The
Glass Castle of Pain
Alcoholism,
manipulation and neglect color the pages of The Glass Castle, a
best-selling memoir written by Jeannette Walls. In it, she describes the
hardships she faced throughout her childhood, forced to take care of herself to
substitute the somewhat lack of care her parents provided. Though Walls
initially distances herself far from her parents in order to thrive despite
them as she tries to build a career and a social life, her efforts to forgive
her parents and bring her family back together create a strong bond that brings
them closer than she could have ever imagined. This process, however, had proved
to be a very arduous one, affecting the author both mentally and physically in
many different ways. To achieve success despite her poor situation, Walls was
forced to endure a lot of stress and overcome the pain caused by her parent’s
thoughtlessness. This stress manifested itself in many different forms,
affecting Walls in many different ways, creating both different mental and
emotional obstacles for her to overcome.
Psychological pain;
mental 1 or emotional 2suffering or torment: At
the start of the book, we notice that Jeannette Walls, the author, is living a
good life. She finally has gotten her career together and she is going to a
party in a taxi when she notices a woman with gray hair and odd clothing. It
was her mother, Rosemary Walls, going through Dumpsters searching for items of
interest. She (Jeannette) felt very embarrassed by her mother and she didn’t
want to be seen by her. She slides down the seat of the car, and then asks her
taxi driver to turn around and take her home (3-4). This shows that, in her
mind, she wants nothing to do with her mother at that time thinking that the
well-to-do folks at the party would think badly of her. Later on when she
arrives at her apartment, she cannot seem to enjoy herself simply because of
the fact her parents are living on the streets. We can only imagine the things
she was actually thinking at the moment, but for now let us move a little
deeper.
1.
Mental:
Take
notice of when stated earlier that she does not want to be seen by both her
mother or the party goers and asks her taxi driver to take her home instead of
going to the party. We can assume that in her mind she still cares about her
mother as she invites her for some seafood dinner (5). As they sit down
Jeannette asks her mother what she wants to help change her life when she flips
it around saying, “I’m fine. You’re the one who needs help. Your values are all
confused.” This statement obviously shook her in some way that she told her
mother she was ashamed of her further proving Rose’s point.
2.
Emotional:
When the two were almost done eating Jeannette asks a question that not a lot
of readers will understand at first until finishing the memoir; “And what am I
supposed to tell people about my parents?” Rose counters with “Just tell the
truth. That’s simple enough.” Try to put yourself, the reader, in Jeannette’s
shoes. How could you answer that question? Despite
Rose’s position, she will not accept anything monetary that Jeannette attempts
to offer her. The reader can only imagine the emotional stress and confusion
that Jeannette had to deal with during her time with her mother. Being that
Rose is a woman of strong will and integrity she will not accept handouts and
that puts Jeannette in a tough situation. The feeling of emotional stress was
obviously going through Jeannette’s mind while she was holding a conversation with
her mother because she is experiencing modes of guilt.
Physical
pain; physical suffering or distress, as due to injury, etc.:
The
memoir The Glass Castle is riddled with physical suffering. During Jeannette’s childhood she was forced
to endure a variety of hardships that most children would not believe could
happen to them. At the age of three, Jeannette experienced severe burns on her
torso while attempting to cook hot dogs. Now this kind of experience is very
unique being that a child her age already cooking food for herself, even though
most parents would never let their child near a stove or anything dealing with
gas appliances. Being burned to the degree that one would need skin grafts
would obviously be a very physically painful experience to go through
especially as a child. In addition to this experience, Jeannette encounters
several physical altercations in different schools being a victim of bullying
and harassment from other students her age who picked on her for her odd
disposition and the way she grew up. Furthermore, throughout the book we see
instances where Jeannette and her siblings were forced to endure malnutrition
due to their parents’ inability to provide food for the family. There were
plenty of instances where the Walls children had to go out and search for their
own food to feed themselves. Something like that does not come very often to
most families where the parents are responsible. When Jeannette confronts her
mother about being hungry, her mother responds in a manner where most people
would consider irresponsible “It’s not my fault if you’re hungry.” (69).
Although
Jeannette and her siblings experience a wide variety of painful events in their
childhood, they are able to overcome each one of their experiences and become
successful. We can see how Jeannette Walls used her times as a child growing in
a world of poverty to produce a memoir that in itself is helpful to readers in
the fact that it actually describes in detail how much a family in poverty goes
through and the things she had to go through to become what she is today; a
successful author who was able to take a painful childhood and turn it into
something positive for others to experience. Most people who writes or have
written a memoir write about things of inner turmoil and flip it into something
everyone can connect with, which is what Jeannette Walls did. She overcame
hardships to become what she is today. Sometimes confronting your pain is the
best way of letting it go.
