Tyler Lucas
Mrs. Wood
English III
06 February 2023
Rex Wall’s Parenting Ability What skills do you think are necessary to be worthy of being a reliable parent of kids? In the story The Glass Castle written and narrated by Jeanette Wall, Rex Wall, the father of 3 children, one being Jeannette, clearly shows his interesting parenting skills. Some are good, some are bad, which puts him and his family through many ups and downs that we see as we read the story. Rex teaches his kids good morals to live by, but in very contradicting ways. He has his many intriguing attributes of being an exciting parent, but opposing those are his attributes of being irresponsible and more often than not, immature, which is why it is important to go in depth and
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Readers first learn that when he speaks. For example, Rex gets “into an argument with the doctor” because he “thought [Jeannette] shouldn’t be wearing bandages.” With his words, he continues to force his opinion when he suggests “[b]urns need to breathe” (13). This greatly shows how Rex openly expresses what he believes should be said in the moment. He has no filter which is part of what makes him an exciting parent, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways of being exciting without causing problems with the things he says. It shows his lack of respect towards the people that are helping take care of his daughter. But his lack of respect shows up again when he calls his wife’s mother a “goddamned flint-faced hag!” (20). The immaturity shows in his inability to put a filter on his language around people that he should be respecting. Not only should he be respecting her because it is his wife’s mother but also because she is an elder to him. The immaturity in Rex’s language repeatedly shows up throughout the story when he yells “[v]irgin my ass!” during a church service, and the vulgar statement “Mary was a sweet Jewish broad who got herself knocked up!” (114) Rex’s inappropriate language sets a bad example for his kids to look up to because they will only follow in his footsteps as most kids do when they look up to their parents. They will learn bad habits like using inappropriate language during …show more content…
After the death of his first daughter is it clear that it really affected him mentally, pushing him to show his kids how much he cares about them. We see this a lot with Jeanette, like when Rex went to the hospital to get her out he said, “You don’t have to worry anymore, baby, [y]ou’re safe now.” (14) His urge to get Jeanette out of the hospital because he believed it was saving her shows his ambition to care for his kids more than he thought the nurses could. Rex shows a lot of affection towards all of his kids but it is especially shown to Jeannette. When talking to a neighbor about Jeannette playing with fire and not being scared, Rex said “Why the hell would she?” He was proud of her because she “already fought the fire once and won.” (15) It’s obvious that Rex cares a lot about Jeannette and is proud of the things that she can accomplish and overcome. There is a connection between Jeanette and her father that most may not have caught onto while reading the story. We see Jeannette overcome her fear of fire but it’s almost as if Rex aspired to overcome his drinking problem because he saw what his daughter was capable of. Drinking was his biggest issue which is a major part of what didn’t make him a very suitable parent. During the summer Rex would “sit under the orange trees reading.” (118) as a way to get over his drinking
There is an argument about the relationship between Rex and Jeannette and how Rex goes about parenting. Rex has a unique parenting style that isn’t seen much in today's world and it is often considered as a bad way to parent. Although there were many fights and bad decisions made, it is easy to see that Rex loves Jeannette and he would do everything in his power to support her throughout life. He would always turn bad things into some sort of adventure that can be overcome as long as they stuck strong and defeated the evil that was present. Rex loves Jeannette and this can be seen in the idea of the Glass Castle, when he helps her with her education, and when they are forced to travel and leap around from place to place.
The 3 Wall’s children were frequently in harm’s way, therefore child protective services would have found a number of very serious situations. Raised in a neglectful household, Jeanette Wall’s authored a narrative of the abuse she has received. The Glass Castle shows experiences, accidents, at the moment of encounters with never-ending abuse. Although Jeanette shares the suffering her parents had handed her throughout her childhood, she also paints a picture of an emotionally caring family; thanking her mother for believing in art and truth; thankful for her father for dreaming big dreams, always wanting to be the father that his children can rely on, making sure they can use imagination in replace of material joy. Even in the mistreatment
He conveys that Jeanette can become triumphant over anything she puts her mind to; as long as she is confident, she can overcome any obstacle in life. In a similar way, when the Walls go to the Hot Pot to swim, although her siblings know how, Jeanette does not know how to swim. In an attempt to teach her, Rex heaves her into the middle by herself, only saving her when she starts to sink. He continues to throw her out into the water repeatedly, saying, “you can’t cling to the side your whole life; one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is ‘if you don’t want to sink, you better figure out how to swim’” (66). Using another metaphor for a life lesson, Rex ensures that Jeanette understands that no one will do everything for her in life, and if she does not learn how to take care of herself, she will never survive in the world by herself.
In the memoir, Rex Walls’ internal conflict, Jeannette Walls’ conflict with Rose Mary, and Jeannette’s conflict with society push her to become the person she is today. Therefore, Jeannette Walls’ owes her success to the hardships she had as a child. To begin, Rex Walls’ internal conflict comes from his inability to provide for his family. Being a father, Rex Walls has an obligation to look after his family and to make sure everyone is looked after.
