Rex As A Good Father In The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

Imagine living in a life where everything around you is different from reality. Imagine running from the police, living wherever one can find, and still taking care of one's family just at the age of 16. Jeannette Walls had to deal with all of this and more in her early childhood. In the book “The Glass Castle”, the author uses the characters, Jeannette and Rex Walls, to emphasize the importance of family bonds.

This would explain why he would urge Brian to act like a man; he had suffered through the abuse his whole childhood and came out decent enough, so his son should be able to do the same. This observation brings up a point that rex walls had more than likely grown up in an abusive household. Erma had seemed very comfortable while touching Brian and hitting Lori that it wouldn’t be a surprise if she had done the same to her son. This would also explain why Rex avoided talking about his childhood in Welch (Walls 26). It would also give a reasonable explanation as to why he was reluctant to move to Welch in the first place. It took a lot of coaxing from his wife and all four of his children before he decided to get in the car on the way to his

“Children shouldn’t have to sacrifice so that you can have the life you want. You make sacrifices so that your children can have the life that they deserve.”- Unknown. In the book The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls readers are given a front row seat into a family that is constantly being destroyed by the parents. This book allows readers an inside look at having an alcoholic father and an absent mother. There’s no such thing as “normal”, but society often expects certain things from it’s citizens - things like holding down a job, responsibly raising children, and giving back in some way, but in The Glass Castle, Rex and Rose Mary Walls do none of these things. Rex and Rose Mary walls have trouble keeping their jobs, maybe it’s because

The novel, The Glass Castle, exhibits the human tendency to be selfish. This is manifested in both Rex and Rose Mary. Rex is characterized as a selfish father throughout the novel, and his paternal image is consistently skewed because of his actions. His addiction to alcohol ruins countless family events. One year the family’s Christmas is ruined when Rex drinks a great deal of alcohol and burns their tree and presents. Jeanette remembers, “Dad sat on the sofa [...] telling mom he was doing her a favor [...] no one tried to wring dad’s neck [...] or even point out that he’d ruined the Christmas his family has spent weeks planning” (115). Jeanette and her family are always left cleaning up their father’s drunken mess. Even when Rex is sober he does not apologize for ruining sentimental family events and continues to put alcohol before his family. Selfishness can also be seen in Rex’s relationship with money. He takes Jeanette into a bar in order to get money from his friend, Robbie. When Robbie asks if he can take Jeanette upstairs, Jeanette recollects, “So, with Dad’s blessing, I went upstairs” (212). Rex is so self-absorbed that he allows his daughter to go into a strange man's apartment, fully knowing his intentions. During Jeanette and her siblings’ childhood, they experience dangerous situations with their parents’ knowledge and approval. While Rex’s selfish nature is typically derived from his addiction, Rose Mary’s selfishness is simply a reflection of her personality.

Rex Walls is a wonderful father when he is sober, one who teaches his kids how to live a meaningful life and the purpose behind it. But, when he drinks, his rage takes over, and he becomes someone his kids cannot look up to and someone they are genuinely scared

Throughout the memoir The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls all psychological premises of parenting paradigms are shown but the most fitted paradigm would be the permissive parenting paradigm because Rosemary and Rex Walls acted more as friends than parents, left their kids to self-regulate, and did not require mature behavior. Permissive parenting includes that the parent “act more as a friend than a parent” (Cherry, “The Four Styles of Parenting”) and throughout The Glass Castle there is many evidence that indicates this. In one scene Jeanette is describing the relationship with her dad and neighboring children, “Kids from the Tracks came knocking at the door, and when I answered, they asked, ‘can your dad come out and play?’” (59). This is a prime example of permissive

Bad Parenting is the act of not showing the responsibilities that should be taken as a mother or father. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls reveals the faults of parenting through the use of symbolism , imagery and characterization. Rosemary and Rex’s Struggles to show their children (Jeannette, Lori, Brian) the importance of the appearance and guidance of being by their side as a parent. Jeannette and Rex show their faults by destroying everything the children try to accomplish because of their personal bad habits.

Walls, as the main character, overlooked the severity of the actions her parents had performed, their inability to face the consequences, which led to their nomadic lifestyle. Nonetheless, there were other factors that contributed to the improbability of a child-friendly atmosphere within the household. Her father's abusive language and habits had always remained a threat to everyone in the family, including her mother. Whether it was the copious amounts of alcohol he consumed, the foul language he spoke, or the beatings he gave to his wife, Rex Walls was the paragon of recklessness and peril. Walls says "Dad stuck his head out the window as he drove, hollering at Mom, calling her a. "stupid whore" and a. "stinking cunt" and ordering her to get back into the car. Mom refused." (Walls 27) This proves that his aggressive language impacts the vocabulary of his children, which will inevitably affect their experiences and interactions with other

In the novel The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, the uncertain future of the Walls’ children was questionable from the start. From a drunk father, to never having a steady home, the author tells of her idiosyncratic youth to describe the bitterness and longing for an ordinary childhood.

