In the final section of the book, Jeannette depicts her family and suggests that they will always remain somewhere between “turbulence and order,” which adds to the theme of stability versus instability. However, there is still instability between her family and herself. Brian is unable to completely forgive his parents for their choices. When he sees the Thanksgiving food, and thinks about his own adulthood, he suggests that it is not that hard to get food on the table, exposing his lingering resentment over his parents’ choices. Turbulence also is apparent in Maureen’s absence from the dinner. Of all the children, Maureen seems to be the one most damaged by her parents’ choices, even though as a child she found others to take care of her. It is unclear what her life is like in California, but her long absence from the family suggests she has learned something about independence. At the end of the story, the family was able to find peace with Rex. Therefore, everyone is able, on some level, to celebrate his absence and free-spirited ways while letting go of the alcoholism that plagued him and eventually killed him.

Through the introduction of Erma, Ted, and Stanley, Walls is able to provide background to Dad’s character. Additionally, she uses irony to illustrate Mom’s lack of understanding of practical matters. Erma, Ted, and Stanley are all rough around the edges. Erma’s cold welcome and Stanley’s whiskey breath indicate that life in Welch is not what Mom imagined it to be. Dad’s reaction to this reunion to his family his quiet but complete relief when offered. The whiskey indicates he is not happy to be back and foreshadows that he left their company for a reason. Dad’s distaste for his family, coupled with Welch’s overall poverty and backwoods ways, makes Mom’s decision to move the family there, as well as her excitement upon their arrival, both ironic and absurd. This is one the most interesting part of the story as it shows the reason why Jeannette distaste her dad in the future.

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.

My first impression of the book is very interesting. It intrigues the reader into the story as provides interesting character development. Rex Walls who is the dad of Jeannette Walls is an intelligent man with a passion for logic. He is a skilled electrician and engineer, and often spends his spare time inventing contraptions he hopes will make the family rich. Due to his troubled past, he has become an alcoholic making him incapable of upholding his ideals of self-sufficiency. This is why Jannette has a troubled relationship with her parents in the present time of the book.