“Have I ever let you down?” he asked Brian and me and then turned and walked away.
In a voice so low that Dad didn’t hear him, Brian said, “Yes.” p. 78
Throughout The Glass Castle the Walls family is depicted in horrible situations of starvation, poverty, and desperation. The Walls family is brought to each of these moments by choices that the parents make. And because of that, each and every one of these moments could have been avoided, had Rex and Rose Mary made better choices for themselves and their family, thus improving the state of their entire lives.
“So what’s it worth?” I asked.
“That doesn’t matter,” Mom said.
“How come?”
“Because we’re not selling it.”
She was keeping it, she explained, to replace the wedding ring her mother had given her, the one Dad had pawned shortly after they got married.
“But Mom,” I said, “that ring could get us a lot of food.”
“That’s true,” Mom said, “but it could also improve my self-esteem. And at times like these, self-esteem is even more vital than food.”
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My art piece has a split pathway, one side leading towards New York CIty (the Walls children’s idea of a perfect life), the other leading towards a run down, dismal house (my idea of a house they might have lived in). Along the pathway to the house are choices Rex and Mary Wallls made about their lives and how to raise their children. Along the path to New York are choices they could’ve made instead, or choices that might have led them and their children to a better life. The idea came from the thought that maybe, if they could have seen where their lives led, Rex and Rose Mary would have made different decisions, that maybe had different decisions been made early on Rex Walls (in all his glory) wouldn’t have been homeless in New York dying of tuberculosis, and Maureen wouldn’t have been sent to a hospital for stabbing her