The
Glass Castle pg 42-154
It should be understood that the
Walls’ family lifestyle lives by the idea of sink or swim. The mother
especially seems to have high ideals of not enforcing positive reinforcement
for negative behavior such as crying. She also objected to the idea of her
daughter, Lori, getting glasses because she saw it as a crutch. In the instance
of the swimming event Jeannette’s father would never really let Jeannette drown.
He continues to push her towards the deeper end so she would learn to swim.
After a couple failed attempts at swimming she eventually gets the hang of it and
swims to the other side to get out of the water. At first she was angry with
her father that he would continuously put her in that kind of danger. Then she
realizes and understands that her father was never going to really let her
drown and it was just a lesson of basically sink or swim. This event is kind of
like the fire incident in that she is learning to do things on her own. Even
after being burned Jeannette does not fear fire whereas this situation even
after drowning a few times her father is trying to teach her not to be afraid
and to keep trying.
Jeannette sees her father as most
children at that young age do, perfect. “In my mind, Dad was perfect, although
he did have what Mom called a little bit of a drinking situation. (23)”
Jeannette always has trust in her father even when she has doubts. The only
problem Jeannette had with her father was his “drinking situation”. Beside his
drinking situation Jeannette listens to her father and would rarely ever talk
back to her father. The best example of Jeannette’s trust in her father is the
swimming example. “What other reason, he asked, would
possibly make him do this? Once I got my breath back, I figured he must be
right. There was no other way to explain it” (66).” In this example Jeannette
completely realizes that what her father did was for the best and she comes to
realize this. Another example of Jeannette’s trust in her father is when she is
confident that her father will completely quit drinking and she is talking with
Lori. “This time it will.” “How do you know?” “It’s his present to me.
(118)”This experience could have possibly damaged her trust in her father
because she couldn’t believe that he had gone back to the booze.
I noticed that the Walls siblings
show loyalty with each other by not choosing side when their parents fight.
Lori is the more mature one and knows what’s best to do in certain situations.
“Lori shook her head. “That’ll make Mom think we’re taking Dad’s side,” she
said. “It would only make it worse. Let them work it out.”(70)” When the
parents are fighting about the margarine Lori basically states that they should
just stay out of it and let the parent work it out. In another situation while
the Walls are living with Rex Wall’s grandmother and Lori is fighting with Erma
because Erma was touching Brian. “Then they flew at each other, tussling and
flailing and pulling hair, locked together, with Brian and me cheering on Lori
until we woke up Uncle Stanley, who staggered into the room and pushed them
apart. (147)”. I think Jeannette feels most lonely when she is going to school
at Welch. She is constantly bullied by Dinitia and it is continued until
Jeannette rescues Dinitias neighbor.
The Christmas event signified a
turning point in Jeannette’s life because this Christmas was supposed to be a
special Christmas because they were planning to spend in on Christmas day
instead of a week after. She was truly excited about this Christmas but her
father had ruined it with his drinking. Rex burned the Christmas tree and with
it all the presents and ornaments. They entire family was stunned and shocked
because Rex had ruined the Christmas that the family had been planning for
weeks. It does not go into detail whether or not Jeannette’s perspective of her
father has changed or not, but I do believe that with an experience like that
her opinion of her father must have changed.
The Walls’ life in Welch was far
worse than any of the other areas they lived in. I think the children enjoyed
living in Phoenix more than living in Welch and Battle Mountain. Living in
Welch Jeannette learns that she needs to mind her manners around her
grandmother, someone she strongly disagrees with. Jeannette realizes that what
happened to Brian could have very well happened to her father and that is why
her father was so against going to Welch.
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