Review Of Tipsy Rex's Memoir 'The Glass Castle'

The book is told from Jeannette’s point of view; Jeannette is an adventurous child with high hopes. Her father Rex Walls is an alcoholic who would distract the kids from when they had to move house to house,

Jeannette and her dad started to grow apart. He was always leaving and not really there for Jeannette and his family. He would leave for days and wasn’t really working. Jeannette started to learn that his dad’s actions weren’t really smart. She started to see his lack of responsibility and what his actions are doing and what they lead to. She knew that her father had a drinking problem and would always go to the bar. Jeannette realizes that Rex keeps letting her down because he still continued to drink and gets drunk. Jeannette was at a breaking point and she asked her mom to leave her father. But her father still has his moments when they would still bond together when she is older .Every birthday he would give her a star and she would love it. But at the end of the day, Jeannette loved her

Jeannette, realizing that her father is dying, reflects about him with great affection, praising him with long and sentimental sentences but in her last moments with him (before Rex has a heart attack) there is a change in syntax, and as she leaves his makeshift apartment she, “...just smiled. And then [she] closed the door” (279). By employing short sentences, Walls is able to show that she has matured and come to realize the truths about her father, seeming detached and

Walls opens the middle of the chapter by demonstrating her father’s acts of selfishness. Walls creates a angry tone by showing the father as an antagonist. Her father steals all of Jeannette and Lori’s collected money for them to go to New York. Lori stays home from school to angrily confront her father for what he did. “You bastard” Lori Shouted.

In this excerpt, it is like Jeannette and Rex are sitting in the wreckage after a storm. It’s as if they are having a final moment of clarity about the life Rex gave her. It’s interesting to see them finally interact with all their cards on the table, they aren’t playing any games anymore, they aren’t entertaining any of their far out ideas of their Glass Castle, they are simply being honest and direct and saying their last goodbyes, acknowledging things they never had before. When Jeannette says, “This stuff could grow on you.” in regards to the vodka and Rex answers, “Don’t let it.” Rex is acknowledging a large factor in the messed up life that his children had was because of his drinking and how his drinking ruined a lot of good prospects and opportunities the family could have had.

Jeannette is talking about her entire family. The Walls’ family had been through a lot at the point in Jeannette’s life where they get stuck in the desert. The passage signifies the Wall’s will to continue and not give up. Not one member of the Walls family is uneducated. Rex lives the life he wants to live, although it isn’t a very good life, and it makes him happy. If Rex is happy there is nothing to be bitter about. Jeannette uses Buster to represent her family on a smaller scale; wounded, angry, and broken down. The Walls family can be angry at time but they are not bitter. Fights between Rex and Mary happen all the time but grudges are forgotten a minute or two after the event. Anger is an on going theme throughout Jeannette’s life

This memoir focuses on the development and growing maturity of Jeannette Walls who is an intelligent, dynamic protagonist. The novel begins when she is only three years old and continues into her adulthood, providing insight into her mind. Jeannette shows the reader her opinions on her impoverished life style, which forces her to constantly move from one location to another and meet all the people who surround her. Throughout the novel her family consists of her Father and Mother, Rex and Rose Mary, sisters, Lori and Maureen, and brother Brian. Jeannette, a middle sibling, is closer to younger brother Brian than her older sister Lori: Brian shares Jeannette's love of the outdoors, while Lori is more a bookworm. As a child

Alcohol is the most commonly used addictive substance in the United States. One in every twelve adults suffers from alcohol abuse. In the book The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls Jeannette’s father, Rex, deals with a drinking problem. His drinking problem is one characteristic that makes him crude and un-relatable to the reader. In the novel The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Rex Walls is an unsympathetic character. The reader finds evidence of this in the story through the ways he cannot keep a stable job, his drinking and gambling problem, and how he steals from Jeannette and his children. Rex Walls is a terrible father.

One persistent issue presented throughout The Glass Castle is alcoholism. Rex Walls, Jeanette’s father, suffers from severe alcoholism which not only has a negative impact on him, but on the entire Walls’ family. The book demonstrates just how much of a toll an alcoholic parent has on their children. Due to his severe drinking problem, he became emotionally unconnected and neglectful towards his children and abusive both physically and emotionally to his wife. Although Rex was an intelligent and gifted man, his family lived in poverty due to his inability to sustain a job. When he managed to sober up and get a job, he would relapse and stop going to work just to drink. Alcoholism is still a widespread issue in families today causing psychological, emotional, and physical pain to everyone involved.

Rex Walls, her father,  was very hands with his parenting bringing issues to the family, while contrasting Rose Mary, her mother, was very relaxed in her parenting technique. Ironically, because Rose Mary  and Rex continued to neglect their family's needs throughout the novel, Jeanette, who still was a child, took over their roles as adults. As a child Jeannette should be dependent on the parents, however, Rex spent money on unnecessary liberations and Rose Mary selfishly refused to keep working. ' "Why do I always have to be the one who earns the money?' Mom asked. '

Ever since the beginning of Jeanette Walls childhood, Rex Walls was always an alcoholic father who abused not only his wife, but his family too. Like anyone when intoxicated, Rex was an entirely different person when he drank too much. There were several instances throughout The Glass Castle when Rex displayed abusive tendencies toward the mom (Mary Rose) and the rest of the family. For example, when the Walls were still residing in Battle Creek, Rex disappears for hours after he had been drinking for a while. Rose Mary and Rex got in a huge fight and the next thing the kids knew, “Mom’s feet appeared in the window, followed by the rest of her body. She was dangling from the second floor, her like swinging wildly” (Walls 71). In this specific passage, Walls shows the reader just how unacceptable and unhealthy the home environment was for the walls children. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines that heavy alcohol abuse is “binge drinking on five or more days in the past month” (Alcohol Facts and Statistics). This was definitely a reoccurring habit of Mr. Walls and

The Walls parenting technique resulted in Jeannette being a more intelligent individual. Along the way, she encounters many obstacles many kids in her age group haven’t experienced, but she always seems to solve it her own no matter no occurs. For example, Rex decided to take the family to the Hot Pot where Rex uses a unique method to teach Jeannette how to swim. Her siblings, Brian and Lori knew how to swim, but Jeannette never learned, because the large bodies of water made her constantly intimidated. Previously, she always clanged on the side of the swimming pool, but the Hot Pot had no edges for that to be possible, so her dad came to the rescue. The father pushes her to the middle of water where Jeannette starts to drown, spit, cough, and even chock, but Rex just repeats the process. Then, Jeannette eventually realized that all Rex did was“rescue” but only to throw her back into the water. Jeannette recalls, “ ...rather than reaching for dad’s hands, I

While her father’s dismisses his destructive nature, Jeannette becomes conscious of his actions which motivates her to make amends in hopes of leaving their desolate life. Instead of getting help for his childhood trauma, Rex immerses himself in alcohol causing him to become

When Lori and Jeanette are growing older, they decide they want to move to New York City to start a new life, away from their parents. Lori and Jeanette get jobs and begin to earn money. They hide their earnings from their parents in a piggy bank they named Oz. One day Jeanette tries to find Oz to put her paycheck in. Instead she says to Lori “Someone has slashed him apart with a knife and stole all the money” (Walls 228). The kids knew right away who had stolen it. It was Dad. When Lori confronted Dad with the news about Oz, he started playing dumb, acting like he had not idea what was going on. But in fact he did steal the money. This action shows that Dad is very selfish and only cares about himself.

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.