Parenting isn’t all that great. According to Marisa de los Santos, author of Love Walked In;, “No one is ever quite ready; everyone is always caught off guard. Parenthood chooses you. And you open your eyes, look at what you’ve got, say “Oh, my gosh,” and recognize that of all the balls there ever were, this is the one you should not drop. It’s not a question of choice.” (Bongiorno). In the memoir, of The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, the parents tend to stray away from the ‘normal parenting rules’. According to the Walls, being a parent means toparenting is leave ing your kids to fend for themselves, stealing from them, and letting them have the unlimited freedomletting them do whatever they want. The parents,; Rex and Rose Mary, do treat their kids with somewhat a low sense of decency. Although, they and teach them good yet interestingvaluable life lessons. , mind the downfallsHowever, . iIf the children didn’tdidn’t learn these from those lessons, they would’ve ended have ended up like their parents. Their parents were, homeless in the streets of New York, unable to maintain jobs, settle down, or act like mature adults capable of raising children. Even though Rex and Rose Mary succeed in the ways they taught their children in a poor manner, the lessons were learned.but also failed as in how they followed through with the way they tried to In order. fFor Rex and Rose Mary to be a considered ‘good’ parents‘good parent’, they must work as a family to get what they want; meaning they must strive for the goal for what they want and apply themselves instead of ‘getting by’. They show their strength and will by saying it It is the Walls vs. the world. They turned their children into behaved, intelligent, and outgoing adults. Rex and Rose Mary teach their children the way of life through absurd lessons and experiences and experiences about how to become a successful, mature, well- behaved adult through self-reliance and independence.
Rex and Rose Mary arewere good parents;, they are deeply dysfunctional but they provideed their children with a sense of love and affection in a harsh way but it came throughyet thorough way. They taught their children in very odd, yet creative ways. Like seen when they leave the door open for Jeannette to wake up to the pedophilic man. Not many parents would be satisfied in how they approached the children’s teachings but they did learn life tips and lessons that helped them to become who they were today. Rex taught his children that he could love and have faith in them just as Jeannette had faith in him at first. Rose Mary says at one point in the middle of winter, “‘"We may not have insulation,’" Mom said as we all gathered around the stove, ‘"but we have each other.’”"
(Walls 176). Meaning that they might not have a structuredbase in the family, but they always got each other’s backs. The mother matures here because she does not talk about family much, she just wants everything to be better.
Rex shows his love for his children when he lets them chose their own star for Christmas.A very significant example is when Rex taught his children about choosing their own star for Christmas. Rex tells his children to choses this because stars are irreplaceable, also showing his children that poverty isn’t always a bad thing and that materialism is toxic in life. Even if they are poor, it does not mean they are unsatisfied and depressed in life. Rex says, “Years from now, when all the junk they got is broken and long forgotten… you’ll still have your stars” (Walls 41). At this point in the book, Rex is without a job less and broke, however,yet he constantlystill gives his children everything they wanted. He substitutes his inability to financially provide for his family by giving them irreplaceable stars. He always tries to turn his life into an adventure for his children. He thinks if it is an adventure, they will learn more and it is more special. Hie shows his love and affection for themis seen numerous times throughout the book.
Another time is when heRex ‘tries’d to build ‘the glass castle;’. This is his hope for a magical, fantastic life in which he can provide for his family and please his childrenthe perfect house for his children, except he kept breaking the dreams when he kept piling trash into the hole they dug. He lays out all the dimensions and plans for the house that he is going to build for his children, but never builds it. Jeannette believed that he would until he made the foundation and the garbage was thrown in the hole. The symbolic theory is that Jeannette believes her father would make this and hold all his promises but that too is soon diminished. When she realizes that she cannot stand by her father’s side all the time and that the Glass Castle will not be built, she reached her full potential. At this point, she goes off on her own trying to make a living and soon she reaches her adulthood. He wanted to make a great impression but it didn’t go as smoothly as he anticipated. Rex tries to be a great dad, but his love and affection for his kids might get to him. Rex taught his children that he could love and have faith in them just as Jeannette had faith in him at first.
