The Glass Castle: The Walls

Even as a young kid, Brian takes on the reasonability of a father, like they way children do when one or both of their parents are absent from their lives. I first noticed it when tried to defend Jeannette, when the young girls were beating her up. And when he protected Jeannette from the knowledge of what actually goes on in the Green Machine. Brian has always been there for Jeannette to protect her. When Rex was "at work", and the creep came in and was touching Jeannette, Brian was there ready to attack. Where was Rex when all of this happened? He was "at work." Even under ten years old, Brian is more of a father than Rex has the potential to be.

At the beginning of the Glass Castle, it appeared as if the Walls children were getting a nontraditional way of being educated. Their reading level was way above what it could've been, if they would've went to school like normal children. They were able to learn things that they could help them in real life, like shooting a rifle. Even though it is very dangerous, it did help the children protect themselves when needed. Plus, the children were able to have a basically healthy relationship with their parents. As the book went on and the children got older, their parents started having them learn the traditional way, by putting them in school. This caused the Walls to come crashing down. Rex started to drink more and more since he wasn't teaching his children, causing him to become abusive and neglectful toward his family that he was supposed to be supporting. The more Rex became an alcoholic, the more Rose Mary started to blame and hate the children. Only seeming to care about them when she could benefit from them in some way, shape, or form. She also resents them because they are preventing her from becoming an artist.  She feels as if they are holding her back and taking from her. That's why she hid the chocolate bar from her starving kids. And why she never sold her inherited land that was probably worth one million dollars.

The Walls Family

I like how Jeannette Walls writes the beginning of the book as if she was a kid living it, while still keeping her current perspective on her past. It makes it enjoyable to read because she puts the reader in the her eyes, as if we are living it ourselves.

I don't understand how they manage to just pick up everything and leave on a whim, or how they don't get caught when skipping out on so many bills. This definitely shows some of the flaws of America. In a way, they are able to work around the system. This entire family works together to get free hospital care, free housing (for a little bit), no punishment for crimes. Honestly, I think that her father is the problem. He spends all of their family's money on booze, abuses his wife, drags his family on his selfish adventures. Don't get me wrong, the mother isn't blameless. She thinks children should be able to take care of themselves, which is understandable when they are almost to adulthood, but when they are only 3 years old! That is pure neglect right there. The idea of family roles is very present through out the book. Walls mocks the idea that the family is lead by the father. Just the fact that denies his kids true medical care, demonstrates the irony in his role. They even say that Rex is the leader of the family, which is true, he leads them right into trouble.

The Walls family, seems to have their own idea of the American Dream. Their dream is to be as unlike the average American. This is because the average American would see them almost as savages. I think it's more of their way of coping with their failure to accomplish the real American dream. It seems to me, that the Walls almost have an Emersonian way of life. Not conforming to society, living in the wilderness, home schooling their children, ect., but they lose more than they gain.

 

The Glass Castle

        To me, so far, the most powerful part of The Glass Castle is just imagining what Jeannette had to go through as a child. She moved around the country, with no true home, with an alcoholic, verbally abusive father and a loosey-goosey mother who wasn't strong enough to stand up to her husband. I can’t imagine what it would've been like for her. The one true powerful part that stuck with me throughout the book is the part when Jeanette’s mom and dad got in a huge fight about how long she had been pregnant, so the mom got out of the car, crying, and she started running, and then the father started racing after her in the car! Here’s this pregnant woman getting chased by her husband who could very easily run her over in the car, with the children, screaming at their father to not hurt their own mother. I can’t imagine what was going through Jeanette’s mind during that situation. However, on the other hand, the part that I found to be the most exciting is when the whole family went to the city zoo and Jeanette and her father touched the cheetah. Personally, I don’t think I would have the guts to go up to a cheetah, even if there’s a barred cage around the animal, let alone stick my hand into the cage to pet it. While I was reading this section, I was just waiting for the cheetah to snap and hurt either Jeanette or her father. Luckily, that didn't happen.

        The part I like best about this book is the way the author writes. She makes it so easy to read and so interesting. Even though it’s easy to read, some of the events she includes in her story are things that are very hard to believe. It’s hard to believe that a girl at this young of an age has moved across the country multiple times, living on barely anything and, at times, having barely anything to eat. Along with that, it’s amazing how Jeanette ended up. I haven’t finished the book yet, but in the opening chapter Jeanette writes that she must have become successful and found herself a good life, while her mother is still out there, living on the streets. While reading this book, I find that I don’t have a part that I don’t like. This book is all around very interesting and very good.

