“You should never hate anyone, even your worst enemies. Everyone has something good about them. You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that.” - Jeannette Walls
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls the kind of story that you would think of a dysfunctional family. Living in a run-down home with no running electricity or water. A dad who cannot control his alcohol abuse, a mom who cannot hold responsibility for her children or her jobs, and four children who go hungry all the time. Author Jeannette Walls portrays her childhood in an honest lens, one that was full of truth but of complexity, both the good and the bad.
Walls begins the story from her childhood from the time she was three, receiving burns from the boiling water from cooking hotdogs. From the beginning, it is clear that the family is not typical, from letting a young baby in front of a fire or letting young children be independent for their own choices. The parents, Rex and Rose Mary, are both passionate and lacking. They constantly care and foster education and growth that most schools do not focus on. The father Rex Walls promises Jeanette that he would build the children a glass castle one day, a symbol of hope and promise that pervades the book, and hence the name of the novel. Yet, the physical responsibilities that are required of every parent was every shortcoming of the Walls parents. Not being able to pay the rent and taxes, straddled by abusive alcoholism, and unable to provide a basic platform for food and water, the Walls struggled.
Many parts of the book left me in deep anger against the Walls parents, but also a rare sense of understanding. In the scenes when Jeanette and her siblings ate margarine because there was no other food in the refrigerator, or when Rex Walls stole all of children’s money for his drinking habits, or when the mother Rose Mary refused to sell her diamond ring for food, my anger boiled. How were the parents blind enough to never see the struggles of the kids? How? I was taken aback each time their house became more dilapidated, the amount of neglect the children struggled through. Around the end of the book, I was in full hearted support for the Walls children leaving for New York City to encounter a new life.
Yet, there were moments that showed the humanity of the parents. When the Walls children learn about the abuse that their father had to go through, it gives a more rational explanation on how and why Rex Walls grew up to be an alcoholic. The moment when Jeanette leaves her father for New York, she realizes that her father had dearly wanted escape from his past also, but was unable to. And when Jeanette struggled to pay her college bills, Rex collected the remaining dues through gambling for his daughter. The humanity that shines through these cracks of light show the love that loosely strung this dysfunctional family together. In the end, everyone present is human and all have their own expression of love.
For any of those who want to read a story that encompasses struggle and the complicated relationships. I wholeheartedly enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone who wants to see a story of perseverance and family.
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