Family In The Glass Castle Free Essay Example

The Glass Castle is a memoir in which author, Jeanette Walls, recalls her dysfunctional yet unique childhood. She was raised by her free-spirited mother, Rose Mary, and brilliant father, Rex. While Rex and Rose Mary had several redeeming moments in Jeanette’s childhood, they often neglected their duties as parents. Once Rex became drunk, he was destructive and uncontrollable and Rose Mary just didn’t want the responsibility of taking care of a family. The primary duty parents have is to protect and provide for their children. In the Glass Castle, it is evident that Rex and Rose Mary struggle with both providing for and protecting their children because they chose to continue maintaining their lifestyle. Rex and Rose Mary had the ability to improve their financial position and living conditions by attaining a job or looking to resources they had in their possession The children were forced to seek ways to survive without the support of their parents and would often go weeks without food and months without shelter. Although Rex and Rose Mary had the ability to improve their lives by becoming employed or selling their land that was worth millions to provide for the family, they were too concerned about their own desires to attempt to better their family's living conditions. 

Rex Walls, father of Jeanette Walls, was a stubborn alcoholic yet an intelligent, skilled laborer who struggled with keeping his job. Although Rex was qualified for many jobs with his set of skills and knowledge, he could not keep a job which made it difficult to provide for the family. He often lost his job due to his alcoholism or poor behavior in the workplace. Since Rex was the main provider of the Walls family when he lost his job, the children were destined to go without necessities such as food and shelter. In this specific situation, Rex wakes the family in the middle of the night to what Jeanaette calls the “skedaddle” in which the family ups and leaves only bringing their most precious valuables. Rex tells the family that the FBI is after them however it is made obvious to readers that the “FBI” is really just bill collectors. Jeanette recalls the situation saying, “He could get about any job he wanted, he just didn't like keeping it for long. Sometimes he made money gambling or doing odd jobs. When he got bored or was fired or the unpaid bills piled up too high or the lineman from the electrical company found out he had hot­wired our trailer to the utility poles—or the FBI was closing in—we packed up in the middle of the night and took off, driving until Mom and Dad found another small town that caught their eye” (19). It is evident that when Rex had quit his well-paying job that could provide for his family due to insufficient reasons, he was choosing to maintain their current lifestyle. Rex is an intelligent man thus he understands that by quitting his job simply because it is getting boring, he is keeping his family in the same position as they had always been. Rex, very selfishly, is putting his desires before his family’s needs. His inability to keep a job for his family is absurd because his children are quite literally starving and lacking shelter while he tends to his drinking habits and stubborn child-like behaviors. Rex is choosing to keep his family in the position they are because he refuses to put his family’s needs before himself. 

While Rose Mary has a college degree and a teaching certificate, she selfishly chooses not to work and help Rex provide for their children. Rose Mary, mother of Jeanette Walls, can be described as a free-spirited woman who has selfish tendencies especially when it comes to her children. Rose Mary is beyond capable of working, however, she chooses not to, which is keeping the Walls family in the same financial position. Rex continued to be the main provider of the family while Rose Mary stayed home and painted. Since the children were born, Rose Mary had stayed home and really only cared for herself. The children had always looked after themselves, therefore, she truly didn’t do much as she stayed home. In late August, Rose Mary returns from college with a new attitude about life. Over the summer, she attended college to renew her teaching certificate so she could continue her job as a teacher and help provide for the family. While she was away at college, she had come to the realization that she was not happy as a teacher so she wanted to devote all of her time to becoming an artist. Rose Mary concluded that she had done nothing but take care of others and needed to do something for her for once. On the first day of school, Rose Mary refused to get out of bed and go to work. Jeanette pleaded with her mother but she wouldn’t budge. In a moment of anger and frustration, Jeanette tells her mother, “If you want to be treated like a mother,” I said, “you should act like one. (219)” Rose Mary does not have a hindrance that prevents her from working, therefore, it is fair to say that she is choosing to keep the family in the same financial state. Rose Mary had several opportunities to work as a teacher and earn enough money to provide the family with a  stable living environment with food and clothing yet she never attempted to get a job. Instead, Rose Mary chose to paint and create art when her children were living in cars and struggling to find food. Rose Mary, needless to say, is a selfish mother who has kept her family’s situation from improving because she simply did not want to work. It is unfair for her children who had to face starvation and poor living conditions while she was only concerned about her hobbies. Rose Mary, along with Rex, had the ability to make life better for themselves and their children but let their own selfish antics get in the way. 

For many years, the Walls had struggled with attaining basic necessities such as food and shelter but it was later revealed that they could have resolved their issues with the money Rose Mary had kept a secret for so many years. After the neglect and abuse Jeanette had endured for so long, she moved to New York with her sister Lori where after several years she resumed a predictable life with her first husband Eric. After a life filled with the unknown, Jeanette finally had a stable living situation and never worried about food again. One day, her mother asked to borrow one million dollars to purchase Uncle Jim’s land after he passed. Rose Mary had owned the other half of this land meaning she had access to one million dollars if she chose to sell the land. After her mom had asked for the loan, Jeanette realized that “All those years in Welch with no food, no coal, no plumbing, and Mom had been sitting on land worth a million dollars? (273)” While Jeanette had known that her mother had owned the land, she did not know its worth. Jeanette tried finding out the amount of money the land was worth but Rose Mary never budged. Since Jeanette could not find that answer, she questioned why she chose not to sell the land and Rose Mary simply said she wanted to keep the land in the family. Rose Mary allowed her children to live in poor conditions and starve while she had the literal means to provide for her family. Even if she had chosen not to sell the land, the family could have built a house on the land and only would have to worry about paying for food and utilities. Selling that land could have provided the children a much better life in which they would never have to worry about where their next meal was coming from or how they were going to keep warm at night. Rose Mary had the ability to provide for her family yet she chose to allow them to remain in the same living conditions for years. Rose Mary had always found a way to find the money to pay for her art supplies or her own food while her children were forced to eat out of the garbage or steal. Rose Mary could have sold the land to give her children a better life but choosing not to provide evidence that she never truly attempted to improve their lives.