One question that comes to my mind as I read this is whether or not Jeanette liked this childhood of hers, or if she had any inner thoughts of objection. As a child, it would've been great to travel all the time and see new places, but at the same time, having to start new schools and live on barely anything, that would not be a life I would want to have. I wonder this because I feel like Jeanette hasn't said whether or not she’s thankful for her childhood or not. It’s possible she mentions something about it at the end of the book, but as of right now, I don’t get a certain impression from her, leaning towards one side or the other. It’s also hard to tell what she thinks of her parents. As I've noticed and as some of my group members have mentioned, is that Jeanette’s parents have their good and bad moments. Jeanette always shares her adoration for her father, when he’s not drinking, but tends to keep quiet about her mother. I would guess that it would be very hard to have an alcoholic father and a mother who neglects her children’s needs, and to top it off, to have parents that fight, and when they fight, things go bad. So what I would like to know is, what does Jeanette truly think of her childhood, and what does she truly think of her parents?

A Full and Painful Childhood

                 As I began The Glass Castle, I at first found it difficult to discern whether Rex and Rose Mary Walls were simply dreamers who wanted their children to experience all of the raw beauty of life without the inhibitions imposed by social norms of living, or whether Rex was abusive and Rose Mary was weak and negligent.  At their best, Rex and Rose Mary are wonderful, albeit unorthodox, parents.  Rex teaches his children complex numerical systems and astronomy, teaches them to love nature, gives them stars, and regales them with tales of adventure that young children thrive upon.  Rose Mary teaches her children to read and write, helps them to see everything in its true beauty as only an artist can, and instills in them a love of art and literature.  In this picture of Rex and Rose Mary, they are idealistic dreamers who, while lacking the ability to materially provide for their children, provide those things which they see as more important.  They provide adventure.  They provide more knowledge than any traditional education ever could.  They feed their children’s imaginations, empowering them as individuals.  This is what I think they truly do want to do, what they believe they are doing.  However, at their worst, an entirely different picture is created.  In this picture, Rex is an alcoholic who wastes what little his family has and thinks more about his own desires than the needs of his children, and Rose Mary is a girl who wanted to be an artist, never a mother, and neglects her children, excusing her behaviour by arguing that they must learn to care for themselves.

                These two images are in such contrast with one another that it is difficult to see how they could possibly fit together.  Yet somehow they do, because both are true.  I have been thinking about this quite a bit as I have been reading, and trying to decide whether the Walls children’s childhoods were good but flawed, or if they were harmful with some glimmers of light.  In one sense, through their well-rounded and diverse educations, they have been given something which will last them their whole lives and stand them in good stead for their futures, even if they choose more conventional lifestyles than those of their parents.  However, at the same time, they have been given painful memories which will also last them their whole lives, no matter how far from their beginnings they are able to travel.  Lori has been affected by being forced to help her mother get ready for school and grade homework while it should be the other way around, Jannette’s sense of security in her parents has been taken away by the incident in which they forced her to either sink or swim, Brian has been scared by the interactions he observed between his father and Ginger, and even Maureen has already sensed her father’s frequent absences.  All of the children have been forced to suffer through countless fights between their parents.

                The lives that Rex and Rose Mary want for their children are admirable.  They want them to be free and unconstrained.  They want them to experience the fullness of life and learn how to live as a part of nature.  However, their execution leaves much to be desired.  It seems that this is getting worse and worse as the book progresses and the children get older.  I am interested to see how it pans out, and if, at the end of the book, Jannette finally comments on these issues, and on how she feels her upbringing shaped her, both in constructive, and in harmful, ways.

The Assignment and the How-To

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Here's Your Assignment:

One thing that we have said repeatedly in our class is that American literature is an ongoing conversation about a few central topics.  These topics are ingrained in our national narrative, the story of who we are as people.  This week, you will begin thinking about topics that connect to this American narrative, and these topics will become the focus of your research after winter break.

To get you started generating topics for research, use your lit circle books.  I'd like two written responses from you this week, both posted to your group blog.  I also expect you to read and respond to each others' posts.  If you were to type your response in Word first, it would be about a page.  DO NOT JUST ANSWER A LIST OF MY QUESTIONS.  Instead, generate two or three paragraphs on the questions that interest you most.  The questions to consider:

• What do you like best about your book?  What do you like least?
• What was the most powerful part of the text?  The most exciting?
• Which of our central questions (American dream/possessions, nature, race and equality, individual power, etc.) does your text address most thoroughly?
• What questions does this book raise for you?  What does it make you wonder?
• What are some topics that you could research (based on your book)?
• What place do you think your text has in the body of American literature?
• How does the text "talk back" to some of the authors we've already read?
• What do you know about the author of your book?  Are you curious to know more about the author's story?