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.
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