Reflection Essay

Sarah Gagnon             Period: B

Do you need safe, loving, supportive parents in order to be a healthy adult?

The Glass Castle Reading Reflection

Children do not need loving and supportive parents in order to grow up successful. Based upon reading the book, "The Glass Castle," not every child needs loving, supportive parents. Although they do love their children, Rex and Mary use very basic parental decisions, the children are very independent and raise themselves for the most part. If you have the right mind set, motivation, and knowledge, like Jeannette has, you can make it\find your way in life and through the hardest of times.

If you have the right mind set, motivation, and knowledge, like Jeannette has, you can make it\find your way in life and through the hardest of times. Jeannette seemed to be at the bottom of the bottom growing up, she learned to survive anyway she could at a very young age, considering her parents weren't a very stable place to go to for anything. But Jeannette saw that even if you're at the bottom of the bottom, there's always a blue sky above. A good example of this is when Jeannette tries to explain what her way of making something out of nothing is like, "We kids usually kept our hunger to ourselves, but we were always thinking of food and how to get our hands on it. During recess at school, I'd slip back into the classroom and find something in some other kid's lunch bag that wouldn't be missed-a package if crackers, an apple-and I'd gulp it down so quickly I would barley be able to taste it." (Page 68) This is a good example of knowledge Jeannette will have all her life, even though it's not something pleasant to go through, she has the mind set and knowledge to use when she's older, which will come in handy. Mary and Rex seem to have the opposite reactions that parents would have if their child gets in trouble or hurt, and it's clear that their children take after that and act as if it was nothing, "I came home that night with scraped knees and elbows and a busted lip. "Looks to me you got in a fight," Dad said.... "Just a little dust up," I said. That was the word Dad always used after he'd been in a fight. "How many were there?" "Six" I lied. "Is that split lip okay?" He asked. "This lil' ol' scratch? I asked. "You should have seen what I did to them." "That my girl!" Dad said and went back to the clock, but Brian kept looking over at me." (Page 45) This clearly shows how unconcerned Rex was about the situation. Usually you'd expect that he would make sure she's okay and be annoying about it, or even be mad for the fact she was in a fight. But, not Rex, he takes pride in seeing his children be able to fight for themselves even at a young age. And Jeannette clearly took some sort of pride as you can see when she is talking to her father, Rex. As Jeannette grows up her relationship with her parents, especially her father starts to dwindle. Jeannette didn’t realize that the way her parents were going about taking care of them wasn’t normal, at first, but as she got older she realized how inconsiderate her parents really were. Jeannette was always close with her father, and always had sympathy for him. When they moved to Welch it seemed as though her father completely changed. Jeannette had started to work to save up money so her and her siblings could live, but her father didn’t respect that. One day Rex went up to Jeannette when no one was home and didn’t even ask but simply said, “Hon, I need some money.” (page 209) Jeannette would’ve gladly given him the money, if it was for something useful, but instead it was for beer and cigarettes. This made Jeannette feel like he had no regard for her at all, he didn’t care enough to find his own way of getting money for his addictions, let alone provide food for his family. Jeannette agreed to give him the money, and he agreed to pay her back, therefore Jeannette didn’t think much of it. But when he wants to pay her back, she realizes how much of a scum he really can be. Rex gambles quite a lot and had a deceiving plan of bringing Jeannette to a bar to distract a drunken Robbie so her father could con him out of his money. Jeannette almost ends up getting raped but holds her ground and decides not to call for her father. But when they get into the car and Jeannette explains what happened, he totally blows her off by saying, “I’m sure he just pawed you some, I knew you could handle yourself.” (page 213) At this point she still has respect and sympathy for her father, but from then on it just seems to get worse and worse. Finally Jeannette has had enough of this retched lifestyle, so she decides to save up her money for a ticket to New York. Overtime she actually does save enough money to get out, and she does. After only a day of being in New York Jeannette landed a job, she’d be taking home $80.00 a week, Lori and her found an appartment they could afford, things got better for Jeannette from then on, she was on her way to the life she had always dreamed of. She made something out of nothing, which proves anyone has the ability to accomplish their dreams.