Analysis Of Rex As A Victim Of Sexual Abuse

Children need a safe and steady place to grow up in. Kids looked up to their parents and aspire to be just like them when they grow up. Rex and Rosemary Wall have different beliefs when it comes to taking care of their children. Although they seem to love each other, Rex and Rosemary, from The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, create chaos and instability in their home with their volatile relationship. Creating an unstable environment making it difficult for the entire family, it always made the children terrified when they fought because it usually ended up Rosemary getting injured physically or mentally, as time passed by Rex began to leave more frequently and not come back for days, making Rosemary and the children without money for food and just worried about Rex in general.

Towards the end of the memoir, Jeannette was in high school and was getting ready to graduate and get as far away from Welch and her broken family as possible. Jeannette decided to follow in her older sisters footsteps and move to New York. Jeannette is passionate about writing and believed New York was a perfect place to get her career started, along with college. Jeannette’s family was upset that she was leaving them, especially Rex. Rex felt as if he was losing

And despite everything, her love for her father only accumulates for him. Throughout the story Jeannette at times has given up on her father but she somehow always rationalizes his actions and continues to see him as everything but a bad influence. For example, when Rex purposely throws Jeannette into the water forcing her to learn how to swim and saying, “If you don’t want to sink you better learn how to swim.” (Walls 66) Again this just proves that despite how reckless and inconsiderate her parents were at times eventually it taught her to be independent and survive. And in the end they needed this because living in poverty its almost difficult to make sure you will survive the next day. Regardless of Rex’s weaknesses in raising Jeannette soon enough it proved that Jeannette’s love and admiration for her father was impeccable and only proved that Rex played a huge role in her

The novel, The Glass Castle, exhibits the human tendency to be selfish. This is manifested in both Rex and Rose Mary. Rex is characterized as a selfish father throughout the novel, and his paternal image is consistently skewed because of his actions. His addiction to alcohol ruins countless family events. One year the family’s Christmas is ruined when Rex drinks a great deal of alcohol and burns their tree and presents. Jeanette remembers, “Dad sat on the sofa [...] telling mom he was doing her a favor [...] no one tried to wring dad’s neck [...] or even point out that he’d ruined the Christmas his family has spent weeks planning” (115). Jeanette and her family are always left cleaning up their father’s drunken mess. Even when Rex is sober he does not apologize for ruining sentimental family events and continues to put alcohol before his family. Selfishness can also be seen in Rex’s relationship with money. He takes Jeanette into a bar in order to get money from his friend, Robbie. When Robbie asks if he can take Jeanette upstairs, Jeanette recollects, “So, with Dad’s blessing, I went upstairs” (212). Rex is so self-absorbed that he allows his daughter to go into a strange man's apartment, fully knowing his intentions. During Jeanette and her siblings’ childhood, they experience dangerous situations with their parents’ knowledge and approval. While Rex’s selfish nature is typically derived from his addiction, Rose Mary’s selfishness is simply a reflection of her personality.

Perhaps, the most significant event left out of the movie was Rose Mary’s response to Uncle Stanley’s actions. In order to establish context, Jeannette, a young girl at the time, was living in Welch prior to her relocating to New York. Her Uncle Stanley, brother of Jeannette’s father Rex, attempted to sexually assault Jeannette whilst she watched television on the couch in his room. Distressed, she attempted to disclose her experiences with her mother, who replied saying phrases such as, "Poor Stanley," and "He's so lonely." (online 116) From these meaningless responses, the reader senses feelings of disgust that viewers cannot possibly begin to know. This, of course, was not the only difference that sparked dislike for Rosemary's character. Another scene, for example, would be when Brian and Jeannette discover a two-carat diamond ring. Thrilled to sell the ring to purchase food and pay off their house,.... However, their enthusiasm did not last long, for Rose Mary found a better purpose for the ring that was absolutely self-serving. She decided to keep the ring because it would fuel her self esteem and replace the one Rex pawned years ago. Based off of the film’s perception of Rose Mary, she would never commit such an act being the motherly figure she is. In reality, the Rose Mary who kept the ring is

A few times in the book she would be inappropriately touched, or beaten up, and her father would do nothing to avenge or just protect his daughter. Brian came to her side a couple times and defended her against bullies, but Rex would never be empathetic. She had a little brother, but what she needed, was a preventive father. When Rex came home drunk most of the nights, he was violent and rude to his children. To try and make a difference for the whole family, and to get them to believe in Dad again, her birthday present she wished for was for her father to stop drinking. He lasted a couple months, but the disappointment and betrayal she felt of her father was immense and “...she couldn’t believe Dad had gone back to the booze” (Walls 123). She was the last to believe in him and with the overwhelming dishonesty and deception, at last, she had finally lost faith in her Dad.