The children always stood by each other; like at school, the pedophile incident, the money, and when they moved out into the real world. Brian and Jeannette get into a fight with some Mexican girls about being teacher pets. (45) Like seen before, it’s the Walls vs. everyone else. Jeannette’s father has a dysfunctional way of showing his children self-reliance; he teaches Jeannette “If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim” (Walls 66). She was forced to learn the hard way, through the ‘tough love’ of her father. This quote is a metaphor for her life, if she does not try, she will fail or sink. If she does try she will become very successful in life and reach anything she wants because she overcame her fear. Sometimes life isn’t all fun and games and you have to ‘grow up’ for once. This strategy for repeatedly throwing her in is the general strategy that Rex and Rose Mary use when they raise their children. Refusing to show emotion means that they won’t come back crying to mom or dad if something goes wrong, they could fix problems self-sufficiently. As seen in “The Overprotected kids,” by Hanna Rosin, if the kid fall off a swing, they look at their parents and start crying. They need that sense of attention and comfortability. But if they don’t see their parents they will just go back to doing what they were doing. Kids are vulnerable to their parents. They inherited the trait from their father about being humble in life but he didn’t always spend his money wisely. They also learned how to be great for the future by not being afraid of their fears. It’s like the saying “fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering” (Inc). Just like mMoney leads to corruption, corruption leads to depression, depression leads to a lot of problems. Rex can relate to this because he puts his daughter in a awful position when he goes to the strip club bar and offers his daughter to go strip tease upstairs while he wins pool. (Walls 207-17) This shows that Jeannette doesn’t want to be an object, she already woke up to someone molesting her once.
Rose Mary’s ways of parenting are as bad as Rex’s but as seen when she said "I am your mother, and I should have a say in how you're raised." Jeannette accuses her mom of not being a parent and this is noteworthy because at this age she realizes young what not to become or raise her children like in life. Rose Mary also states that "[My children] were all post-mature. That's why they're so smart. Their brains had longer to develop." She has an awkward way of expressing her parenting but at least she is proud of her children and their accomplishments. She is just trying to take credit for the way she raised her children with her husband so harshly. Rose Mary lets her children take care of her and help her get ready for work because her children have a higher sense of respect and maturity for themselves and their parents. Rose Mary got into a huge fight with Rex and he blames it all on her and she yells back “how is this all my fault” (69). A trait of being an adult consists of taking responsibility for your actions even if it is not particularly relating back to you. The children learned this of what not to be when they grow up.
The parents Parents aren’t always right, they struggle too in life with decisions and being role modelshad bad parenting traits as well. One night, One was when Jeannette woke up to a molester toucher her saying don’t worry. They had to chase him out with a butcher knife. Overall the sense of security is awful in the family. Rex steals money and goes to buy booze, the mother doesn’t know how to parent, the kids are fending for themselves and they rely on each other. The only reason Jeannette and her siblings succeed in life is because of how they were raised. They were raised to be the alpha wolfs, to be the one others look up to. Since they were always on the move, they felt like they don’t belong at a home so they adapted.
A parent raised their children to be self-sufficient, just like when Jeannette boiled hot dogs and burned herself. She was already doing a mommy duty since the mother was unwilling to do it. Her parents let her fend for herself. Rex gets mad at the doctors for treating her like a baby when she comes in, he doesn’t want others being in control so he shows his dominance and grabs Jeannette and runs out without paying for the bills. She learned the truth about pain here and that pain isn’t all that bad like when she kept picking at her scars. The doctors looked at her and ridiculed the parents because they let a three-year-old cook on an open flame. She learns her independence here. This is good for the children because they face their fears young just like in “The Overprotected Kid”Parents Leave Those kids alone, when the parents kept revising the safety equipment. In PLTKAthis short story, the children weren’t afraid of heights until after they implemented those safety features, kids used their creativity. Just like the parents do in “The Glass Castle”, they were raised differently than the kids they are raising themselves, . aAs seen when “Mom felt that Grandma Smith nagged and badgered, setting rules and punishments for breaking the rules. It drove Mom crazy, and it was the reason she never set rules for us.” Rose Mary was raised strictly by her mother, while Rex was abused by his mother. They both had and with punishments with every action they take,, thus is why she doesn’t have punishments for her own children. She doesn’t want to raise her children like her mother raised herself. This causes her maturity level to be inadequate for a much longer period. Rose Mary did not develop her maturity until some years after she raised her kids. Rex is a different story since he cannot man up and be the bread winner in the house, Jeannette is the bread winner since she kept all the money in her piggy bankis.
Jeannette is very self-reliant when it comes to relying on her parents. Jeannette doesn’t rely on her parents; "I had been counting on Mom and Dad to get us out, but I now knew I had to do it on my own" (221). She learns self-reliance in part because her parents are too self-occupied. They are only worried about themselves just like when Rex steals the money from the piggy bank they have been saving for almost a year. He doesn’t take responsibility, he just throws her some money and change and calls it good. Nowhere near the amount she had in the bank before.
Jeannette and her siblings becameare very successful in life because of how their parents had raised them. Their parents Rex and Rose Mary were even proud of her being in college and help pay for it even though they are broke. Rex realizes when his life was almost over, that he was proud of his children and how far they had come in life. He doesn’t admit that he was a failure as a parent or a success but he at least shows his fatherly side. Most people would look at how the Wall’s raised their children as ‘abusive’, but if her parents did not raise themher as they did, theyshe would not be as successful, wealthy, and humble about her beginnings to get where she has achieved today.