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| The Glass Castle |
The Glass Castle
The Glass Castle is a biography written by Jeannette Walls. It is about her upbringing as a child with her parents, Rex and Rose Mary Walls, and her three siblings: Lori, Brian and Maureen. While throughout the book, you discover that they were an extremely dysfunctional family, with an alcoholic for a father and a mother with selfish intentions who was not responsible enough for a family, you also see the hopes, dreams, and love present within the family. The book starts when Jeannette was three, and had set herself on fire while making hot dogs. She stayed in the hospital until her father pulled her out "Rex Walls style." Not soon after, they were on the road. The Walls family did not stay in one area for long, and were always on the road during Jeannette's early childhood. They stayed in Las Vegas, Battle Mountain, Phoenix and more, before moving to Welsh by their paternal grandparents. It got particularly bad for them in Welsh. Their mother refused work, and their father was always drunk, leaving the kids mostly to fend for themselves. They struggled to remain fed and to pay the bills. As Jeannette got older, she began losing faith in her parents, which led her to leave Welsh for New York at 17. New York was good for her, and she lived a successful life from then on out, but never stopped loving her crazy, stubborn parents.
I'm wondering what you thought of Jeannette's willingness to take care of her brother and sister? Why do you think Jeannette's life took the path it did, and here sister's turned out so differently?
ReplyDeleteFor a while after finishing this book, I wondered about these and other things. I think because Jeannette got more of a relationship with her parents, specifically her father (in the beginning), she understood more and was more forgiving toward the lifestyle she lived, compared to her sister who never knew much of a life beyond Welsh. As for her willingness to take care of her brother and sister, I believe it was because nobody else was stepping up to the plate.
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