In her younger years, Jeannette was an smart and imaginative child. At first, she enjoyed moving around, and had a lot of faith in her father, which created a good relationship between them. “All we had to was find gold, once we’d struck it rich, he’d [Rex] start work on our Glass Castle” (Walls, 25). The tremendous faith that she has in Rex creates a strong bond because she is the only family member who trusts his ideas. Unfortunately, he is a raging alcoholic who can’t hold a job, so most of his promises are broken. As Jeannette gets older, he lets her down more and more. One time he brought her to a bar where she was then sexually violated. When the two had a talk after, he said “I knew you could handle yourself” (Walls, 213,) instead of defending her. It was upsetting to watch their relationship grow apart and to see how poorly he provided for his family, yet they still loved him.

“He [Jeannette’s father, Rex] will not keep me out of harm’s way, he will put me in harm’s way and I have to find a way to remove myself from the situation.” (Diversity Connection). I feel like this quote, from Jeannette, came t directly from the situation where Rex took her out to the bar to help him earn money for alcohol, but yet she still doesn’t see herself as a victim. Even though Jeannette Walls was the victim of sexual abuse at a very young age, she tries to recreate the freedom from her childhood into her adult life, But in her younger years where she has no occupational activities, no nurturing, no money and no friends to turn to, it proves to be very hard to maintain.

As Jeannette grows up her relationship with her parents, especially as her father starts to dwindle. Jeannette didn’t realize that the way her parents were going about taking care of them wasn’t normal. As Jeannette started to age she realized how inconsiderate her parents really were, Mary and Rex had forced their children to move around the country leaving the kids hungry and alone countless nights. Jeannette was always close with her father, and always had sympathy for him. However, when they moved to Welch it seemed as though her father had completely changed. Jeannette had started to work to save up money so her and her siblings could live, but her father did not respect that. One day Rex went up to Jeannette when no one was home and simply said “’Hon, I need some money.’”(209) Jeannette would have gladly given him the money, but it was for beer and cigarettes. This made Jeannette feel like he had no regard for her at all. Rex did not care enough to find his own way of getting money for his addictions, let alone provide food for his family. Jeannette agreed to give him the money, and he agreed to pay her back, but when he wanted to pay her back, Jeannette was staring to realize how sickening her father really is.

Raymond Carvers My Fathers Life tells the story of his father’s life while also elucidating the problems that his father had, that led to an unhappy life as he grew older. Raymond Carvers father was a drinker, cheater, and couldn’t stay in one place for too long. These characteristics drove his father to a low point in his life and he wasn't somebody for Raymond to look up to. Throughout the story he describes his father’s life, pointing out most of the events that went wrong, and how his father moved constantly for new work. He describes the rough times, with a few moments of happiness. Raymond later realizes that growing up watching his father live that terrible lifestyle was showing up in him as an adult. He delivers this personal narrative in a way that shows what you shouldn't do as a father and husband. Clevie Raymond Carver was never fit to be an father and his actions

Throughout the Glass Castle, Rex can not keep a stable, long living job. Sometimes even leaving his family starving, with no home, and not having the necessities the family needs. Rex can never pull through for his kids, and if he does it is extremely vague and only for a special occasion. Jeanette's father chooses to spend the money that he makes from his odd end jobs on his own wants, not his children needs. He comes home and finds things that the rest of the family can not seem to find, for example when Jeanette says “ He’d find a can of tomatoes on the back of the shelf that everyone else had missed, or he’d go off for an hour and come back with a handful of vegetables- never telling us where he got them. But disappearing a lot” (67). Rex never learns the value of his money and is continually burning a hole in his pocket. The money that Rex spends on his alcohol and his addictions he could be using to benefit his family extensively. He leaves his family hungry when he could be providing for them. When the Walls did have a stable income, Rex would always come up with a way to waste it. When Rose Mary went to Charleston, Jeanette is left in charge of the money flow and comes up with plenty to have a stable food flow. She was doing the reasonability of the her father.

It is difficult to define what makes a good father, but Atticus’s unconditional love for his children is admirable. In Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus is portrayed as a good father with many good qualities. However, like any human, he is not perfect. He does has some flaws. Atticus was portrayed as an amazing father, however, he did possess few bad qualities as well.