While her father’s dismisses his destructive nature, Jeannette becomes conscious of his actions which motivates her to make amends in hopes of leaving their desolate life. Instead of getting help for his childhood trauma, Rex immerses himself in alcohol causing him to become

In her younger years, Jeannette was an smart and imaginative child. At first, she enjoyed moving around, and had a lot of faith in her father, which created a good relationship between them. “All we had to was find gold, once we’d struck it rich, he’d [Rex] start work on our Glass Castle” (Walls, 25). The tremendous faith that she has in Rex creates a strong bond because she is the only family member who trusts his ideas. Unfortunately, he is a raging alcoholic who can’t hold a job, so most of his promises are broken. As Jeannette gets older, he lets her down more and more. One time he brought her to a bar where she was then sexually violated. When the two had a talk after, he said “I knew you could handle yourself” (Walls, 213,) instead of defending her. It was upsetting to watch their relationship grow apart and to see how poorly he provided for his family, yet they still loved him.

She has no sympathy that her daughter was just sexually assaulted by a family member, even though about 60% of children who are sexually abused are abused by the people the family trusts (“Darkness to Light End Child Sexual Abuse”). Rex and Rose Mary tell Jeanette that she will be fine and that she can handle herself. They are too busy trying to pretend that their financial situation is okay to truly care about Jeannette being sexually assaulted.

Due to the loss of food and money the mother took up teaching despite her antipathy for the career. A dislike stirred by the fact teaching was meant to be a last resort if her art career failed. Rex and Mary decide to move once more in attempt to avoid their children being taken away due to recent events.

As Jeannette grows up her relationship with her parents, especially as her father starts to dwindle. Jeannette didn’t realize that the way her parents were going about taking care of them wasn’t normal. As Jeannette started to age she realized how inconsiderate her parents really were, Mary and Rex had forced their children to move around the country leaving the kids hungry and alone countless nights. Jeannette was always close with her father, and always had sympathy for him. However, when they moved to Welch it seemed as though her father had completely changed. Jeannette had started to work to save up money so her and her siblings could live, but her father did not respect that. One day Rex went up to Jeannette when no one was home and simply said “’Hon, I need some money.’”(209) Jeannette would have gladly given him the money, but it was for beer and cigarettes. This made Jeannette feel like he had no regard for her at all. Rex did not care enough to find his own way of getting money for his addictions, let alone provide food for his family. Jeannette agreed to give him the money, and he agreed to pay her back, but when he wanted to pay her back, Jeannette was staring to realize how sickening her father really is.

As proven by the different challenges faced by the Wes Moores and Jeannette Walls, while a strong father figure is always important to have in life, it does not determine how far you go or how successful you become. Moore’s father was deceased and was not able to be there for him by unfortunate circumstance, but Moore himself found it in him to strive to make his father proud, regardless. Walls’s father, on the other hand, was an alcoholic who chose not to be emotionally there for her. He constantly not only neglected her, but abused his role of authority by forcing Jeannette to participate in acts she never should have. In one scenario, Rex brings Jeannette to a bar and used her to basically get a man drunk so he would lose a pool game to

Both of them had dreams they wanted to accomplish, Rex was an intelligent man who had a passion for logic. Rose Mary was a licensed teacher, but also had a passion as a unique artist who loved to paint. When Rex started losing multiple jobs, the family had become poor most of the time. As Rose Mary not working only relying on her painting and her husband, Rex had lost his way by being an alcoholic and not caring about bringing money to the table. Both of them started having problems, by fighting, being careless and irresponsible for each other and their children. The fight between Rex and Rose Mary situation of working had started to become very serious. Rex had lost his job once again, and Rose Mary was still trying to pursue her dream as being a great artist. She had been complaining about Rex’s Alcoholic behavior and lack of job searching to provide for the family. The children could not ignore the fact that their parents were fighting. Over hearing the feud throughout the whole house, Jeannette begins to state “Dad said that if mom wanted someone in the family to be punching a time clock then she could get a job.”(Walls70). The quote states that Rose Mary had argued with Rex about him not working. She wanted him to stop his habits and job search, but he was to upset and carless that he told her she needs to get a job if she wants

Even though he didn’t provide for his family to the best of his ability, he still showed a genuine sense of love and affection. Rex Walls ended up contracting a rare tropical disease from a street fight and he wanted to see Jeannette one last time before he passed. “‘But you always loved your old man didn’t you?’ ‘I did, Dad,’ I said. ‘And you loved me’” (Walls 279). Out of all the horrible events that Rex Walls forced Jeanette to suffer through, they will always have an intense connection of a mutual honest love between a father and a

scorned by the public at the zoo, Rex informs his kids “that these fools were