Although loved ones mean well, they do not always know what is best. Many people believe in the idea that parents always know what is best for their children because they've had similar life experiences when they were younger and have gathered wisdom. Adults set an example for their kids, but that example does not always teach good behavior. In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, she grows up in a poor household where she experiences several forms of abuse, often at the hands of her parents. While not everyone goes through the extreme events that Jeannette deals with, several people struggle with issues in their family. Although loved ones mean well, they do not always know what is best.
Jeannette's family is constantly on the move. The
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She loves and cares for them and knows in her heart they feel the same way too. She is very obedient as well. At the beginning, when Jeanette is in the hospital because of her burns, her father decides it's best for her to leave. He says "You just trust your old man,"(14) and she does. She doesn't question his choices because she trusts that her parents know what is right and will protect her. As a teenager, Jeannette becomes more aware of her parent's actions being abnormal. When she is trying to stick to a strict budget while her mother is away and her father asks for money to buy cigars and alcohol, she states "He knew I had a soft spot for him the way no one else in the family did, and he was taking advantage of it"(209). This reveals that she's upset with her father and recognizes that he is manipulative. Ultimately, this shows Jeannette's development and now seeing that her parents do not have the same regard for her …show more content…
After her father hits her, Jeannette decides she must get away. She recalls thinking "...I was going to get out of Welch. The sooner, the better" (221). This, of course, shows her bitterness towards the actions of her parents and the fact that she's been forced to grow up in a town that she can't be happy in. She ends up saving money with her siblings and quickly growing that fund as she is persistent on leaving Welch with her sister. It is the abuse she experiences from them that causes her to push away and feel resentment. This all shows that she now understands that what has been happening to her isn't right or normal and that her parents do not know what is
Anthony Brant once said “ Other things may change us, but we start and end with family.” In the novel, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the Walls family is non-reliable. They do not have much money and the parents Rose Mary and Rex Walls are very irresponsible. Rose Mary and Rex Walls are the parents of Jeannette , Lori, Brian, and Maureen. The siblings Jeanette, Lori, and Brian hold the family together, but if they did not their family would split apart.
She loved the adventures they brought and how fun they made every trip. Jeannette was a very mature and responsible child. At the age of 3 she was cooking hot dogs on the stove by herself. She always helped her mom cook, or even cook by herself. She had to take care of herself most of the time, her parents always wanted the best of their kids but they never had enough money.
The poverty rates are growing by the year as many families struggle to afford sufficient housing, this ultimately impacts the quality of life for their kids. In the novel The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls, it shows the life of Jeannette as a child growing up in a house with a constant cycle of poverty, and homelessness. To push past her families issues, Jeannette thrived in her schoolwork and became a writer for her school newspaper. As she grew older and worked harder, Jeannette moved to New York with her siblings to pursue her career in newswriting. Soon after, both of her parents followed and were homeless for many years.
The Glass Castle is a best selling memoir about author Jeannette Walls childhood and what it was like growing up in a poverty struck family of six. It is not the happiest book out there, with all the sad moments you read about Jeannette having to experience, but it is an inspirational one. Jeanette's childhood is not the happiest one. When you read about what she had to go through, you can not help but think about how you could help other children going through what she did. It also makes you think about how lucky the majority of us are to have not only loving parents that would do anything for us, but parents that are going to do anything to provide for us.
The Glass Castle Parenting Paradigms The Glass Castle by Jeanette walls is a fascinating story of the author’s childhood and how she portrays her experiences. These hardships are brought on by her permissive parents and their laid back demeanor towards life. What I would call their “nontraditional” (Cherry, the four styles of parenting) way causes many troubles in the children’s life due to lack of parental guidance that should be the foundation of a stable childhood. The first and possibly foremost important example is how eager to play along with the children’s shenanigans Jeanette’s parents are.
Also, now that she realizes what she could have done all along or what her parents could have done I do believe that this makes her sort of resent her parents in a way because of how she looked back on her life before.. (INSERT QUOTE HERE) But because she soon after starts to work on her novels specifically about her life and how she grew up it further shows her character as a person and how she finds this as a way to sort of cope or really just own up to herself and everyone else about who she really is inside. Not only this but that there are more to people than how they appear to be, we can never truly know someone or assume the way someone lived based on how they've found their
(116). Although she is just a child, she was able to gather the insight that her father has an alcohol issue and it is affecting her family in negative ways. By realising how harmful it is for him to drink, this demonstrates that she gains the courage to act by asking him to stop. Thus, through her new found insight and ability to act upon it, Jeannette is able to forge her path in her journey towards
Her parents tried to teach her to do the right thing, but it was hard when they continued to show her that doing wrong was okay. Her Father loves his children dearly and wants nothing more than to love them unconditionally like they deserve. He has become an alcoholic and his wife just wasn’t ready to be a mother. He has to force her into loving her family, which leads to him drinking even more. Her father was proud of Jeannette when she came home beat up simply because Jeannette lied and said she’d hurt the other girls worse.
Ever since she was a little girl her whole family struggled with having a steady place to live. This was all from her parents though because Rex and Rose liked being on the run. Rex was a very smart person but had very bad habits and Rose was very bright and artistic but also had bad habits. Jeannette had plans on going to New York with her older sister Lori but their dad ruined it by smashing open the piggy bank with all of the money they had saved. After that they only saved up enough money for either Lori or Jeannette.
Parental Influence Parents are the biggest influence upon their children. From the time a child is born to the time they leave the household, the values that the parents hold are instilled into their children. Parents are required to make crucial decisions about how to raise their children in order to guide them through the inevitable obstacles and hardships of life. In The Glass Castle, many would argue the lack of care and responsibility the Walls had for their children. The author, Jeannette Walls, uses Rex and Mary Walls to demonstrate that their strong traits of non-conformity, self-sufficiency and perseverance are passed on to their children, allowing them to develop to their full potential.
As Jeannette matures her connection with her parents, particularly her father begins to diminish. Jeannette didn’t grasp that the way her parents raised them or viewed the world wasn’t normal and as she got older she recognized how selfish her parents were. Jeannette was constantly close with her father, and always showed compassion for him, but when they relocated to Welch it appeared as if her father had changed. Jeannette eventually obtained work and began to save up money so she and her siblings could survive, but her father didn’t approve and eventually sabotaged that plan. Eventually, Rex went to Jeannette and requested money from her, he did promise to pay her back.
When Jeannette tells her mother: “I was too ashamed, Mom. I hid.” (page 5) she means this in two different ways. One being because she is ashamed to say her parents are homeless while she is not. Another is because she realizes that she felt this way during her childhood because there was a way they could have prevented it, but they chose not to.
It was getting harder. ”(169) Jeannette’s trust and love in her father is getting very small, because of the way he abuses alcohol and lets her down. When Jeanette tells us that she believes she is a fool for believing in Rex, it shows a change in her town to be unbelieving and critical. Throughout The Glass Castle, Jeanette’s tone of Rex Walls goes from very trusting to very disbelieving.
One prime example of learning of out struggle was when the mother gave Jeannette 200 for one summer. She believes that she can make it work, if she works more. But eventually her father asks her for money and she gives in to the temptation “I pulled my head back. Giving him that money pissed me off. I was mad at myself but even madder at Dad.
They think they can bend the rules and do what they think is necessary. Jeannette is exposed to these understandings, making her the person she grew up to be. Jeanette demonstrates how she struggles with her family throughout numerous portions of the novel: “The Desert,” “Welch,” New York.” These struggles developed and defined who she came to be.