Duality of Human Kind in The Glass Castle Essay Example

“Inside each of us, there is the seed of both good and evil. It's a constant struggle as to which one will win. And one cannot exist without the other.”-Eric Burdon. Humans are extremely complex creatures. We are often categorized as either being good or evil, selfless or selfish, Moral or immoral. But deep down inside I believe we are both. The memoir we recently read, The Glass Castle, I believe shows a perfect example of how a person can be both.

In our story we are met with our protagonist Jeannette Walls and her Erratic Family.  The story shows Jeannette navigating throughout her life with her family's different personalities such as  self-sufficiency, love with the world of fantasy, and parental irresponsibility. I believe that the Movie and book shows us a perfect example on how a person can be both of these human natures because throughout the book we are shown both the good and bad sides of each family member.

Rose Mary Walls

The first character I would like to talk about is The Mother of Jeannette, Rose Marry.  Rosemary demonstrates to us a borderline between optimism and Delusion. When we are first introduced to Rose Marry we get a glimpse of the future of their lives. Rosemary is shown to us as a homeless person in New York city who is trying to salvage food and talk to her daughter. When Jeannette offers her help to her mother she is rejected and told that she would rather have Jeannette buy her these expensive beauty treatments.

Throughout the story Rose Marries true personality, a selfish inconsiderate person, is brought to light.  In the books and Movie Rosemary is seen to shy away from her duties as a mother. Instead of helping around the house and getting a job to financially support her family. She would rather be painting on a painting. Rose Marry Even goes as far as to where she made a three year old Jeannette cook hot dogs resulting in a nasty burn.In the stories we also find out Rosemary has a teaching degree but chooses not to use it resulting in the family relying on Rex to get money. 

But we still see some positive qualities in Rose Marries behavior.  We see Rose Marry looking on the brighter aspects of life. But by doing this she is making her family out to be a form of soap opera. She lets Rex control her because she is so set on the idea she is free.  Another thing that Rosemary shows is that she is extremely intelligent.  She puts her teaching degree to use by teaching her children how to read and encouraging them to read. Some of the evidence I have pulled from the story is “I could hear Mom in the next room singing while she worked on one of her paintings. Juju, our black mutt was watching me. I stabbed one of the hot dogs with a fork and bent over and offered it to him. The wiener was hot, so Juju licked at it tentatively, but when I stood up and started stirring the hot dogs again, I felt a blaze of heat on my right side. I turned to see where it was coming from and realized my dress was on fire. Frozen with fear, I watched the yellow­white flames make a ragged brown line up the pink fabric of my skirt and climb my stomach.”

Rex Walls

Rex Walls, the “hard working” diligent father of Jeannette.  When we meet the character we see, much like RoseMarry, a homeless person in New york. Throughout the story we see both good and bad parts of rex. Rex is shown multiple times throughout the Memoir How he can be both a kind loving father to being a reckless drunk.

When we look at the memoir Rex shows qualities of being a wild animal. Which can often get him and his family into a lot of trouble. But much like a wild animal they both share the same weakness. They are both short sighted, driven by fear, and lack the responsibility of being the head of the house. I believe personally that Rex considered himself to be a caged animal. He believes that society is caging him to get a well paying job and support his family. But instead of doing this he's running away from his responsibilities. Sometimes he goes as far to drag his family into it. 

Rex is an extremely good story teller. Telling stories about his war days and how they are going to build a “glass castle.” Throughout the memoir and movie Rex promises over and over again that he is gonna build a giant glass castle for him and his family. But instead of saving up for the castle he chooses to gamble and drink all his money away. Rex quickly dismisses the dream by filling the hole they made for the castle with garbage. As Rexs addiction to alcohol  alcoholism worsens, the Walls family loses not only his income but his optimism. Throughout Jeannette's childhood, Rex had created hope for the family by promising to build them the titular Glass Castle. The garbage represents a dash to the dreams the family once had.  Text evidence I have pulled to help this statement is “ It was hard work, but after a month we'd dug a hole deep enough for us to disappear in. Even though we hadn't squared the edges or smoothed the floor, we were still pretty darn proud of ourselves. Once Dad had poured the foundation, we could help him on the frame. But since we couldn't afford to pay the town's trash collection fee, our garbage was really piling up. One day Dad told us to dump it in the hole. "But that's for the Glass Castle," I said. "It's a temporary measure," Dad told me. He explained that he was going to hire a truck to cart the garbage to the dump all at once. But he never got around to that, either, and as Brian and I watched, the hole for the Glass Castle's foundation slowly filled with garbage.”

But in the end Rex is still a good father. He may be super unreliable but he manages to help Jeannette with her dreams of being a writer by encouraging her to never stop and not give up. He helps Jeannette with her insecurities towards her scar by telling her she is gorgeous. In the end of the book and movie we finally see a positive light on Rex.  Leaving both the viewers and readers to love Rex even if he isn’t exactly the best father.  Some of the evidence I have pulled from the text would be “ Would they see an Appalachian hick, a tall, gawky girl,  still all elbows and knees and jutting teeth? For years Dad had been telling me I had an inner beauty.  Most people didn't see it. I had trouble seeing it myself, but Dad was always saying he could damn well  see it and that was what mattered. I hoped when New Yorkers looked at me, they would see whatever it  was that Dad saw.”

In Conclusion i truly do believe everyone has both an evil and good side to them. The memoir is truly an excellent way of showing us how people can be both bad and good. It not only shows us a family able to come together with all the hardships they faced but a family that was able to become a Kintsugi. A beautiful broken family that became fixed with gold.