A Reflection of The Glass Castle



A Reflection of The Glass Castle

 

 

Jeanette Walls, author of The Glass Castle, was born in Phoenix Arizona. This is a true story of resilience and forgiveness in the face of a cruel existence.

The story, The Glass Castle, really surprised me as I began to read. The story unfolds with the main character, Jeanette sitting in a taxi and going out for the evening. She was wondering if she was overdressed. I was picturing a sophisticated lady in lavish clothes going out on the town. The surprise came as she looked out the window and saw her mother rummaging through dumpsters. I cannot imagine how she felt if she were in fact a person of means and scruples. As the story continues, she tries to hide her face and tells the taxi driver to take her home. She thinks about her father and mother huddled on the street.

After this incident, Jeanette tries to get in touch with her mother through a friend of hers. I think that Jeanette had evidently tried to overcome some of her past. She had not contacted her mother in many months. Upon the call from her mother, she invited her to eat out in a Chinese restaurant. Her mother was dirty and unkempt. She filled her pockets with packs of sauce and mustard. Jeanette voices concern for her mother (Rose Mary), but Rose Mary says that Jeanette has her priorities wrong and she could not change them. In fact I gleamed that Rose Mary felt Jeanette should change.

I think that Jeanette is very embarrassed and has tried to overcome her “raising” with education and materialistic things. As the story progresses, the way in which Jeanette was raised is not indicative of the description of her as the story began. She experienced life in childhood as a transient with her family. She lived in squalor and suffering. Her father, Rex, was an alcoholic. He could not keep a job and pay the bills, thus the reason for moving many times or perhaps “running away”. The children did not have food or nice, clean clothes, a home or heat. I have always heard that children from homes of neglect and abuse still love their parents and want to be with them. This is true of this story. I cannot fathom how these children forgave so easily.

Even though it seemed that all odds were against the children, perhaps the mother and father still loved the children even if not by conscience effort. I am still unsettled about how the parents really felt about their children. Thankfully, the children learned how to survive in the world and how to help each other. Through their horrendous experiences, they surfaced as strong and persevering people.

Many incidences took place in the story that leaves me wondering how the children were not killed or severely injured. One of the first accidents happened to Jeanette. I could picture the event in my mind as I read. Jeanette was trying to cook a hotdog on the stove. She was very young and her mother paid little to no attention to her children. Jeanette was burned badly. She was finally taken to the hospital where she was immersed in a tub of ice. The nurses were shocked but Jeanette continually reassured them that she was ok. Her father Rex raged the entire time about the medicine and treatment. He did not believe his daughter needed this help. He wanted to take her to a witch doctor. He took her away from the hospital before she was released. How did this happen? Where were the authorities? Where were the social workers? How could he be this callous? Did the death of his first daughter create apathy? Did his trouble with drinking and carousing start then?

After Jeanette was released she became very interested in fire. She experimented with matches and fire as a pastime. I am outraged that any parent would allow this to happen. I felt after the first accident that the parents did not care. It could have been that Rex was always too drunk to care and Rose Mary was clueless. As I read I realized neglect and suffering on behalf of her children was her way of raising them.

Another incident is when all the family had to “run” in the middle of the night because they could not pay bills. Rex threw Jeanette’s cat out of the window and kept going.

As I read these things I wanted to cry for all the children; Jeanette, Brian, Lori and Maureen. I wanted to cry for all the hungry, neglected and abused children in the world.

I continued to be flabbergasted throughout the story. Jeanette was thrown from her dad’s car. He was drinking at the time. One of the worst experiences came when Rex took Jeanette to a bar and when he allowed her to be raped.

Rex appeared to be a smart man when he was not too drunk and told his children many stories as they grew up. I will never understand how he let alcohol take the place of really taking care of them. I continue to be amazed at the mother’s idea of raising children and living life. I am also amazed at Jeanette Wall’s ability to remember and write about such horrific episodes. Surely she is scarred on the inside as well as out. She still loved fiercely the mother and father that put her through a living hell.

Even as Jeanette Wall’s concludes her memoir, I am truly humbled by her spirit and survival. This memoir is one that should be made available in high school classrooms as an example on how to rise above one’s circumstances and learn from them. As for me, I shall pass this book on to my children and grandchildren as a great example of overcoming and of the greatest lesson of all: forgiveness.

 

 

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