Emotional Reaction

                A lot occurs in The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.  In the book so far Jeannette has moved several towns and even states. You can easily uncover that her parents don’t like staying the same place for a very long time. In this book a portion that was difficult for me to read was the little things, mainly how her parents and some of her other family members treat the children or are oblivious to how they are struggling in the story. This occurs many times throughout the story. In the beginning of the book Jeannette came home from being jumped by a bunch of girls after school. She was covered in bruises and cuts since four girls had just beaten her up. When she walked in the door her father casually asked about what happened. When Jeanette told him she had gotten into a fight he said “That’s my girl!”(45) And went back to doing what he was doing.

                The idea of the parents not caring about what happened to their children or the needs of their children is evident again when Lori and Jeannette ate margarine and sugar because they were so hungry and weren’t fed enough. Their mother’s first reaction was anger. She told them “We should have saved the margarine in case the gas gets back on. Miracles happen you know” rather than realizing her children were so hungry that they resorted to eating a margarine stick to keep them slightly satisfied.