The book starts off at the very beginning, as far back as the author can remember.
Born into a poor family with two siblings, Brian and Lori, along with her Father and Mother, Jeanette Walls's family is always on the move. From the day she was born, family ran from place to place to live, but only temporarily. Running from bill collectors and the law. They continue to do this, and each time they settle down for awhile, things start to look up. Unfortunately, some sort of conflict always comes up, causing their unwanted departure. Being caught cheating at casinos, getting into fight with the locals, or just the parents wanting to leave for one strange reason or another.
In my opinion, the parents are insane. The mother, although it is clear her intentions are good, doesn't care for her children like a proper mother should. She sets no boundaries, no rules to protect for children from harm. She believes that the three kids should learn from their own mistakes, but throughout the novel, serious things happen to the children that should've been prevented or taken care of by the mother. Jeanette was severely burned at the age of three, cooking hotdogs by herself, not even supervised. She also endured a serious injury to her thigh while the family was living in a small mining post called Battle Mountain. The wound was treated with a mere pat on the back and she was sent off again to play. The mother has no sentimental value either, and no common sense. Things important that were lost are only small misfortunes to her. Land that she has inherited that is no longer in use and left untouched remains unsold. She will not even consider selling it for the good of the family.
The Father is an alcoholic. His drinking problem has put himself and his family in danger multiple times, due to his drunken rages when he comes home late at night. He tries to stop at one point, for Jeanette, but is unable to keep his promise and goes back to drinking. He is convinced he will one day provide lots of wealth for his family, but his plans are very unreasonable. Building a machine to sort through gold, leaching gold from the ore, and one day, building the true Glass Castle. He promises his family he is looking for work and making progress but it becomes more and more clear that his dreams will never come true, along with Jeanette's, who tried her best to believe in him. It is implied in the story, when the family moves into his mothers house in Welch, that he was sexually assaulted by his own mother as a child. This could be responsible for the strange way he acts about his mother, and his personality in general.
Presently, Jeanette's life is still in shambles, and so far it has indeed been an adventure, but not a happy one at that.
Your empathetic response to these characters shines through. I can tell in your discussion responses that you are reading closely:-)
ReplyDeleteTalking so much about the family situation of the main character and making inferences in your entry shows that you have retained a lot of material in the book and are making connections about the more central characters in the story. Your use of opinion and detail enhances your writing more.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like this book has had a very big impact on your view of the authors life. I for one see why you said the parents are insane. It sounds horrible how the children are neglected. The book sounds like a very good book with a powerful meaning behind it. The way you expressed your feelings about the authors life really puts in perspective how good some of us have it. For many of us, stories like these open us up to the realities outside our families.
ReplyDeleteI agree the dad and the mom show good intentions but they never actually stand up for there kids or help them out. They always want the best for them but never help them when they could. I also agree with what you said about their mother having no common sense, because if she had common sense she would've left her father along time ago for the better of her children and herself.
ReplyDeleteI agree the dad and the mom show good intentions but they never actually stand up for there kids or help them out. They always want the best for them but never help them when they could. I also agree with what you said about their mother having no common sense, because if she had common sense she would've left her father along time ago for the better of her children and herself.
ReplyDeleteI like the style in which you wrote about the parents, and how they acted and what they were to the family. It seems like the parents in this story just aren’t ready to be parents though they are physically old enough. I have not read this book, but I did read the first chapter, and just from that, I take that they weren’t ashamed of themselves for ending up like they did.
ReplyDeleteI like the style in which you wrote about the parents, and how they acted and what they were to the family. It seems like the parents in this story just aren’t ready to be parents though they are physically old enough. I have not read this book, but I did read the first chapter, and just from that, I take that they weren’t ashamed of themselves for ending up like they did.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you when you say the parents are insane. When they moved to West Virginia, and Jeannette was being bullied, her mom just brushed it off, and told her that she would be fine. I kind of get where the parents are coming from when they say that they want there kids to learn to fend for themselves. However, its pretty difficult to imagine yourself in these situations. I feel like some of these kids might have wanted some kind of emotional outlet, because their parents were never really there for them.
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