The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls which describes her family’s troublesome past. When examining one of Jeannette’s childhood bullies, and her dad whipping her with a belt, it becomes apparent that even the worst experiences can have a valuable gift wrapped inside if you’re willing to receive it. The Walls kids came across numerous bullies throughout their childhood. When living in Welch, one of them was Ernie Goad, who made fun of the kids because of their poor living conditions. However, this proved to be a gift because Jeannette and Brian combined forces and showed the bullies that they are a force to be reckoned with. To harass the Walls, Ernie and his gang would criticize every little detail that was wrong with their lives. One aspect that they favoured was the garbage pit in Jeannette’s backyard. On this particular day he whooped madly, “Garbage, Garbage! Y’all are a bunch of garbage!”(165) They throw rocks at Brian and leave him with “blood trickling down his cheek and onto his T-shirt and a pump knot already swelling above his eyebrow.”(166) When Ernie and his friends came back they were “throwing stones …show more content…
They had enough to endure at home and bullying is just the icing on the cake. Even though they never found bullying extreme enough to tell their parents, it must have affected their mental health and confidence. Since Welch was such a small town, word gets around quickly. The rumors about the