Rodrigues 1
A.J. Rodrigues
Ms. Giaconia
English Composition 1
23 October 2012
Learning Independence The Hard Way
There is no debate that Rex and Rose Mary Walls are not perfect parents. They both
created a very tough and difficult life for their children, which ultimately caused the Walls
children to grow up a lot on their own, without guidance from their parents. Their children do
prevail and become successful and independent adults, despite the selfish acts of their parents.
This resolution stuck out as a prevalent theme in The Glass Castle. Selfish parents teach their
children independence.
A lot of the ways that the children were taught independence was through their parents
selfish acts. The Walls parents were selfish throughout the entirety of The Glass Castle. Rose
Mary earns a job teaching while the family is living in Battle Mountain. Lori was in Rose
Mary’s class, and in order to show the principal, Miss Beatty, that she was capable of
disciplining her students, Rose Mary calls Lori up to the front of the class, and paddles her
(Walls 75). This is a display of Rose Mary being selfish by using her own child in order to show
her dominance over her classroom.
Rose Mary displays her selfishness when Jeanette is leaving for New York to begin a
career and new life there. When Jeannette tells Rose Mary not to be mad and that she will write
to her, Rose Mary responds, “I’m not upset because I’ll miss you, I’m upset because you get to
go to New York and I’m stuck here. It’s not fair” (237). Any mother should be happy for their
daughter starting a new and better life with a lot of opportunity, but instead of expressing
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happiness towards Jeannette and her decision, Rose Mary reveals her jealousy, which in turn
shows her true selfish character.
Rose Mary on multiple instances does not display the characteristics of an average
mother, and continues acting selfishly throughout the entirety of The Glass Castle. While living
in Welch, Rose Mary has a bar of chocolate, and is hiding under a blanket and eating it, while the
rest of the family is starving because of the lack of food in the house (174). Also while the
family is living in Welch, Brian and Jeannette find a diamond ring in their yard. The family’s
food source is very scarce, and they think that by pawning the diamond ring, they can get a
decent amount of money from it and buy food for the family. They show Rose Mary the ring,
and she instead decides to keep it, saying, “...at times like these, self-esteem is even more vital
than food” (186).
Rose Mary is not the only parent that is selfish. Rex is equally selfish, if not more. Rex
is portrayed throughout The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls as a very intelligent and caring
father, but he also has his flaws. His dreams to create things like the Prospector (25), and the
Glass Castle itself, were examples of his selfishness, as he put his family in miserable positions
while attempting to reach his goals.
While Rose Mary is away renewing her teaching degree, Jeannette is put in charge of
managing the family budget and making sure the family maintains a safe amount of money. Rex
consistently tries talking Jeannette into lending him money, telling her that he has never let her
down, and that he promises that he will pay her back (210). Jeannette, unable to say no to her
father’s pleas, reluctantly lends him the money that he requests.
Lori and Jeannette had dreamt of one day leaving and living in New York to start a new
life and had saved up their own money to fund the trip there. Rex steals the money that they
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saved for this trip (228). Jeannette and Lori don’t give up though, and both eventually make it to
New York and become successful.
Rex Walls displays his selfishness in many ways throughout The Glass Castle, but it is
most obvious in his dependence on alcohol. Rex Walls is an alcoholic, and his dependence
affects his entire family in a negative way. Rex is always making poor decisions that leave his
children with no choice but to follow him. On Jeannette’s tenth birthday, Rex asks her what she
wants him to get her. Jeannette tells Rex that she wants him to stop drinking (116). This is one
of the only times that one of Rex’s children make him realize how truly selfish he is. It is all for
nothing though, as Rex goes back to his old ways with alcohol only days later, when he returns
to the house drunk after disappearing for three days (122).
It is highlighted very often throughout The Glass Castle that the Walls parents want their
children to develop independence. Jeannette cooks herself hot dogs at the age of only three (9).
None of the Walls children earned an allowance, and had made their own money since they were
young children by collecting scrap metal and bottles (62). The Walls children also display their
sense of independence at Little Hobart Street. Jeannette and Brian wage their own successful
battle against Ernie Goad and his group of friends, slinging rocks from above a hill from a selfmade catapult (166-167).
Jeannette seems to be more at the focus of becoming independent on her own. She is
often put in many situations, usually because of Rex, that require her to mature earlier than
children her age and make decisions that she shouldn’t have to make. While Jeannette is
learning to swim, Rex throws a reluctant Jeannette into the water while she flails, thinking she is
drowning. Jeannette eventually gets the hang of it and begins swimming on her own, and Rex
tells her that “one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is ‘If you don’t want to sink, you
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better learn to swim’” (66). Rex in his own creative way is teaching Jeannette to be independent
and learn things on her own. Rex also takes Jeannette to a bar in one of the more disturbing
scenes of The Glass Castle, where a man takes her upstairs to his room and Jeannette narrowly
avoids being attacked (212). Rex believed that Jeannette was fine the entire time, and didn’t
worry about her being attacked. “I knew you could handle yourself” Rex tells Jeannette. “It was
like that time I threw you into the sulfur spring to teach you to swim... you might have been
convinced you were going to drown, but I knew you’d do just fine” (214).
The Walls children were independent and intelligent children from a very young age
because they had no other choice but to learn things on their own. The selfishness of Rex and
Rose Mary Walls not only gave the Walls children a very difficult and challenging childhood,
but taught them independence the hard way. For the Walls children, having selfish parents
turned out to be not so bad after all.
Work Cited
Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle: A Memoir. New York: Scribner, 2005. Print