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.