The Glass Castle Analysis

Destitution. Distrust. Deceit. These are the foundations of Jeannette Walls’ childhood, as shown in her memoir, The Glass Castle. An alcoholic father makes the Walls family homeless and impoverished, leading to an unstable lifestyle and a downward spiral of poverty, deceit and addiction..

Many alcoholics are so preoccupied with their addictions, that issues and activities that were once of interest to them, are no longer a concern. The alcoholic then becomes oblivious to his responsibilities for his or her children. Children of alcoholics often suffer from neglect. According to the Children of Alcoholics Foundation, each year “1.2 million children are confirmed by state agencies as being victims of child neglect. Forty percent of these cases involve alcohol or drugs. This suggests that an estimated

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.

At one point in the memoir, Jeannette’s mother, Rose Mary Walls, told Jeannette to expect a check in the mail, but her father, Rex Walls, got to it before she did and denied the fact that he had the check. This money was for the food that they were desperately trying to buy. Instead of Jeannette saying a word to her dad, she knew that saying something would not get the money back, so she took initiative while her mother was gone and did her best to find a job and make up the “lost”

They set the stage for the rest of the memoir; finding out really how Jeannette seems fond yet disappointed in them. “...he’d ruined the Christmas his family had spent weeks planning-the Christmas that was supposed to be the best we’d ever had” (115). This shows how far Rex became submerged himself into drinking, easily ruining a possibly good day at the Walls household. Unfortunately, Jeannette suffered from sexual abuse/harassment during her childhood. Her parents were unconcerned when finding out. “One night when I was almost ten, I was awakened by someone running his hands over my private parts. At first it was confusing…’I just want to play a game with you,’ a man’s voice said” (103). Jeannette asked her parents to close the doors and windows, but they would not consider it. It was essential that they refuse to surrender to fear. “I felt Stanley’s hand creeping onto my thigh...I looked down and saw that Uncle Stanley’s pants were unzipped and he was playing with himself” (183-184). Rose Mary showed no concern when Jeannette told her that Uncle Stanley touched her inappropriately. She felt bad for Uncle Stanley, knowing he is just lonely. Jeannette was most disappointed in her father when she and Brian began digging a foundation for the home that Rex designed for the family. The hole later became a garbage pit; perhaps not affording for the trash to

According to a 2017 study done by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “More than 10 percent of U.S. children live with a parent with alcohol problems.” The author Jeannette Walls uses the book, The Glass Castle, to talk about her childhood struggles of growing up with an alcoholic father. The reason this book was appealing was because I grew up with an alcoholic father as well and I found it interesting to read about someone who had gone through similar situations. In the first 90 pages the author tells us about her chaotic family life. Her father, who is weary of civilization and authority, packs up the family camp often to roam around the desert. Due to their frequent moving her father is not able to keep a stable job,

In these two books "The Glass Castle" Jeannette Walls and "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt both of them had to deal with alcoholic fathers. Growing up I can relate to this struggle, as a child my father drank a lot every night. The best was to survive was to avoid him all together. As my father reflects back on his past, he tells me this was because he was unhappy with his life. He knew his marriage was over. My mother was unfaithful many times, when he left our house he continued to drink. He explains this was because he felt that we were never safe in that house living with my mother and stepfather. From these two books I was better able to relate to Jeanette Walls character because she also experienced neglect. As a child I never thought anything of my mother locking out of the house, we had to fend for ourselves. I would say it was around the age ten when I suddenly got a “beggars complex”. I often would ask neighbors for food or to use their bathrooms. There were days that I would not go to school because my mom didn’t wake us up. Jeanette’s mom didn’t seem to care if she went to school or not. Jeanette is encouraged by her favorite teacher Mrs. Blivens to write for the school newspaper. Realizing that she has a talent for this, Jeanette had the big dreams writing for “the phoenix” a Brooklyn newspaper. Mrs. Blivens was a remarkable role model for her,

In the memoir “The Glass Castle,” by Jeannette Walls, the author describes the childhood she was apart of with her uninvolved parents was somewhat disparate from what other children would experience in their childhood involving their parents.

Children of Alcoholics (COAs) refer to children living in families where a parent abuse alcohol, dependence, and addiction is present. COAs have different life experience than children in non alcoholic families. Which contribute to the fact that living with an alcoholic can cause stress for members in the family Statistics show that eighteen percent

Some of Jeannette Walls's story events from her memoir, The Glass Castle, are a bit hard to believe. An unimaginable past that seems to be fiction created by the author, but in reality, has been fabricated by the cooperating hands of time and chance. Jeannette Walls lived through poverty and recklessness, later to find herself in New York with a stable career and family, much different from what her family had. Going through hardships and trying to survive in her childhood shaped her into the successful individual she is today.

The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls, teaches us that she really lived a tough life. We learned that from even her beginning of her childhood, she was not living the typical childhood life. From dealing with her alcoholic father to her selfish mother, she kept her inner strength and battled to get through it with her brother and sisters. Her own father even tried to hook her up with another man for money. How the father had the guts to do that or how she had the power to get him away and live with that amazes me.

The Glass Castle, is a memoir, written by Jeannette Walls about her life and her families uncommon way of living. From a young age Walls and her family were always moving around and stirring up a little trouble wherever they went. The family faces many problems because of the way they lived including keeping food on the table, an alcoholic father, and a stable living situation. Even though the family had all these problems, all of the Walls children grew up to do great things in the world. Although Walls’ tone changes as she grows older, Walls uses an underlying ironic and humorous tone through the whole book with the use of diction, detail, and dialogue.

Another considerable factor of this problem is the influence these substances have on children. Alcoholism in the home is an extremely hard issue to cope with as a child. Domestic violence, which is often worsened by alcohol abuse, causes a lot of mental issues that affect children permanently. Many kids do not have a stable home and are forced to see their parents and loved ones struggle with drinking (Hopkins 7). Suffering through the effects of drugs and alcohol also make education a challenge. Children often times stay home from school or are inattentive during class due to lack of sleep from late-night parties or rowdiness at home.This makes it almost impossible to succeed later in life and lets the problem continue onto the next generation.

An alcoholic parent can affect what a child thinks is morally acceptable because, they are more tolerant of misbehavior, and often are not very moral people themselves. Alcoholic parents may not often be present or in a stable state of mind, allowing their children to partake in the activities they choose, which are often bad for them. The parents are not conscientious enough to put down the actions, making the child think they are acceptable. Children of alcoholics are more likely to steal and be violent, use drugs and or alcohol, and be engaged in activities that are potentially dangerous ("Children Of Alcoholics | American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry"). They are being raised in an environment where they see this happening, and then imitate it, because that is how they think a person is allowed to act. Some children are just copying what they see their parents do. Alcohol may be the parents’ way to deal with the pressures of daily life, and children observe the use of alcohol as a coping mechanism, making

When looking at parental addiction to alcohol, Sharon Wegcheider-Cruse developed a concept of certain behavioral roles that children of alcoholics take on in order to cope with the addiction issues of the parent which can often lead to emotional harm. Wegcheider-Cruse separates the behavioral roles into four distinct categories each with a different name comprising a hero, a scapegoat, a lost child, and a mascot. When a child takes on a “hero” behavioral role, they are often referred to as the “model child” and are known to take over the family responsibilities which the parents are not addressing. Although there are many positives to a young child taking on this role in the family, including becoming independent, being responsible, and often over achieving, there are many negative impacts made on the child’s emotional state and behavior as well. These negatives consist of having a fear of rejection, having feelings of low self worth, striving for perfection, ignoring