Child Abuse in the Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls Essay Example

Child abuse and neglect are serious public health problems that can have long-term impacts on health, opportunity, and wellbeing of a child. The melancholy reality of these issues is that they often go undetected for years. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a memoir located in 1960s America, about a family whose children grow up homeless, neglected, and abused. Rex and Rose Mary Walls were insufficient parents who forced their four children to defend themselves and pave their own paths. The character's development was determined by the way the children interpreted the parents’ parental actions throughout time. After being the victim of child neglect her whole life Maureen had to shift into living on her own, as Lori was fastened in reliving life through her parents' nightmares, once awoken began to live the life she was always deemed to live. Jeannette Walls struggled to understand the concept of reality growing up in a home where being homeless and not having utilities available as normal; therefore, once the malnourishment was recognized she started to write her own reality.

A constant recurrence of child neglect will produce long-term effects on a person's mental, physical, and emotional health, directly correlating to substance and alcohol abuse in the future. Maureen Walls grew up without a proper home life and no family to support her, this being due to the fact that she was never home. Furthermore, she was held back from the learning experiences her siblings developed, whilst also being neglected by their parents. Based on Wall’s feelings of isolation she states, “She spent so much time with the families of her friends that she often didn't seem like a member of our family. A lot of her friends were Pentecostals whose parents held that Mom and Dad were disgracefully irresponsible and took it upon themselves to save Maureen's soul,”(Walls 130). The following epitomizes how even her friend's parents, tried to assist Maureen; however, the reality is Maureen never lived a life where she dictated the outcomes. When it came time to make her own decisions, unlike her siblings who were challenged with these tasks their whole life, she had to adjust which led to her falling into a dark path. Thus, these tragic events, which Maureen faces, leads directly to her traumatic outcome where she states, “The longer she stayed with Mom and Dad, the more lost she became, and after a while she was spending most of her days in the apartment, smoking cigarettes, reading novels, and occasionally painting nude self portraits…Six months later, Maureen stabbed Mom,” (Walls 174). Although Maureen was an adult, her unsolved problems as a child led to enhancing traumatic events; which led Maureen, herself, to walk a downhill path the rest of her life. Instead of Rose Mary Walls providing the help Maureen needed, the actions of Maureen mirrored the effects of irresponsible parenting by ironically stabbing her mother. Due to irresponsible parenting and the development of child neglect, Maureen faced long-term mental, physical and emotional trauma throughout the novel; hence, diminishing any chances of a successful adulthood. . Maureen’s life is a direct representation of what childhood trauma does to someone; where even in their adult life the consequences of mental torment lingers on. 

Generational trauma paves one's path to their future parental role. For some, the destiny of one’s children can be determined based on whether or not they can remove themselves from the inadequate habits of their parents. However, being stuck in that world, one of the only substandard decisions by a parent can continue the cycle of malnourished parenting. Lori always knew her life was not normal, from being homeless all her life to not having the utilities needed to survive, and even the constant abuse of her own parents. Therefore, from a young age Lori understood there was a better life somewhere far away from home, “She positively glowed as she told me about the hot meals and the hot showers and all the friends she'd made. She'd even had a boyfriend who kissed her, ‘Everyone assumed I was a normal person,’ she said. ‘It was weird.’ Then she told me that it had occurred to her that if she got out of Welch, and away from the family, she might have a shot at a happy life,” (Walls 137). For the first time, Lori experiences the correct means of life, and before it took over her, she recognized the generational trauma that was passed on to her parents. Claiming the responsibility of the parental role for her and her siblings was the first step to a new life. She presumed that the only way to lead a fulfilling life was to leave the one she was in and attempt to take her siblings with her.  Accordingly, New York symbolized the exact place of opportunity and freedom  Lori was looking for: 

LORI HAD BEEN WRITING to us regularly from New York. She loved it there. She was living in a hotel for women in Greenwich Village, working as a waitress in a German restaurant, and taking art classes and even fencing lessons. She'd met the most fascinating group of people, every one of them a weird genius…Even Central Park wasn't as dangerous as people in West Virginia thought, (Walls 149). 

Lori was placed in a dangerous society as a child, yet was then provided with countless positive opportunities; through ways where she was able to experience trying new things without a weight tying her down. Lori directly exemplifies that a child can overcome their parent’s poor decisions and control their destiny. These decisions of bestowing generational trauma onto their own children was the cause of a loss of bond to family although evidently, through Lori, that lost bond did not cement a child to a worse life.  THESIS

When finding out something you believed your whole life is not real, it feels as if a puzzle piece to your own self is lost. Jeannette grew up never understanding the malfunction of her own family. Not having the essential utilities needed to survive, she was trapped in a world where her parents praised and encouraged malicious activities in their lifestyle. The most difficult thing for Jeanette was to grasp the concept of reality and pull away from the nightmare she was drawn into by her parents. After living through a traumatic event, “I had made two decisions. The first was that I'd had my last whipping. No one was ever going to do that to me again. The second was that, like Lori, I was going to get out of Welch. The sooner, the better…People got stuck in Welch. I had been counting on Mom and Dad to get us out, but I now knew I had to do it on my own,”(Walls 221). The day Jeannette actualized the actuality of her parents not being perfect was the first day she became free. From constantly being shunned away from the reality of her lifestyle to exploring the world around her, not only opened countless doors for success, however, presented her with the social concept of companionship; something she did not receive from her parents. Although her parents were staying close to her, Jeannette had no willpower to be around them, “When I started thinking about mom and dad. When they had moved into their squat— a fifteen-minute subway ride south and about half a dozen worlds away— it seemed as if they had finally found the place where they belonged, and I wondered if I had done the same” (Walls 268). Unlike Jeannette's parents, the effects of learning to accept the reality of reality itself allowed Jeannette to evolve and explore the person she was, and began to walk the journey she was meant to follow. Being engulfed inside a life of lies and no image outside the closed doors restricts one to evolve into their own person. Recognizing the malnourished treatment of Jeannette and her siblings, unleashed the rewriting of Jeannette’s own personal path and development of claiming her advantages on the outside of her castled world. 

The effects of irresponsible parenting inserted a life-long influence on their children's mental, physical and emotional health. After losing both of her parents to neglect, Maureen was forced into living on her own and making decisions without guidance leading her to make poor choices as an adult. Whiles Lori was fastened in reliving life through her parents' nightmares, once awakened, began to live and experience the life she had always been deemed to live. As a result, after growing up in a home where being homeless and living without utilities was normal, once malnourishment was recognized, Jeannette Walls began to write her own story. Without distinguishing Maureen from neglect and needing professional help, she always relied on others, subsequently when facing difficult decisions as an adult instead of selecting the correct one she sunk into an infant hole. As for Lori, backsliding from the loop of generational trauma her parents brought onto her and the rest of her siblings. Stepping up as the parental figure, escaping and influencing her siblings to take off with her was the result of living with insufficient parents. At last, Jeannette was faced with the hard reality of learning there was much more and a better life beyond the one she was living in. Opening doors of freedom, knowledge, and companionship where she then can decide her own future. Many times, overlooked child negligence, child abuse, and malnourishment influences future socioeconomic issues in society by restraining the ability to obtain knowledge, social skills and advance as a superior human beings beginning from a young age.