Currently being only half way done with The Glass Castle leaves me with many unanswered questions, but one specific question has resided in my mind: How much more will the children take?

As I flip through the pages, I find myself analyzing every detail: the way the parents treat the children, how the children react to the unrecognizable abuse, and the attitude each character acquires through different situations. I am constantly wondering how the children are able to tolerate the corruption of the lives they live.

After being driven out of their old “home,” they find peace in a new town known as Battle Mountain. For the first time in a long time they were safe; they had money and a house. This house was not some raggedy house they were used to living in; it was huge and decorated with luxurious decor. The children believed that this was it for them; a chance for a new life, a better life, but sadly that was not the case. Just like every other time they go back to their old ways. Shortly after they established Battle Mountain as their home, the ample amounts of money they once had quickly turned into a few pennies. Their mother introduced them into the idea of stealing and dishonest acts to get money and items they needed. With Rex back to his drinking habits, and no more money flowing in; mother began to introduce the idea of moving east to Rex’s mothers home. They moved in with Grandma Erma, thinking this would solve their problems, and in some sense it did, but their lives were still on a constant downward spiral. Through all the alcoholism, abuse, distrust, and pain the children still remained loyal to their parents. I am confident that their personal well-being will soon come to trump family devotion.

I appreciate the growth of the kids as they live in Welch. It becomes apparent that since their parents can’t really support them, the Walls kids have had to learn to provide for themselves. In school, the kids seemed to have no friends. The kids had to scrounge through the garbage in order to be able to eat during school. Poor Jeannette had an unnecessary amount of sexual harassment issues as well, before and while she was at Welch. Lori essentially became the prominent family figure to the children. As the oldest child, she was the one that started to have thoughts about the future. She and Jeannette had decided on the idea to save up money so that they can go to New York when they graduate. All of the Walls kids had to get jobs in order to survive, Jeannette babysat, worked at a jewelry store, and wrote for the school paper (although that wasn’t exactly a paid job). Lori took art commissions and Brian did manual labor. When their mom left to renew her license, Lori went to an art camp; leaving Jeannette as the authority in the house. This duration of time shows how manipulative her dad is, Jeannette had a specific budget planned out and it was perfectly able to support her family while her mom was gone. Her dad keeps manipulating Jeannette to give him money for alcohol, and she finds it hard to decline. After giving away too much money, her dad comes back to her and asks her to help him gain all of the lost money back. He takes her with him as he swindles a man named Robbie out of his money. Robbie got upset for losing his money, but he asks if Jeannette wanted to go to his apartment upstairs and listen to some music. Expecting her dad to help her, he just tells Robbie “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do”. The two (Jeannette and Robbie) go upstairs and, as Jeannette expected, he tried to undress her. He gets beaten away by Jeannette and also got disgusted by the alarming amount of wounds and scars that Jeannette had amassed over the years. Expecting her dad to beat up Robbie for trying to assault her, Jeannette tells him what had happened. Rex replies with “I’m sure he just pawed you some, I knew you could handle yourself.” How would you feel if you were in Jeannette’s shoes, having whatever trust you had left in your parent seemingly thrown out of the window?

Rex Walls often has the family do the “skedaddle” and while he claims it is because FBI agents are after them, Rose says that it is actually to avoid bill collectors. Rex is a whiz at math and engineering, but he has no interest in keeping a job for long, so the family shuttles between small desert mining towns in the southwest. Because of their nomadic lifestyle, Jeannette and her siblings do not attend school regularly. Mom teaches them to read and Dad teaches them math as well as various survival strategies, such as gun shooting. Jeannette loves the desert and compares her family with the cactus plants that fatten up after a rain — like cacti, her family has to take what it can when it can in order to survive.

The mother in Glass Castle is really an interesting character; The way she see’s the world is unique and different from other regular people point of views. Her husband and her seem not to be on the same page most of the time. In the book, it looks like she depends on him for living since she ran from home. In her young days there was a lot of strictness going on in her house. She’s a care free woman who doesn’t like the normal teachings and prefers for her kids to learn on their own.