Social Work System In The Glass Castle

I thoroughly enjoyed the book The Glass Castle. I found the book deeply moving as well as meaningful and gives insight to a lifestyle that is usually overlooked in society. The main take away from this book I found is a family such as the Walls, who are just getting by are usually overlooked. They were not constantly living on the streets and moved around multiple times, thus alluding attention that would have affected their life. During the book, a social worker does show up to their house in Welch at one point. The family is gone and Jeannette answers the door. The social worker says that a follow up visit will come so the family attempts to clean the house but the visit never comes. I believe this shows how sometimes families and children can slip through the cracks of the social work system. This is still a

The Walls were in situations that the needed help, and no one was able to do anything about it. The places that they resided in for an ample amount of time such as Arizona and West Virginia should have been able to implement change in their lives much earlier on. However, the system failed and they continued to live their lives in desolate conditions. Finally, once Lori was able to make a life for herself they were able to lean on one other to change the children’s lives. Yet, there is something to be said that Maureen was put in jail. It is evident that her childhood may have impacted her in a more severe psychological way.

The book The Glass Castle is a very interesting narrative. The author Jeanette Walls is able to bring new light to circumstances that many people choose to ignore or overlook by writing about her own childhood. This gives the book a new perspective and allows the reader to gain insight. Overall, I believe the social service system has a lot of work to do in coming years to help families such as the Walls not slide through the