The Glass Castle: a Case Study

Many would argue the biggest impact on a child is their financial background. The walls family was not financially supported, and they lived a very poor lifestyle and for four kids to grow up in that isn’t easy, especially for Jeannette because she has dreams. She didn’t get new clothes or shoes often and if she did usually handy downs because her parents wouldn’t help do anything but benefit themselves. ”It crossed my mind that Dad ought to sell Elvis and use the money to install an indoor toilet and buy us all new clothes. The black leather shoes I had bought for fifty cents at the Dollar General Store were held together with safety pins.” They rarely

This fond memory of her childhood was a time when the Walls family was not starving or homeless, and Jeannette’s father had a true job that was providing food and shelter for their family. This period was one of the few times in Jeannette’s life during which the Walls family was at peace with one another. Education was the main way the family bonded, so the constant presence of literature and reading in this part of her life demonstrates that this could have been a time where the relationship between parents and children in the Walls family was at its strongest and

Often when people decide to have children, they think of their circumstances whether they are fit for it or capable of raising a child. For some people they have no control and in this case Jeanette Walls’ memoir, “The Glass Castle,” is a crucial example of the struggle she faces growing up in poverty. Jeanette Walls was not only faced with living under the conditions of poverty, she also had to deal with the chaos and neglect from her parent’s lifestyle. Although Jeanette Walls parents were irresponsible and selfish one thing Jeanette’s Walls parents managed to do right was instilling good qualities and well-raised independent adults. Not only did Jeanette Wall’s suffer drastically from poverty, she had to deal with the constant battle of

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

New norms of what is perceived as a family are emerging, according to Kaakinen, each distinct, with its own set of characteristics defining a healthy family (Kaakinen, Coehlo, Steele, Tabacco, & Hanson, 2015, pg. 37). Based on current demographic indicators, nursing must adapt to these evolving changes, to effectively identify real and potential risks affecting both the health and safety of the family unit.

The Walls children are not only raised by parents that can’t hold down a job, but by parents who are also mentally unstable. In a recent study by Princeton University it was said that “ Long work hours, lack of autonomy, job insecurity, and a heavy workload are also associated with adult mental health problems.” (Princeton). No matter how bad of a “childhood” the Walls children had it’s worse because both parents can’t hold down a job. With both parents rarely working the children are left to fend for themselves, essentially raising themselves. The Walls children have a poor quality of life and a huge factor of their quality of life is because their parents can’t keep a job. For example if Rex Walls kept a job and didn't spend his money on booze the children would have food to eat. At one point in The Glass Castle it says “whenever Mom was too busy to make dinner or we were out of food, we’d go back to the dumpster to see if any new chocolate was waiting for us.” (Walls 125). Jeanette’s parents were so selfish that the children had to go to the dumpster to get a meal, and that problem could’ve been solved if either parent was dedicated to keeping a job and putting food on the table. The children also spent most of their childhood wearing the ripped and tattered clothes because their parents were unable to afford new clothes. Not only is this extremely sad, but if their parents had steady

With no limits or boundaries, Walls is thrown in a big body of water without knowing how to swim. Rex and Rosemary has a sense of doing it by yourself or not at all asserting “But the Hot Pot didn’t have any ehat edges like that swimming pool. There was nothing to cling to. I waded up in my shoulders. The water above my chest is warm and the rocks i was standing on felt so hot [...] Dad who watched me unsmiling[..] “you’re going to learn today”(65). Rex, in athrows Jeanette in water with no edges, knowing she can’t swim.He puts Jeannette in a live or die situation. Rex shows the faults of parenting because the parents have no regards on Jeannette’s safety or life and wall states”You’re going to learn today’ declaring “Dad pried my fingers from around his neck and pushed me away. My arms flailed around and i sank into the hot smelly water. Water surged in my nose and down my throat. My lungs burned[...] He pulled back and did it again” (65-66).Putting a child in a dangerous situation to show them a lesson shows bad parenting.Rex and Rosemary causes the reader to reflect on their lack of responsibility as being a parent so that they can understand from both sides of view of the poverty situation.

