Journal: The Glass Castle

The quote, "'Why do I always have to be the one who earns the money?' Mom asked. 'You have a job. You can earn money. Lori can earn money, too.l I've got more important things to do.'" is just another piece of evidence proving that Mrs. Walls is a very selfish person.

Mrs. Walls is supposed to be a mother to four children, but in reality her children are the ones mothering her. I cannot even understand how a person, who grew up very wealthy, could ever tell their kids that if they want to have food in the house, they must work to earn money to buy the very food that you should be providing for them. Jeannette is a 13 year old girl who, yes is much more mature than normal, but who is running a household. No child should have to worry about being able to pay the bills and buy groceries because her father keeps taking money for alcohol and cigarettes; completely oblivious to his children's needs.

This selfishness is proven on several other accounts in the book. When all four Walls children are starving and picking through the garbage can at school for food, they find their mother hiding a chocolate bar and eating it all to herself. She blames it on being a "sugar addict", but for me that is absolutely no excuse to let your children starve while you are indulging yourself with treats. Personally, I think that most mothers would rather starve themselves, than watch their children starve and dwindle away before their very own eyes. Also, another time Jeannette and Brian find a two karat diamond ring. They are filled with excitement from the idea of pawning the ring so they finally had money to feed their grumbling bellies. When they tell their mother about the ring, she decides that she is going to keep the ring to boost her self-esteem, in the meantime letting her children go hungry for even longer.

At one point in the book, I was so full of anger at Mrs. Walls I was overwhelmed by a feeling of disgust. Jeannette and the family had gone to visit their Uncle Stanley, but while Jeannette and Uncle Stanley where watching the television he started to touch her inappropriately. Jeannette was frightened and went to her mother for help, but her mother actually told her to suck it up because she didn't want to make Uncle Stanley feel bad, because it wasn't physically hurting Jeannette. I do not understand in the least bit how a mother could ever subject her child to something so emotionally scarring. A child should be able to feel protected by her parents, she should not have to bury her fear inside her and wait until the worst is over.

In conclusion, I feel as though Mrs. Walls is an absolutely despicable person, and a horrifyingly terrible mother. She builds extreme amounts of disgust and hatred inside of me. I feel that no person like Mrs. Walls should ever have children because she is detrimentally traumatizing them for life, while she is stealing their adolescent innocence.