Reading Response #2 (The Glass Castle)

I am currently reading the memoir "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls. This memoir is about her life story. Jeanette's life was always very difficult and always changing in many ways. Her family was severely poor. So poor sometimes they had no food. Jeannette, her younger brother, her older sister, and her mom and dad were all ways on the run from the police and always struggling to make money. Her father was trying to build a contraption to find gold and her mother was a teacher who always dreamed of being an artist. This has been going on for Jeannette's whole life and by the age of 8 was so mature and has been through more stuff then some people d their whole life. I thing the biggest reason she is so different from any other 8 year old girl is because of her parents raising her the way they do. One example is how Jeannette's mother thinks that children should be self sufficient and should cook there own food. Another example is howJeannette's father teaches them that complaining is very rude and that they would be punished if they were to complain. lastly I think that one problem that both parents teach there kids is that when every they have a chance to get money they should take it.

Jeannette's mother thinks it is a wise decision to let a child, not even in double digits, cook there own food. Then one time when Jeannette is cooking hotdogs for her self she boils the water and is preparing to cook the hot dogs and is badly burned by the boiling water. The burns were so bad that she was taken to a hospital and had to stay there for a very long time. If its not bad enough that the mother would let her child's safety be so vulnerable that why Jeannette is in the hospital her mother decides that hospitals are to babyish and that they send people to the hospital for the littlest things so she would sneak Jeannette out of the hospital and flee the town while her child is not in good condition and is still in need of healing. I find this very irresponsible of her parents and it shows that Jeannette's parent's teaching methods are not safe.

Jeannette's parents teach their kids that they shouldn't complain and that they would be severely punished for it. This put a scare into the children and made them so that how ever bad they were they wouldn't show it or complain to there parents about it. In this part of the story they are doing extremely bad and have completely ran out of food in their fridge and have nothing to eat. The kids are going hungry but afraid of being punished for telling their parents that they are hungry they mix margarine and sugar together and eat it ad if it was frosting. The parents are so mean that they would punish their kids for telling them that they had no food but they had no idea because their kids were to frighten to speak up. They finally noticed that their kids were going hungry when they are leaving for school and they have no lunches with them ( which they would pack themselves). Their dad asked where their lunches were and they said they they had no food. He was ashamed that he couldn't support his kids enough to feel them lunch so at lunch at school he came in with bags of groceries and went over to them with a smile and asked, "have I ever let you down?" his youngest son responded in a whisper the dad couldn't here, "yes."

Lastly Jeannette's parents teach her what is valuable and what money they need and how to get it and how much they need it. There is a crazy kid with a drunk father who has a big crush on Jeannette. The kids name is Billy and he is not a good kid. He gives Jeannette a ring made of silver. Jeannette only excepts because she knows its valuable. Because of her act of trying to get something valuable Billy now thinks they are boyfriend and girlfriend. Billy tells everybody this and its not true. Later on they are playing hide and seek with their class. She finds the perfect hiding spot inside of a box type thing which is pretty small. Billy follows her in and squeezing in even though there is no room. While inside Billy starts forcefully kissing her and pretty much raping her. there is nothing she can do in self defense because of the tight space they are in. After a while people her the rustling and get them out of the box. Later on sees him inside a car and throws gives him the ring back saying she hated him. He threw it at her and said she would regret this. Later on he comes to their house with a rifle bee-bee gun. The only thing they can do in self defense is run upstairs and get their dads pistol. Billy runs off while hearing the firing of the pistol. but having the pistol was also irresponsible because while Jeannette shot it dislocated her shoulder. Clearly telling there children to take a ring just for the value was not a good decision by what trouble it got them in.