Jeannette’s self-reliant behavior is frequently shown through her refusal of help from others. On one trip to retrieve her father from a bar, Jeannette’s father is so drunk that he can no longer walk. Another man offers to drive them home, and

A child can end up with a troubled future if they were neglected in the past. This can be seen in The Glass Castle and in multiple other cases today. Jeannette Walls’s youngest sibling Maureen is an exquisite example of what can happen if a child is neglected during childhood. When the Walls family had been living in New York, a disastrous event happened. Jeannette says, “Six months later, Maureen stabbed Mom. It happened after Mom decided it was time for Maureen to develop a little self-sufficiency by moving out and finding a place of her own” (Walls 274-275). Maureen stabbing her mother seems like the effect of drugs and alcohol at first, but it is indeed the product of neglect. Maureen always practically lived with different families during her childhood because her neighbors felt responsible to raise her correct because they knew her parents would not be able to. This led to Maureen becoming reliant on other people while the rest of the Walls family were learning how to be self sufficient. This self sufficiency immensely helped the other Walls kids when they moved to New York, but Maureen was under a lot of new found stress because she could not fend for herself in a city full of people that do not care about you. This stress led to her taking drugs, smoking cigarettes and ultimately stabbing her mother. Maureen is not the only case of this happening. In

Walls, “...lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire. It was...knowledge that kept you on your toes.” Often times, Jeannette, Lori, Brian, and Maureen were maltreated by Rex and Rose Mary Walls, their parents, through neglectful abuse. However, as the reader stands alongside Jeannette as she matures chapter by chapter the real conflict becomes clearer. In the beginning, as most children do, she tries to understand and accept the blatant lies or finds content in the absence of what she later begins to see as her deserved respect and need of care, but of course her father was her idol, hero, star. How could she bother to complain when he was obviously “onto something” bigger than them all? To be told “...I was his favorite child, but he made me promise not to tell Lori or Brian or Maureen. It was our secret…” then lose the same passion and faith in her father that she’d worked so hard to preserve? Unspeakable horror. This conflict with herself, distinct from Yousafzai’s person vs person conflict with the Taliban, is what she struggles with and avoids any real confrontation with through most of the memoir by distracting herself with the responsibility of improving the family’s

With parents like these, succumbing to anger and revenge proves understandable, but instead the author bypasses all of this. Although her childhood is surrounded by less than inspiring figures her optimism allows her to make something of her life. Wall's even ends up maintaining excellent grades and

In the same fashion, dealing with Maureen Walls, the youngest child of the Walls family, had to rely on her friends and people she hardly knew to provide for her. This situation went as far as Maureen going to her friend’s house to eat meals and

Nursing has evolved in many ways over the years, in particular is the Florence Nightingale foundation of caring for the whole family and not just the patient. The following case study of Omid 's story: The Power of Family-Centered Care highlights the positive and negative aspects of their family’s healthcare experiences , and models of family nursing and concepts of family-centred care. By comparing the theories and models to what is currently put into practice by today’s nurses and healthcare providers a better outcome for this family is idealized.

Moxie, 2007. Maureen Leahey & Lorraine Wright. Family Nursing Resources. Retrieved February 3, 2008 from http://www.familynursingresources.com/aboutus.htmPerry, A & Potter, P. ( 2006) Canadian fundamentals of nursing. (J.Ross-Kerr &

It is one thing to claim something, it is altogether different when you can actually backup your claim. If New Castle claims it has great schools, it should show why it is making that claim. How are New Castle’s kid succeeding compared to others? When it talks about outstanding recreation opportunities, it must back up the claim by telling the world how may parks it has, how many miles of trails are available and so on. It is likely some residents do not know. It is for sure that people outside the community do not know. So, while the brand claims it, the market effort should back up the claim.