Rex Walls the husband of Rose Marry and the father of four children, Jeannette, Brain, Lori, and Maureen. He was an alcoholic with gambling problems, with a bad childhood, and he was irresponsible; but at the same time he had the knowledge, dreams, hope, and wanted his children to be happy. The gambling problems became his worst nightmare he had to be on the move and away from his debts, the family moved to eight different states and cities.
His childhood troubles came from his mother whom she also had a troubled childhood, working like a maid for relatives and it wasn’t by her choice" Erma's parents had died when she was young, Mom explained, and she had been shipped off to one relative after another who had treated her like a servant" (Walls 144). His responsibility was weak, he didn’t know how was his children and he didn’t place a stable roof on top of them. But, he had knowledge and he gave some of it to his children, he filled his children with dreams like building a glass castle. And on top of that he wanted to make them happy when they didn’t get any presents for Christmas he took them to the desert and made them choose a star as a gift and it was for them " On Christmas Eve, Dad took each of us kids out into the desert night one by one… And he gave me Venus"(39), that was the best memory of Jeannette of her father she won't forget it.
As for his father, Grandpa Ted was quiet, harmless, alcoholic and was overtaken by Erma; "He looked fragile, with short white hair that stood straight up. His voice was so mumbly I could hardly understand him. I didn't know if it was his accent or if maybe he wasn't wearing his dentures. "Name's Ted, but you can call me Grandpa," he went on." (131). I guess alcoholism runs deep in each member of Rex's family. He being to himself quite, harmless is because of the way Erma's aggressiveness and madness. He hated being in fights and he always pulls himself out from situations he knew will end up bad. And that’s why Rex didn’t have a great role model to see up too, he didn’t teach him how to be a man to take care not only of himself, but to take care of his family and make sure that they are happy and living a good life.
And Rose Marry the wife of Rex Walls and the mother of four, she had some characteristics that were the same as Rex. She was unsuccessful, irresponsible, free spirited, selfish, but she intended to do what is best for her children. First of all, she wasn’t successful for being an artist, which she was and didn’t get to be known to the public at all. Secondly she was irresponsible for her children's health, comfort, and well-being, didn’t care if they ate or if they had problems that needed to be solved she would doze off like she lived in another place away from being a parent. Thirdly, she intended to do what's best for her children by not taking them to school and by letting them learn from life and their mistakes, she stopped providing for her family by not teaching in a school she was a teacher and that comes back to her mother, which she is also a teacher, Rose Marry had problems with her mother and she was hard headed to even listen to her own mother for her children's being. And despite the parents ups and downs they loved their children, but they were in another place.
To sum up Jeannette Walls parent Rex and Rose were monsters, they somehow help their children to depend on themselves and grow up not needing someone to help them. But they also didn’t provide good care and stability, each one of them had problems and the problems piled up, and Rex and Rose weren’t there to help or be by their children's side.
Work Cited
Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle: A Memoir. New York. Scribner, 2005. Print
zoz
the_monsters_with_a_free_spirit.docx
0
