Cruelty is a real and evident part of society, apparent in everyday workings. In the way that harsh racial slurs are flung from mouths of ignorant anger to the way the last meal is granted to a prisoner on death row. These cruelties are unique in their own way, but each of them stemmed from a kindness. The ignorance granted with the anger, and the picking of their own food are kindnesses that lead to a cruel event. Cruelty comes and flourishes in kindness, while kindness can create and feed cruelty. Two ugly beast that cannot come without the other, as is evident throughout a numerous amount of short stories as well as the book written by Jeannette Walls titled, The Glass Castle. Cruelty is breed/conditioned into the children at a young age
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In Jeannette Walls memoir, The Glass Castle, cruelty and kindness play a factor in the outcome of the story as well as the events that continue to reoccur throughout the book. Jeannette’s father, Rex, is an extreme alcoholic and toxic person and is the main source of the problems that occur throughout the memoir. Rex’s inability to drop his dependency on alcohol and unwillingness to change his cruel nature is nourished by the small kindnesses that are granted to him throughout his life time. The constant forgiveness given to him by both his wife and children feeds the cruelty that he inflicts on them. During one of the family’s summers in Welch, Jeannette was put in charge of the budget as her mother was gone for the summer in a another irresponsible escapade to ‘find herself”, leaving behind her children with little to no money to last an entire summer. After managing the budget with only a couple dollars a day, avoiding being raped which her father put her into that situation, stealing (and returning), and hanging onto every penny they had after loaning money to her father, Jeannette felt owed as she grew up. She saw her parents as irresponsible and in turn lost all respect for them; she loses respect even more when she is whipped because of the blatant disrespect she shows to her parents. Rex’s cruelty with the whipping to the drunken
In Jeannette Walls memoir, The Glass Castle, cruelty and kindness play a factor in the outcome of the story as well as the events that continue to reoccur throughout the book. Jeannette’s father, Rex, is an extreme alcoholic and toxic person and is the main source of the problems that occur throughout the memoir. Rex’s inability to drop his dependency on alcohol and unwillingness to change his cruel nature is nourished by the small kindnesses that are granted to him throughout his life time. The constant forgiveness given to him by both his wife and children feeds the cruelty that he inflicts on them. During one of the family’s summers in Welch, Jeannette was put in charge of the budget as her mother was gone for the summer in a another irresponsible escapade to ‘find herself”, leaving behind her children with little to no money to last an entire summer. After managing the budget with only a couple dollars a day, avoiding being raped which her father put her into that situation, stealing (and returning), and hanging onto every penny they had after loaning money to her father, Jeannette felt owed as she grew up. She saw her parents as irresponsible and in turn lost all respect for them; she loses respect even more when she is whipped because of the blatant disrespect she shows to her parents. Rex’s cruelty with the whipping to the drunken