Month: January 2018

A continuation of instability

The continuation of instability in the glass castle has been a sad progression of neglect, hardship and financial struggles for the children of the walls family.

With a lack of food, and funds running low for bills and necessities, it was not uncommon for the children to go without nutritious food for days at a time, eating beans and heads of lettuce to fill their stomachs. With this lack of food readily available for the Walls children to eat, they resorted to dumpster diving and free school lunches just to get by. The lack of food can be attributed to Rex and Rosemary Walls, who for the better part of the memoir were unemployed, spending money on art supplies, or drinking away the small ammounts of money that were to be left over for food. This unstable spending is what created an environment where the Walls children did not know if they were to get a next meal, or what exactly that meal would contain.

Another factor to the unstable lives of the Walls children was the inability of the parents, Rex and Rosemary, to keep a job or steady form of income. Rex worked in mines and doing odd jobs, or at one point in the memoir a casino, attempting to cheat at cards in order to win large amounts of money. These ways of earning money were never stable or around for long periods of time, with Rex frequently losing job opportunities due to his drinking problem. Rosemary was no help to the children either, with a teaching degree she refused to use she was doing more harm than good for the children, especially because she held substantial money in properties and refused to let the children claim welfare in order to eat. This blatant neglect of the children’s needs is part of the reason why later in the book the children begin to turn on the adults who were supposed to provide good lives for them. The instability in the income formed an unstable quality of life and was the basis for the hardships the children later had to face as they matured into young adults and eventually when they became responsible for their own well being.

Medical Care in an Unstable World

The Memoir of Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle, is a riveting tale about a young girl and her unconventional life growing up.

In the first portion of this memoir, Jeannette tells us the stories of her childhood, and how she grew up in an unconventional situation when it came to what she calls home.

Because Jeannette was “mature for her age” she was allowed to cook for herself at what most people would call too young to be unsupervised in the kitchen. Because of this unsupervised time with a stove, which most would call negligent parenting, Jeannette burned herself and had to spend time in the hospital, during which time we learn the truth behind her unstable family dynamics, and how the unstable, nomadic lifestyle she lives is the basis for her constant stability.

 

During her family’s visits we learn several crucial things about her family life. One of the most important things learned during this hospital stay is how there is a major distrust between the adults in the Walls family and medical personnel. This leads to several dangerous and negligent actions to avoid medics, like the usage of witch doctors, home remedies and blatant ignoring of medical staff’s advice. This puts the Walls children in a lot of danger, as they are not the most careful children (within the first few pages it is stated that they have been stung by scorpions, cracked their heads open, and have been severely burned). This form of instability causes these children more harm than good because it endangers their lives because these are life threatening injuries that do need medical care that a parent or witch doctor is not qualified to give. It is a form of reckless endangerment by the parents however, it has become a constant to rely on for these children to be doctored in unusual ways.