Summary Of The Book 'The Glass Castle'

Jessie Adolph
English 1000
11 March 2014
The Glass Castle Essay The parenting style that the Wall’s use on their kids is very different from what other parents use on kids. Jeanette’s mother Rose Mary is not motivated to do a lot of stuff for her kids. Rose Mary is supposed to play the role of caring for the kids and watching over them while the father is at work. The father, Rex Walls, is supposed to provide for the family such as, bring home money and food for the kids to survive. Throughout the book the parents, Rose Mary and Rex, often do not pay attention to their kids and are not responsible in looking after them. This issue causes the Walls’ kids to work for what they needed and how to be more independent in life. The Walls’
The father of a household is supposed to set an example for their kids and be the breadwinner for the family, and the mother is assumed to live under the father’s rules of the house. The reason Rex and Rosemary cannot live up to these standards is because they are living poverty. Rex is not able to keep a steady job because he gets tired of working and finds a reason to quit or get fired (Walls 67). This causes Walls to not have food to eat or a lot of clothes to wear. Since the kids do not have much to eat, they find odd jobs around the different towns they are in order to feed themselves. When Rosemary gets a job teaching, Rex goes to the bank with her to get all of the money she has earned (Walls 77). This is an example of how Rex wants to be the breadwinner, but he is unable to because of his job situation. This situation causes Rex to feel ashamed of himself because Rosemary is the only person earning money. When the children do not have money because of Rex being selfish, this causes them to be self-reliant in finding other ways to
It is true that they had to depend other people for odd jobs, but they were self-reliant in going around to find jobs. They also were self-reliant in when they when dumpster diving for food. They did not want to go in the dumpster and find food, they needed to in order to feed themselves. This goes back to the sink or swim method that Rex instilled in the kids. They could have “sunk” and not eaten, but instead they “swam” and found a way to not starve. One of the reasons Maureen turned out the way she did is because she was not born yet when the older siblings were learning their lessons. When Maureen was old enough to understand anything, Rex was always drunk and never with the family so he never had a strong connection with Maureen. This is what caused Maureen to be reliant on others and not reliant on