Throughout life many of the problems that people face are overlooked. Whether the conflicts are internal or external, they tend to affect not only the person, but others around them. In Jeannette Walls’s, The Glass Castle, she documents her life story through the eyes of a child growing up. Much of this includes how her dad’s internal conflicts rippled to create problems with every other member of the family; in turn, this created more internal conflicts for them all.
From early on in the book, it is apparent that Rex, Jeannette’s father, struggles with alcoholism. At first glance, a reader might write off alcoholism as a choice. In the case of Rex Walls though, alcohol was his coping strategy to deal with the problems that occured growing …show more content…
Because their father was a drunk, he struggled to maintain a job and provide for his family. As Jeannette documented in the book, the majority of the problems dealt with violence, abuse, and money. When Rex would drink he “turned into an angry-eyed stranger who threw around furniture and threatened to beat up Mom or anyone else who got in his way” (Walls 23). Jeannette just lived through the days when her father drank to the point of hysteria. This drinking induced violence never caused physical harm to the children, but Rex’s drinking was the source of indirect abuse. One memory in the book shared a time when Rex was drunk and needed money. His solution was to bring Jeannette to a bar and make her get some guy drunk. That way, he could easily defeat the guy in a gambling game. That is exactly what happened, but because Rex carelessly watched Jeannette in the bar, she was almost sexually abused my the man. When Jeannette brought this up to her dad, all he had to say was, “I’m sure he just pawed you some. [...] I knew you could handle yourself” (Walls 213). This is not the kind of incident a father would want his little girl to deal with. On top of the violence and abuse, the family always struggled to save money. The majority of the money would go to alcohol and cigarettes for Rex. These were two essentials that he couldn’t give up, so often times the children would have to sacrifice
From early on in the book, it is apparent that Rex, Jeannette’s father, struggles with alcoholism. At first glance, a reader might write off alcoholism as a choice. In the case of Rex Walls though, alcohol was his coping strategy to deal with the problems that occured growing …show more content…
Because their father was a drunk, he struggled to maintain a job and provide for his family. As Jeannette documented in the book, the majority of the problems dealt with violence, abuse, and money. When Rex would drink he “turned into an angry-eyed stranger who threw around furniture and threatened to beat up Mom or anyone else who got in his way” (Walls 23). Jeannette just lived through the days when her father drank to the point of hysteria. This drinking induced violence never caused physical harm to the children, but Rex’s drinking was the source of indirect abuse. One memory in the book shared a time when Rex was drunk and needed money. His solution was to bring Jeannette to a bar and make her get some guy drunk. That way, he could easily defeat the guy in a gambling game. That is exactly what happened, but because Rex carelessly watched Jeannette in the bar, she was almost sexually abused my the man. When Jeannette brought this up to her dad, all he had to say was, “I’m sure he just pawed you some. [...] I knew you could handle yourself” (Walls 213). This is not the kind of incident a father would want his little girl to deal with. On top of the violence and abuse, the family always struggled to save money. The majority of the money would go to alcohol and cigarettes for Rex. These were two essentials that he couldn’t give up, so often times the children would have to sacrifice