Analysis Of The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

In the memoir of The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls, parenting capabilities are not the finest. Anne Frank once said, “Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.” Although Jeannette Walls’ parents did not give their children good advice at times, they loved them very much; however, two damaging characteristics of their parenting style, selfishness and carelessness, almost destroyed the family and certainly cast a shadow over their childhood. When George Eliot said, “Selfish— a judgment readily passed by those who have never tested their own power of sacrifice,” he was describing a character trait of Jeanette's mother. Sections in the book suggest that her mother is sneaking food and eating it for herself. Rex is consistently away from his family, drinking at bars and wasting all of their money. Jeannette’s mom chooses to go to the library instead of looking for a job to provide for her family. The bad outweighed the good. With Jeannette’s parents displaying forms of

“If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim.” (Rex Walls, 66) This represents the wrongful ways of how bad outweighed the good. Instead of being protective and loving, they cause constant challenges in their children's lives. The memoir begins with a scene where Jeannette is cooking hot dogs by herself at three years old over a kitchen stove with boiling water. Simple moments like these, are when their parenting notions become exceedingly noticeable. Allowing a three year old child to cook on a stove, is irresponsible and hazardous. Signs of mental illness, and alcoholism also effected the children in many ways. I was astonished at how strong Jeannette became as an adult in her later life. Oscar Wilde once said, “To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like