When Jeannette is on her way to the bus station to go to New York. Rex is giving Jeanette is favorite knife to protect her, “Dad reached into his pocket and pulled out his favorite jackknife, the one with the horn handle and the blade of blue German steel that we'd used for Demon Hunting. ‘I'll feel better knowing you have this.’ He pressed the knife into my hand” (Walls 240). This Rex is being helpful to Jeannette so that she can have a long life and be safe in New York.
In the memoir, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the Walls family is considered homeless and they are constantly moving from place to place. They constantly find themselves either with a somewhat decent amount of money or at times, no money at all. Jeannette, being one of four children always follows along with and listens to her parents and eventually notices that their family does things very differently than most other families. As Jeannette explains her childhood and how she is being raised by her parents, it is clear to see how different Rex and Rosemary’s parenting style is compared to the parenting style of other parents. Since their parenting style is so different, it seems that it affects their children in a negative way throughout their childhood, but in the end it makes Jeannette become a better and more successful person.
According to Jeannette Walls, Rex was a very fun and loving father while she was growing up. Alcoholism affects the good people and the bad people, many in the same ways. However from an outside perspective, Rex Walls' behavior put his children at risk. In The Glass Castle, Rex has many moments where he puts his family's lives in risk, maiming Jeannette's. In one scene, Jeannette and the family go to a water hole to go swimming.
As Jeannette matures her connection with her parents, particularly her father begins to diminish. Jeannette didn’t grasp that the way her parents raised them or viewed the world wasn’t normal and as she got older she recognized how selfish her parents were. Jeannette was constantly close with her father, and always showed compassion for him, but when they relocated to Welch it appeared as if her father had changed. Jeannette eventually obtained work and began to save up money so she and her siblings could survive, but her father didn’t approve and eventually sabotaged that plan. Eventually, Rex went to Jeannette and requested money from her, he did promise to pay her back.
Rex believes that Jeanette was able to handle herself and
Jeannette described that this experience made her feel used by her father and gave her a sense of self-worthlessness. Rex knew that Jeannette had a soft spot for him and he took advantage of this. Jeannette has a psychological scar from this for the rest of her life, and it produced long-term effects of distrust and diminished self-worth. As a child she had been through more than most adults, and in one case she even wakes up in the middle of the night with a child molester in her bed. “One night when I was almost ten, I was awakened by someone running his hands over my private parts” (Walls 103).
When the family is on the trip, they pass a little black boy with no pants on, and the grandmother says, "little niggers in the country don't have things like we do" (398). This is just one instance where the grandmother shows how judgemental she is. She did not know anything about the boy or his family, but continued to talk bad about people who live in the country. After the wreck and being discovered by the Misfit, the grandmother knows she is in trouble and begins telling the Misfit
A balance between a enriching intellectual environment and comfortable living conditions is what all families, especially parents want. This is a constant struggle in the Glass Castle because of the Walls poor living condition, but eagerness to explore and adventure the world. Rex and Rosemary Walls, parents of Lori, Jeannette, Brian, and Maureen, obviously take an exploratory and learning environment over a comforting living space. Although living in rough conditions, which leads to bullying, poverty, I believe that it was more important that the Walls created circumstances for most of the children to explore and enjoy learning. Jeannette Walls, the author and the narrator throughout the book, tells a story about her life from when she was
Rex’s method is not that of many fathers, his being “sink or swim”, providing not only the ability to swim but also a strong metaphor for the reader and Jeannette. This is a representation of not only the Walls’ teaching strategy, also for the struggle to succeed in a life the Jeannette has literally been thrown into. Jeannette takes this idea to heart even though she may not realize it, for her not to succumb to the environment in which encapsulates her, such as Welch and life on the road, she must be able to handle these hard situations and be able to stay
I believe they are inadequate parents. My opinion is based on everything, Jeannette had experienced in her early years as a child, and as a teen growing up in Welch. The first reason why I think Rex and Rose Mary Walls are inadequate parents, is the skedaddle. The skedaddle is something that Rex and Rose Mary Walls used as an excuse to escape the “FBI” and debt collectors (and they had a large sum of debt).
The speaker’s grandmother is originally presented in a way that causes the ending to be a surprise, saying, “Her apron flapping in a breeze, her hair mussed, and said, ‘Let me help you’” (21-22). The imagery of the apron blowing in the wind characterizes her as calm, and when she offers to help her grandson, she seems to be caring and helpful. Once she punches the speaker, this description of her changes entirely from one of serenity and care to a sarcastic description with much more meaning than before. The fact that the grandmother handles her grandson’s behavior in this witty, decisive way raises the possibility that this behavior is very common and she has grown accustomed to handling it in a way that she deems to be effective; however, it is clearly an ineffective method, evidenced by the continued behavior that causes her to punish the speaker in this manner in the first place.