Argumentative Essay On The Glass Castle

Author Jeanette Walls is an example of someone who has preserved and made something of herself despite the fact that she has a less-than-normal childhood. Her parents Rose Mary and Rex Walls struggled at time to parent efficiently, as shown in Jeannette Walls’ memoir of her childhood The Glass Castle. In the recalling of her unique and sometimes disturbing childhood, Walls paints a picture of inadequate parenting, dangerous techniques used on her siblings and herself, and events that may have inflicted permanent damage on the Walls children. Not only Jeannette, but her other siblings Brian, Lori, and Maureen Walls were also negatively affected by the way they were raised and the things that happened to them under their parent’s watch. Rose

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.

The Glass Castle, a memoir written by Jeannette Walls, is a story that discusses the insights of a dysfunctional, yet vibrant family. The four Walls children have two parents, Rose Mary who was an unconventional artist, and Rex who was an alcoholic father. The family travels constantly across the country, with their parents using their imagination as a distraction from their poverty. Despite the hardships the Walls family has faced, Jeanette writes her truth in order to reconcile with her past. She expresses through her story of how she has reflected upon her childhood, and how it has shaped her character in the present (The glass castle: Jeanette Walls, 2016). The majority of readers may believe that Rex Walls is an irresponsible, neglectful parent. However, Rex’s viewpoint of how he cares for Jeanette and her siblings can be portrayed as supportive, intelligent, and sensible.

In the memoir “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls, the parenting style Rex and Rosemary Walls most exemplified was permissive parenting, their children were rarely disciplined, took a friend like role with them, and avoided confrontation with their children.

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.

Rex Walls, the father of Jeannette Walls, said, “If you don’t want to sink you better figure out how to swim”. This quote says that if someone does not want to fail, then they need to keep trying to figure out how to achieve their goal. In the memoir, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, there is an unpleasant scene of Rex teaching Jeannette how to swim in his own way. While the book, The Glass Castle and the movie show great details of this scene, the movie shows a extends the conflict in this scene. Jeanette gets angry at her father and the effect shown widely differs between the movie and the book.

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.

It can be seen that both Rex, and Rose Mary Walls did not like receiving any type of help, even if it would greatly benefit the family. At the beginning of the book, Jeannette burns herself while cooking hotdogs. One sign of negligence from Rose Mary was that she let Jeannette cook by herself at the age of 3, with absolutely no supervision, and this caused Jeannette to accidently burn herself severely. She was in the hospital for a few weeks, and due to the parent’s discontent with receiving help, they decided to steal Jeannette out of the hospital before she was cleared to leave. Jeannette explains, “Dad hurried down the hall with me in his arms. A nurse yelled for us to stop, but Dad broke into a run. He pushed open an emergency exit door and sprinted down the stairs and out to the street” (Walls 9). Firstly, Rex is not being a good role model to his three year old daughter as he is doing something that is completely forbidden. A responsible parent would not be teaching their children that actions such as these are acceptable. Jeannette was only three, and therefore the encouragement to break rules would stick to her mind a lot easier. Also, what was Rex thinking when he decided to steal Jeannette from the hospital prematurely? They brought Jeannette to the hospital for her to recover from her injury (which could have been prevented with parent supervision). Hospitals are there to help patients, and that is exactly how it benefitted Jeannette. If there were a reason for this, it might have been understandable. However, Rex did not have a valid reason for this as it was not like he was going to help Jeannette recover at home. Not only did the parents not like help from other people, but they did not like any type of aid to their family at all. This can be seen when Jeannette explains,” ‘Nosiree,’ Mom said. She didn't approve of glasses. If you had weak eyes, Mom

