Jeannette Walls' Childhood in The Glass Castle

 Tuesday, July 14, 2022

Jeannette Walls' Childhood in The Glass Castle

In Jeannette Walls' The Glass Castle She portrays her childhood which is far from normal. The author

describes her upbringing and youth as she struggles with parental neglect and abuse. She grew up in a home where her parents didn't feed her or protect her. Jeannette learns from her parents that she must fend for herself at a young age.

Jeannette is independent at the age of three because already she is responsible for feeding and caring

for herself. Jeannette owes her independence to the fact that her parents made her. The advantage of having parents like this was that Jeannette grew faster than other children and was able to be more

independent.

Jeannette Walls had a very troubled upbringing that included an alcoholic father, a neglectful mother,

mean school kids, and an abusive extended family. One of a mother's major responsibilities is taking

care of her children and feeding them. In the second chapter of the book, Jeannette was in a hospital

when the nurse asked what she was doing cooking hot dogs by herself at the age of three. The author

explains that cooking hot dogs was easy for her. Jeannette explained “Mom says she was mature for

her age.” Her mom believed that she was old enough to cook for herself which clearly shows that her

parents were not taking care of their 3 years old daughter. Jeannette independently was a product of

her parents' neglect and her needs to take care of herself. 

Neglecting a child has serious consequences including social deficiencies, mental problems,

ignorance, and physical problems. In a normal childhood, one of parents' major responsibilities is

to make their children happy. When Jeannette was in the hospital, her mom visited her. “Mom

told me she had entered my name in a raffle at a fair, and I’d won a helicopter ride. I was thrilled.

I had never been in a helicopter or plane. In a normal upbringing mothers are selfless,

but Jeannette's mother was being selfish and was just thinking about herself when her daughter

won the raffle ticket and she took the helicopter ride instead of her daughter.

In a normal childhood, parents take care of their children's health and make them feel safe. Jeanette talked about her physical description in the story. The author noted that the hospital was clean and very quiet. "Jeannette was happy in the hospital because Jeannette never runs out of food, the nurses were feeding her, and everyone was well behaved. There was a TV, and it was shiny." She liked it. It was safer for her than her own house. If a child is injured parents are taking their children to a hospital, but Jeannette's father grabs her and takes her from the hospital before she is released.

In conclusion, the reader learns in The Glass Castle that childhood taught Jeannette how to be determined, empowered and fearless because the success that Jeanette achieved was mostly due to her childhood. Jeannette grew up in a home where her parents didn't feed her or protect her. Jeannette learns from her parents that she must fend for herself at a young age. She finds a way to leave the nest with her siblings and raises them like a parent and they all become successful adults.