Character Analysis Of Rex Walls In The Glass Castle

Rose Mary Walls is far from being a caring mother or a positive role model to her children. She is unable to provide the basic necessities required for survival and even resorts to stealing what little resources the family has for herself; “I wondered if she had been looking forward to

Jeannette always admired her parents despite the way that they chose to live. Even though both parents were both intelligently capable, they chose to live homeless. They both chose their own welfare over their children. With parents like hers, Jeannette took what good she could from her

Imagine living in a life where everything around you is different from reality. Imagine running from the police, living wherever one can find, and still taking care of one's family just at the age of 16. Jeannette Walls had to deal with all of this and more in her early childhood. In the book “The Glass Castle”, the author uses the characters, Jeannette and Rex Walls, to emphasize the importance of family bonds.

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

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

Throughout her life, starting from childhood, Jeannette Walls suffered through multiple hardships that could lead her away from a successful adult life. Since she was young, her parents put her through things that a child should never be exposed to, which could lead her to make these same mistakes as she grew older. For example, her father was an alcoholic, and from this many problems sprouted. Furthermore, her mother never wanted to be tied down, and loathed the idea of family life, as she did not want the responsibility of raising a family. Rose Mary was depicted as self-centered in the novel, and did not think of her children, as she only thought of her own needs. This can be shown when she keeps the diamond ring her children found for herself.

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.

Jeanette Walls and her out of the ordinary family live their lives surrounded in pure craziness and poverty. Jeanette has been raised to be as independent as her age allows her. At age three she could make herself a hot dog and by the age of eighteen she had started a new life in New York away from the craziness that followed her parents throughout the kids nomadic childhood. Jeanette and her siblings Lori, Brian and Maureen live their childhoods with almost nothing. They were always wondering where their next meal would come from and where there parents had mysteriously disappeared to. Rex Walls, the father and husband was a severe alcoholic who spent most of his money on gambling or a beer from a local bar. Rose Mary Walls, the mother and wife was not better, never being to hold onto a job for long enough to get paid and support her family caused many problems for Rose Mary, Rex and most importantly… the kids. The kids all had the dream of escaping the prison their parents called home and heading to New York or California where they could feel endless happiness. The kids grow up with almost no parents, which forces them to become independent from the day they were born. In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Jeanette's parents teach her to only rely on herself and never get attached to something you can lose, forcing Jeanette to become strong and independent throughout her childhood.

On the other hand Rose Mary grew up with loving parents in a nice house with structure, but she hated that life and became a free spirit, addicted to the adrenaline Rex brought her. Rose Mary believed children should not be burdened with lots of rules and restrictions. She was a very selfish woman who would refuse to work because she wanted to become an artist. Rose Mary was a certified teacher and could easily receive a job in the towns which the Wall’s had lived because it was difficult to find teachers that had actually graduated from college. Even when Rose Mary would come around and take a teaching job “she had problems organizing paper work and disciplining her students”, and “at least one morning a week she’d throw a tantrum and refuse to go to work” (Walls 196). She’d eventually quit her job and the Wall’s once again would not have any money coming in except when Rex performed odd jobs.

Rex Walls is introduced as an intelligent inventor, imagining great contraptions such as the Prospector, which sifts through rocks, finding gold in the heterogenous mix by weight. This machine resembles the family’s eternal struggle to find success and literally gold as the travel all over the western United States. All his ideas, at which Jeannette marvels at, are never finished. Despite this, Jeannette sees Rex as--for the most part--perfect and remains loyal to his antics throughout the memoir.

Jeannette Walls was a young girl. Moving around constantly her entire life always on an adventure. Her family never had much money, and she had a hard time finding food. She was a skinny, tall girl with red hair, pale skin, and buck teeth. She was very optimistic in every hard situation she was put in and never gave up faith in her father, for a while anyways. Her father was who she had to put all her faith into. He made the decisions and he was the one who made all these empty promises to janette and her siblings. Janette lived life to the fullest, always being positive and never complaining and to be grateful of what she had, like her parents had taught her. She rarely cried, she was tough. She tried not to care what people think, because her mother taught her that it didn't matter. She stood up for herself, and her family, even in rough times. Even if it was up against someone that isn't in her favor. Through the rough times in her

In the two final parts of this book, the reader can see Jeannette grow into a self-sufficient adult female who appears to have found her place in life. When she travels to accompany Lori in New York City, Jeannette does not know what to expect but is overwhelmed with excitement. Several years after when Rex and Rose Mary move to N.Y.C, you see them basically fall back into their same routine of barely squeaking by living on the streets of the city. I fully support the decisions made by Jeannette to get out and away from her family and ticking time bomb of a mother. She was very wise to get a job and pay for her education as this will help her succeed in the latter part of her life. For Rex and Rose Mary, I do support how they chose to live

Rex is a strange character, He appears to have mood swings and lashes out if things don’t go his way. However he also seems to care for his family namely Jeannette. He constantly claims how Jeannette is his favorite in the family, so it would make sense that Rex would be the most influential person in her life. You can’t classify Rex as a good guy or a bad guy, because he is does so much in The glass castle and you can’t pin his actions down to one reason or another. He often does extremely horrible things that not only brings harm to himself but also his family.

Although we all have an idealistic dream of a perfect life, we should always see life how it is and not how you want it to be. Dreaming big has inspired many people into creating things like no one has ever seen, however, because dreams don’t always come true people may live in a state of depression and sadness.

Rex Walls, the father, is an alcoholic and gambles often. Rose Mary Walls, the mother, has symptoms that may connect to depression. Each of their children all deal with some of the poor decisions their parents make. The Walls family moves around very often because their parents are not able to keep a steady job. The Walls family is able to pull through hard times by making intelligent decisions.