At the early age of 3, she began forgiving her mother for the way she treated her, always neglecting her children. Her mother refers to a saddle as an analogy saying that if falling off the horse, it shouldn’t stop a person from riding horses. Similarly, even if she burned herself from cooking, she shouldn’t stop doing that. As faulty as her mother was, Jeanette's extremely strong mind made her braver and more courageous through the tragedies. Despite the hardships, she walked through life optimistically no matter the circumstance. She forced herself to have complete faith in her parents. When Jeanette’s dad threw her into a pool to teach her to swim, she thought to herself, “I figured he must be right, there was no other way to explain it” (66). Rex put his daughter in a life or death situation. Although she was extremely nervous, her attitude towards the end was incredibly optimistic, forcing herself to believe that her dad was right without doubt. She doesn’t let herself experience pity and depression for being born into a unfortunate family, she hopefully searched for the sliver of light at the end of the dark tunnel. Although Jeanette went through a lot growing up, in the end when her dad is sick and in

Rex Walls, a character in The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, is an abusive, manipulative parent. He exhibits many traits that are classified as neglective, abusive as well as endangering to the general well being of his children. This book tells the heartbreaking story of Jeannette Walls childhood into her adult life. As a child she was exposed to the worst and most sickening aspects of the world due to her parents incapabilities. It emphasizes the struggles of growing up in an underprivileged as well as dealing with her abusive and mentally ill parents. Tried in the court of law, Rex Walls would be charged guilty, due to the countless examples of evidence against him.

The Wall family’s dad, Rex, was a very heavy alcoholic. Being an alcoholic affected the Walls children in so many ways. With their father drinking, they were unable to afford food to eat and other basic needs because their father used the money on booze. Rex would beg Jeannette for money to buy alcohol by saying, “Hon, I need some money for beer and cigarettes” on page 209. On page 78 Brian talks about how their father leeches to buy alcohol, saying “Dad doesn’t need to do research on leaching. He’s an expert”.

The Glass Castle, a memoir by Jeannette Walls reveals one look into a dysfunctional family. This personal memoir is full of lessons of redemption and reliance for all. Jeannette and her siblings thrived with parents whose beliefs and stubborn ways of life, changed their children’s’ lives forever. Though their parent’s dreadful actions, the children tried to fend for them. Rex, a very brilliant man, when sober and Rose Mary, an inspirational artist, when not a panhandler risked their own lives daily. Even though Rex and Rose Mary’s lives were unstable at times, they would instill lessons into their children. Their philophies in life I believe relied on one another, which taught their children some

Any man that has children has the responsibility to be the best role model they can be. Been the best role model for a child is going to shaped how that child is going to be when they become an adult. But, if they are bad role model to their children, then, the children's future would not turn out to be successful, but very few can be successful. In the novel, The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, Rex, Jeannette’s father, is an unsympathetic character because of his horrible example to his children. This can be viewed throughout the book because he is an alcoholic, uncaring, and selfish person. Rex is a very irresponsible person that only very few can relate.

Jeannette’s father is clearly portrayed as one of the most stubborn of the family. It’s shown that Rex does not change by the way his family reacts to the way he lashes out. In the beginning of the story he gets in an argument with the doctor because he didn’t think Jeannette should be wearing bandages because “Burns need to breathe” (13). Even though Jeannette insisted on listening to the doctors he does not have much sympathy when it comes to his childrens wants or needs. Towards the end of the story Rex can’t accept Jeannette’s thoughtful gift because he’s not “some sort of charity chase” (263). He can’t get over his head of the house role and accept the help from his daughter. Rex doesn’t realize Jeannette morals we’re only to be generous because she loves her father.

One persistent issue presented throughout The Glass Castle is alcoholism. Rex Walls, Jeanette’s father, suffers from severe alcoholism which not only has a negative impact on him, but on the entire Walls’ family. The book demonstrates just how much of a toll an alcoholic parent has on their children. Due to his severe drinking problem, he became emotionally unconnected and neglectful towards his children and abusive both physically and emotionally to his wife. Although Rex was an intelligent and gifted man, his family lived in poverty due to his inability to sustain a job. When he managed to sober up and get a job, he would relapse and stop going to work just to drink. Alcoholism is still a widespread issue in families today causing psychological, emotional, and physical pain to everyone involved.