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Bethany Linville
Mrs. Gordon
English 101
9 September 2016
In The Glass Castle, author Jeannette Walls recounts her experiences growing up in a
family with offbeat parents who act in ways completely foreign to a normal society. Because of
Rex's and Rose Mary's odd behavior, this creates struggles for Jeannette and her siblings when
they have to interact in a society outside of their family. Jeannette, in turn, is greatly affected by
this and has problems with Individual vs. Society. As a child, Jeannette is constantly teased and
made fun of because of her circumstances, and this affects her as an adult because of the shame
and embarrassment she feels from her upbringing.
Spending the first several years of her life in the desert with her family, Jeannette was
especially isolated from society. The only society she knew was the society her parents
established for her. This was a very unstable environment and definitely not healthy for a child.
"'Good for you,' Mom said when she saw me cooking. 'You've got to get right back in the saddle.
You can't live in fear of something as basic as fire' (Walls 15)." Any normal parent would have
been mortified to see their three year old child cooking with a boiling pot of water, especially
just a few days after she had caught fire doing the same thing. However, Rex and Rose Mary
somehow encouraged this dangerous behavior. Because she was so young, Jeannette had no way
of understanding how abnormal this parenting style was and accepted it without thinking twice.
Years later, when the Walls family moved to Welch, things did not get much better for
Jeannette. She was living in an impoverished town and was the poorest there. While her parents

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told her this was normal, she still had to face the scrutiny of her peers. Ernie stuck his face in
mine. Garbage! You live in garbage cause you are garbage! (Walls 165)." Because of the life
her parents provided for her and her siblings, Jeannette struggled to fit in or be accepted in
society. As she grew older, she came to realize that it was her parents fault that they were living
such a horrible life. Jeannette now understood that her mother and father were more than capable
of providing for the family but chose to do nothing. For example, Rose Mary had a teaching
degree and could easily get a job due to the lack of teachers in their area. Eventually, she did get
a job but quit shortly after being hired (Walls 207). Her parents' irresponsibility put a large
burden on the Jeannette and her siblings, and they all had find jobs to pick up the slack. This
amount of pressure left the Walls children looking for an escape.
After years of being mistreated, Jeannette was finally done putting up with her parents. At
the age of seventeen, she moved to join her older sister in New York (Walls 245). Jeannette felt a
great sense of freedom and was proud that she was able to provide a life for herself doing what
she had always wanted to do. However, Jeannette realized that this transition may have been
harder than she expected. She was overcome with the embarrassment of where she came from
and who her parents are. "It had been months since I laid eyes on Mom, and when she looked up,
I was overcome with panic that she'd see me and call out my name, and that someone on the way
to the same party would spot us together and Mom was introduce herself and my secret would be
out" (Walls 3). Jeannette constantly found herself lying to new people she met in New York,
trying to hide the reality of who she was. While Jeannette was finally on her own, the memories
of her childhood still haunted her. No matter what attempts she made to put the past away, the
life that her parents had provided for her growing up had a lasting impact.

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Because the first society Jeannette was exposed to was that of Rex's and Rose Mary's, she
struggled socially and had no way of understanding what was acceptable in a normal society. In
the first years of her life, Jeannette enjoyed how she lived and liked the sense of adventure and
freedom that she experienced every day. It was the only lifestyle she knew, and she was unable to
recognize that it was not stable or healthy for her to grow up like that. As she got older and
matured, she came to realize that the life she lived was not normal. She was exposed to more
societies than just her home life and saw just how bad her living conditions were. She had to deal
with her peers treating her poorly and making fun because of her circumstances. Jeannette knew
that as soon as she was old enough, she would get out. She was determined to make a life for
herself. While she did accomplish what she had planned, there was no escaping the society that
she knew as a little girl. When it comes to Individual vs. Society, Jeannette has seen it all. She
was forced to adapt to many new circumstances and was able to adjust to the many new societies
she encountered throughout her life. She managed to distance herself from the society she did not
like, but it still would prove to affect her forever.

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Works Cited
Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle: A Memoir. New York: Scribner, 2005. Print.