Jeanette’s Decision to Leave Welch
The Glass Castle by Janette Walls is a story based on the author’s life and the hardship the family faces as they move around the country so as to create a better life. In spite of the struggles, the family always finds humor in every situation that they face. The novel centers mainly on the places the family moves to, the hardship they face, whether general life issues or dysfunctional family issues. Throughout the novel, Jeannette never expressed or accepted her family, but it was until the family moved to Welch that she decided to make a decision to move from the place. It is not easy to leave a place and turn back on your family. However, Jeannette left everyone and everything for a shot at a good life when she decided to leave Welch. Jeanette’s decision to leave the family was based on the fact that the family was dysfunctional and was poor; hence she thought that a shot at a better life would enable her to help her family.
Jeanette’s father, Rex Walls, was an alcoholic, and this played a role in encouraging Jeanette to live her home. Because of alcoholism, Rex became emotionally distant and neglected his children. Moreover, his alcohol addiction prevented him from keeping a job and providing for his family, and this was one of the reasons that encouraged Jeanette to leave her home. Initially, Jeanette looked up to his father and believed everything she told her, including his future fantasies. Over time she became aware of her father’s addiction in drinking and started to lose faith in everything he claims as she said, “I listened to Dad’s plans and tried to encourage him, hoping that what he was saying was true but also pretty sure it wasn’t”(Walls 171). Jeannette lost faith in his father that, at some point, she asked her mother to leave him. It is the drinking problem that affects the family both financially and emotionally. When he lost his job, rex blamed the mob and claimed that “the best place to gather information was at the bars the mobsters owned” (Walls 112). The irresponsibleness of his father played a part in Jeannette’s decision to go to leave Welch for New York.
Jeannette was not brought up at a particular place as the family would always “skedaddle” to find a small town and settle in it. Jeannette and Lori, her sibling, tried to count all the places they had lived and lost track when they got to fourteen. When the family got to Welch, they stayed four-five years, and Jeannette, along with her siblings, realized that was not going to skedaddle again. After Jeannette grew tired of Welch, she wanted to move out as she had always counted on her parents to get them out of Welch, but after realizing that they were going to be staying, she then decided to get herself out. It was when Jeannette asked for a list of colleges located in New York from his counselor that she realized she could leave Welch in less than five months. When her mother found about her daughter’s plan to leave for New York, she was upset as she said, “I’m not upset because I’ll miss you,” Mom said. “I’m upset because you get to go to New York, and I’m stuck here. It’s not fair” (Walls, 237). Jeannette’s father tried to convince her to stay by promising her that he would build the Glass Castle, but Jeannette was not interested. He then walked her daughter to the bus station and gave her a jackknife that he always carried since he was her kid for protection. The family problems had indeed managed to convince Jeannette to leave her family to a place that she believed she would achieve her dream.
Works Cited
Walls, Jeannette. The glass castle: A memoir. Simon and Schuster, 2017.