Homeless: Choice or Chance? Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle is a story of one unparalleled family who constantly is moving from one place to another. The family seeks shelter in abandoned houses in extremely slipshod conditions. Although the family’s intelligence is above average, jobs never seem to work out for them and they always have to move again to a place of worse conditions. Walls’ mother, Rosemary, is still homeless and living on the streets of New York after countless offers by her children to live with them. Homeless people become homeless for numerous reasons. Most undergo a few different big changes in their life conditions before they become homeless. According to the Homelessness Resource Center, “Personal histories and individual …show more content…
Rosemary has a passion for being self sufficient. Some might ask, “How can one be self sufficient if nothing is affordable enough to pay for to begin with?” That is clearly the main reason why the Walls don’t have hardly any of the basic necessities for living. In the first chapter of the book, Walls explains that after numerous times of being offered a place to live, Rosemary has declined (Walls). This is because not only does she qualify for countless categories of reasons for homelessness, but she doesn’t accept handouts. Rosemary takes pride in her lifestyle, as various other homeless people do too. This is the problem for many homeless people. They continue to live in poverty because of their pride, and they refuse to get financial help that could get them back on their feet. All of Rosemary’s life, she has lived in poverty, with little to no financial support. “People become homeless when they don’t have a support system to help them weather a normal crisis.” (Understanding homelessness). Rosemary, like many other unhoused men and women on the streets, continued her lifestyle into adulthood because she was raised to believe that it was the right way to