Rex Walls in the Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls Essay Example

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls illustrates a dysfunctional family and the struggles the family faces over a number of years. Throughout the book you see how the parents Rex and Rose Mary Wells act and how that affects their kids. The book is in the perspective of Jeannette who is the second oldest in the family. In the story you see how they lived and how they viewed things were different then the normal family. How Rex acted towards his children showed his true emotions through Jeannette's childhood. He would go off and use the family's money for drinking and leave the children to fend for themselves. 

In the Glass Castle from the beginning the parenting styles of the Wells, is  not the style of traditional parents. Rex believes that you should just dive in head first and let his children do things on their own. Rex was distracted with his own interests such as gambeling and drinking therefore the children had to learn how to depend on each other. Rex thinks the best way for someone to learn something is through mistakes. Rex is an alcoholic and uses the money the family needs for food to go buy alcohol. He is selfish and puts himself before his kids. His lack of attitude towards the children's needs for safety is evident in Jeanette's childhood. When Jeanette was three she was cooking hotdogs and burnt herself, she was taken to the hospital. When she gets out of the hospital her dad says, “ You mother should have taken you to that witch doctor the day you got burned,” Dad said, “not to these heads-up-their-asses med school quacks” (Walls 13).  This shows he did not care enough, He broke Jeannette out of the hospital when she did not even fully recover. His actions show bad parenting and how he makes irrational decisions.  It shows how he does not care for Jeannete enough to set aside his views of hospitals  to let her get the proper care she needs. 

Rex parenting in some ways was also beneficial towards the children and made them a better person. Rex leaving the kids to fend for themselves enabled them to grow up fast and made them become independent. They learned to not rely on other people, and their thought process on things was above average. Rex believes that when you fail and learn it will be easier for you in the future cause you know how to do certain things. As stated in the text Rex says, “If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim” (Wells 66). This demonstrates how he is teaching Jeannette a life lesson in that if she doesn’t learn how to take care of herself then she will never survive.He could have taught the life lesson in a better way than just throwing her into the water when she hasn’t learned to swim.  Rex not letting the kids in public school was also beneficial towards the kids, they got a higher quality of education from  Rex then the teacher’s could give them.  Rex excelled in math and taught them  what he knew. Also another positive of Rex’s parenting was because they had to travel all the time it created opportunities for Jeannette to explore. The Well’s moving around all the time caused them to meet all kinds of new people and they adapted around them. 

Taking into consideration the end of the book and movie, I think Rex did love Jeannette. When she was younger Rex cared and protected his family, when she got older he didn't care about his family. Rex drank away his money and his life, he was self-centered and decided going out and gambleing was more important than his family. He had his moment in Jeannette and her siblings' childhood. An example is when Rex went to Jeannette’s college when he found out she had to drop out and gave her money. In the book it states, “it’s yours,” Dad said. “Since when is it wrong for a father to take care of his little girl” (Wells 265)?  This concluded  how even though Rex was mad at Jeannette for leaving he still cared for her and wanted her to succeed, Therefore it is evident he really did love Jeannette, he just didn’t show it properly. Another example that states Rex loving Jeannette is when they were both near the fire and Rex was peeling off Jeannette’s bandages. In the movie Rex says, “There’s nothing ugle about you. You hear me? One day I promise you you’re gonna look at this as just another side of how strong you are. You’re a Walls. Mountain Goat. And we ain’t like other people” (Cretton). This exhibits how he is affectionate towards Jeannette and wants her to have confidence in herself. He makes it apparent to make sure Jeannette knows how strong and brave she really is. 

In conclusion, I think Rex loved Jeannette in the way he knew how, he was not there for her the way he should have been. He was selfish and put his needs before his children.  His childhood has a big part of the parent he is, he never had a role model to base how he should be a parent off of. The abuse he suffered as a child, led him to not show his love in a healthy way. In Jeannette's later years Rex started to attempt to be a better father, he helped pay for her college and kept all of her letters in her journalism career.