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Child Protective Services In The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

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The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a memoir about a family struggling with poverty, neglect, and instability. The Walls children grew up in an environment of neglect and abuse, with parents who were often drunk and unable to provide for their basic needs. Given the circumstances of their upbringing, the question of whether the Walls children should have been taken away by child protective services is a complex and difficult one. But, with all the evidence provided in The Glass Castle, Rex and Rose Mary Walls should have their children taken away by child protective services. On the one hand, it's clear that the Walls children were not receiving adequate care from their parents. They were often left to fend for themselves, going without …show more content…

During these times, Rose Mary never took the blame for her children’s lack of nutrition. “Well,” Mom said, “We should have saved the margarine just in case the gas gets turned back on, Miracles happen, you know.” It was because of my and Lori’s selfishness, she said, that if we had any bread, we’d have to eat it without butter”(pg. 69). Rose Mary deliberately excused herself from blame. The gas had been shut off, no bread was made, yet she still got angry at the kids for eating margarine and butter. In many cases, child protective services would intervene in situations like this, with the goal of providing a safer and more stable environment for the children. The agency might remove the children from their parents' care and place them with relatives or in foster care, with the hope of eventually reuniting them with their parents once they have addressed their problems. This would be a great option for the Walls children, so they have time to mature and begin dealing with their problems …show more content…

It's clear from the story that the Walls parents were struggling with their own demons, including alcoholism, mental illness, and poverty. “Dad said he had been chasing Demon for years. By now, Dad said, that old Demon had figured out that it had better not mess with Rex Walls” (pg. 36). The question arises as to whether these factors should be considered when deciding whether to remove children from their parents' care. If poverty, addiction, and mental health issues are to be considered, where is the line to be drawn? At what point do the parents' struggles become so overwhelming that the children's welfare is at risk? These are difficult questions with no easy

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The Walls family consists of Rex (father), Rose Mary (Mother), Lori, Brian, Jeannette, and Maureen (Children). Jeanette starts of her memoir in new york where she has made a living for herself, a good home in park avenue a nice husband and yet her parents are living out on the streets of the “Big Apple”. Not that she hasn't tried to help them, she has but her father insists they don't need anything and her mother asks for something silly like “perfume atomizer or membership in a health club”. Jeanette recalls her memories of when she was three, her parents are carefree and don't believe in rules or discipline.

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Anthony Brant once said “ Other things may change us, but we start and end with family.” In the novel, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the Walls family is non-reliable. They do not have much money and the parents Rose Mary and Rex Walls are very irresponsible. Rose Mary and Rex Walls are the parents of Jeannette , Lori, Brian, and Maureen. The siblings Jeanette, Lori, and Brian hold the family together, but if they did not their family would split apart.

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Growing up, the Walls children learned to thrive off of their neglect and became tough and resilient. This was proven even further when Rex, attempting to teach Jeannette how to swim, nearly let her drown in the water before rescuing her at the last moment and telling her “If you don’t want to sink you better figure out how to swim” (Walls 66). This event further proves that Rex

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Neither of her parents can maintain a steady job, resulting in no income for the family. Rex Walls is an alcoholic who spends what little money they do acquire on alcohol. Rosemary Walls is a free spirited artist who deals with her husband's abusive nature, refusing to leave him. Throughout the first half of the

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The Glass Castle is a memoir by Jeannette Walls covering her growth from childhood to adult life. Throughout her journey, Jeannette formed a close relationship with her siblings to combat the often unstable environment created by their parents. Financial instability, constant uncertainty, and persistent hunger burdened the Walls family; however, their adaptive lifestyle overshadowed these daily onuses. Jeannette and her siblings did not make the life-changing realization that they were growing up in an unhealthy setting until their teenage years. The Glass Castle depicts this tragedy, one often filled with false hope and satisfaction.

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Here, Walls and her father see differently. Walls told her father about this situation so that he could address it, but instead he made up an excuse for what really happened when he was not in the room with his daughter and his acquaintance. Personally, the Walls’ parents are too worried about themselves. Instead of making money to support their kids, the parents spend money on other things like art supplies for the mom, and alcohol for the dad. Like shown in the evidence above, Walls’ parents don’t show much care or worry for specifically Jeannette, but also the other kids.

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(Walls 149). As mentioned previously, Rose Mary viewed every mishap as “opportunities” to become better. This positivity from their mother is what the reader may determine causes the Walls children to find success, even after a difficult

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Since the Walls family is so poor and homeless it seems that Rex and Rosemary are not always there to give their children the support and comfort that kids need at a young age. Instead of giving love and comfort, they decide to teach their kids how to be tough and how to learn to do things themselves. Unlike most parents, who focus on supporting, caring for their children first, and then teaching them how to live on their own once they get much older. This attentive parenting method is not visible in the Walls’ family. For example, when Jeannette has her accident with fire and explained it to the nurses she gets rather surprised and

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When the Walls family didn’t have food to eat and Jeanette didn’t have money to buy food, she would look through the garbage at her school, in Welsh, West Virginia, for food, “When other girls came in and threw away their lunch bags in the garbage pails, I'd go retrieve them.” (PDF Walls 108). Her actions show her resourcefulness, although unhygienic, and how she provides for herself and her family. Her resourcefulness and survival skills also exhibits her selflessness and how much she cares about her family and siblings, which helped her in her life later in New York. Rex also taught the children to think outside the box and be curious about the world around them.

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The Walls children must grow up at a younger age than most because of their parents abandonment and neglect. When one's father or mother leaves for days, weeks, or months on end, or is present but not supervising, endangerment of the children increases. At an immature age of only three years old, Lori was standing on a chair in front of their stove when she bent over to pick up a hot dog with a fork. Momentarily, she felt heat on her side when she realized she was on fire and it spread up to her face (Walls 9). After a few days of hospital care, while Jeanette was not fully healed, her dad told her they are checking out “Rex-Walls style” (Walls 14).

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The 3 Wall’s children were frequently in harm’s way, therefore child protective services would have found a number of very serious situations. Raised in a neglectful household, Jeanette Wall’s authored a narrative of the abuse she has received. The Glass Castle shows experiences, accidents, at the moment of encounters with never-ending abuse. Although Jeanette shares the suffering her parents had handed her throughout her childhood, she also paints a picture of an emotionally caring family; thanking her mother for believing in art and truth; thankful for her father for dreaming big dreams, always wanting to be the father that his children can rely on, making sure they can use imagination in replace of material joy. Even in the mistreatment

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I believe they are inadequate parents. My opinion is based on everything, Jeannette had experienced in her early years as a child, and as a teen growing up in Welch. The first reason why I think Rex and Rose Mary Walls are inadequate parents, is the skedaddle. The skedaddle is something that Rex and Rose Mary Walls used as an excuse to escape the “FBI” and debt collectors (and they had a large sum of debt).

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The negative occurrences that go on while they are in the foster homes will make you question why. Why didn’t nobody believe them or try to help

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The walls parents consider themselves to be their kids’ friend rather than a concerned parent. “’ Good for you, Mom said when she saw me cooking. You’ve got to get right back on the saddle”’ (15)… Friends tend to encourage you to do stupid things but in this situation Jeannette’s mother is the one encouraging her to do something not so bright. Rex and Rosemary do not expect their kids to become any greater than they are.

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