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Alcoholism In The Glass Castle By Rex Walls

596 Words3 Pages

David Sheff once said, “An alcoholic will steal your wallet and lie to you.” Rex walls did infact steal money from his own daughters and then lied to their faces about it. On page 228 of The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls came home from school to see her and her sister’s piggy bank smashed open, with their money and their father missing. When he came home drunk 3 days later, he insisted that he had no idea what happened to the money as he laughed in their faces. Rex Walls proved to his family a countless number of times, that he was not a very reliable parent as a result of his alcoholism.

One example of Rex’s unreliability due to alcohol was his failure to take care of his kids even when he had the resources to do so. Rose Mary gave Jeannette money to help pay for the bills and food, while she went to Charleston to renew her teaching certificate. She knew her husband couldn’t be trusted so she gave it to Jeannette. Rex asked Jeannette for the money and he spent it all on alcohol. He proved alcohol was more important than his kids. His kids couldn’t rely on their father to ensure they were well taken care of. …show more content…

On Christmas Eve, his family had to drag him to church drunk. After causing a scene in the middle of service he went home and set the Christmas tree on fire, ruining the gifts they had all bought each other. The Walls family wanted to make this Christmas special. They spent days decorating and wrapping gifts for each other. Rex showed his family that they couldn’t rely on him to handle himself even during moments that were important to his

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