable behavior is considered irresponsible parenting and even neglect. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls retells the story of her childhood growing up with nonconformist parents who, according to society, were irresponsible. Her parents create their own society that justifies their way of living, ignoring how it might affect their children.…

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A parents first priority should always be their children. In the memoir The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls wrote about her daily struggles growing up with her parents. Rex and Rose Mary were unfit parents because they were inadequate role models, made selfish acts and failed to be concerned about their children’s safety. Rex and Rose Mary Walls were unfit parents because they were inadequate role models.…

    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    (pg 279). This quote highlights how The glass castle encapsulates this theory of perfection and nothing flawed. Which in reality was not the truth of the Walls family. It was dysfunctional and strangely abstract with their fathers on going addiction and and mothers care free spirit. Even though her father prefered to theorize rather than live practically, he was intelligent enough to come up with the blue prints for a exsqusite creation such as the glass castle, yet failed everytime to execute these plans.…

    • 1026 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Although their parents attempt to make it known that they love their children, they continuously damage their children mentally. Forcing their children to move around frequently decreases their children 's chances of forming relationships with peers closer to their age. Jeannette mentions that she is bullied for a period of time and makes little mention of having any close friends throughout her childhood. While there are two more levels on Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, I feel as though the Walls children will be unable to reach these higher functioning levels due to their broken childhood (Berger, 2015). I personally enjoyed the Glass Castle and think that it allows the reader to look into a story of a true heartbreaking childhood.…

    • 1630 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Parents are a vital component to a child’s life. They not only dictate how one will grow but they nurture from the moment the baby is in the womb. Although some parents are great at this aspect of bringing up a child, some are not so fitted for the job. Rex and Rosemary Walls can be seen to contradict this idea of “great parenting” throughout the Memoir “The Glass Castle” by Jeanette Walls. The couple fail to accept aid from other people when in need, keep their children safe and resist being selfish for their own needs.…

    • 2034 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Do you ever ponder the idea of why every family is so diverse and why people act the way they act? This family studies class offers an exploration of unique families, how to manage resources, environmental influences, and the important steps in the decision making process. All of these factors come in play when answering why people are the way they are and the varying traits within families. The Glass Castle, written by Jeannette Walls is a memoir that expresses the hardships and obstacles she faced while growing up.…

    • 1215 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Jeannette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle, the Walls kids have unfit parents who couldn't take care of them or themselves. Rex and Rosemary are very unique characters because they show that they care for their kids, but they're not putting an effort into raising their children as parents should. The dad in the situation is an alcoholic who sometimes get violent with their mom and he doesn't know how to keep a job. The mom on the other hand is more of an adventurous person, who just wants to live like a teenager and rather be an artist than a teacher. Some of the problems the kids have growing up was hunger, not having much clothes, moving around a lot, not getting to shower, and having to deal with their parents.…

    • 1100 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Walls Parenting Style The Parenting style that most exemplifies Rex and Rosemary Walls parenting style is permissive. These parenting “have very few demands of their children (Cherry, The Four Styles of Parenting). The Walls do not require much of their children this is shown by this quote “when dad wasn’t there we invented our own games”. (The Glass Castle pg. 54).…

    • 204 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “The Glass Castle” The Glass Castle was a memoir that takes you on a very detailed journey of the events that occurred in Janette Walls life. In her lifetime her family faced many challenges and went through, what some might call, abnormal circumstances. Over an extended period of time she was homeless, hungry, and often socially isolated from her surrounding environment. The conditions the Wall’s children had to endure throughout the book were harsh and unfair.…

    • 1420 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Love–Hate Relationship Between Father and Daughter The finger of blame indicates Rex, as the parent, did not succeed in his duty of raising his children. It only takes a small aspect of kindness for the children to feel loved again, but once he creates a constant situation involving money and alcohol the children change their minds on their view of their father. In the memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls narrates her favorite childhood memories with her father Rex Walls; regardless of his irresponsibility, Jeannette’s father fails to protect his children, does not take responsibility for his children, and steals from his children, but Jeannette continues to love him for two reasons: he is a source of inspiration and he makes her feel…

    • 2297 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Jeannette Walls takes us on a journey through her memoir The Glass Castle and explains her struggles throughout life. Jeanette grew up with a set of neglecting parents who never tried to provide for her siblings or herself like they should’ve. Jeannette begins to see just how bad her living situation is and so do those around her. Bullying and struggles with her self image start to play a factor in Jeanette’s life. Some struggles she has throughout the whole book is being belittled, made fun of, not understood, and…

    • 1427 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the book, The Glass Castle, the author named Jeannette Walls opens up about the hardships her family was forced to experience. Main factors in those hardships were poverty and Jeannette’s father’s drinking habit. Through these issues, Jeannette along with her siblings managed to tackle the parental role and take care of themselves, as well as each other. Although Jeannette’s parents were at times negligent, they had undoubtedly taught their children long-lasting morals and values. These lessons have proven to play a significant role on the children and brought them together, even in the worst of situations.…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays