Analysis Of The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

Children who grow up in dysfunctional families suffer in their early life and in their adult life. A dysfunctional family is defined as inappropriate behavior, continuous argumentation, and potentially, the direct or indirect abuse or neglect of said children. When life problems become chronic and unsolvable, they affect the ability to maintain a healthy home environment. A memoir by Jeannette Walls, titled The Glass Castle, will be used as an example of a successful outcome, after having overcome living in dysfunction. Jeannette and her siblings are successful in their adult lives, although this is not a typical outcome of child cases that are in distress from a dysfunctional family. Most problems follow people throughout their entire adult

These three categories are influential to all people and altering any of them can drastically change someone’s life. With these ideas in mind, the one that affects children in dysfunctional families the most is the type of education they receive and as how much education their family achieved. While economics and social environment play an enormous role in child development, early childhood education is the most prevalent. Education can cultivate different ways of thinking and helps students make better decisions in life. Schools are a form of community and incorporate many social interactions outside of the home such as, the investment of educators, staff, parents and friends. The type of school can also have an effect on the outcomes and having the economic means to afford a better educational institution can make a difference, which most dysfunctional families struggle

Due to the early education Jeannette received early on, she was more motivated to perform well in school and this helped her leave the dysfunction. In an article by Kathleen Kieran and Fiona Mensah, they write, “Our findings show that parenting is a key mediator of poverty and disadvantage in relation to children’s achievement in their first year at school” (Kieran 328). Most cases of dysfunction in the household show lower education statistics, but if parents focused on their children in the early stages of life then the dysfunction would have less of an effect on them later in life. Szente mentions this in her article and says, “the early childhood years are viewed to be crucial in the healthy development of our own belief systems which are strongly influenced by our early interactions with adults” (450). Adults are what children look up to and “many students need guidance and modeling from teachers as well as constant feedback” (Szente 451). Considering, The Glass Castle, Jeannette and her siblings have parents who went to school or were self-taught. Their father was an alcoholic, bad tempered, and was anti-government, but he was educated in mathematics and engineering and often found jobs that required these skills. Jeannette writes, “Dad would get a job as an electrician or engineer…He could get any