Rex And Rosemary's Dysfunction In The Glass Castle

The Glass Castle is a beautiful retelling of Jeannette's difficult life. Both Rex and Rosemary showcase how dysfunction played a key role in her childhood. Throughout the entirety of the book, toxicity and dysfunction crumbled their children's lives. With a single flip of a switch, Rex can go from caring to a deadbeat father in an instant. His constant abuse of alcohol torments his family. Rosemary's selfish, reckless behavior forced the walls to struggle even harder. The 2 are unreliable and dysfunctional. Their actions put burdens on their young, developing children. Something no child should have to go through. Dysfunction is a key concept Jeannette focuses on. This is a force represented and shown by how Rex and Rosemary’s destructive nature

Jeannette Lori, and Brian had had enough of their nomadic way of living, instead, they wished for something bigger in their life. In the end, they decided to escape to New York, to build a better life for themselves, away from the drowning toxicity of their family. During their time living on Little Hobart Street, the 3 decided to work hard to save up. They planned to send Lori to start a stable life before the other 2 came along afterward. Jeannette started babysitting, Brian did yard work, and Lori ran a paper route. Rex knew full well their plan, and although he wasn't in favor of it, he “supported” their efforts. Rex’s dysfunctional behavior is exhibited when “Someone slashed him (Ozz) apart with a knife and stole all the money”. I knew it was Dad, but at the same time, I couldn't believe he'd stoop this low.” (Walls pg 228). Jeannette immediately knew it was her own father. She didn't second guess her prediction, she was fully confident that no one else besides Rex could've done this. Throughout the duration of the book, Rex acts like this, multiple times. There are many instances in the book where Rex simply disregards whatever efforts were put into his family’s hard work. Dysfunction and toxicity are apparent in many of Rex’s actions. Whilst saving up to move away, Rex constantly tried to subtly push the kids to stay in Welch. He described New York as a horrible place, attempting to

This holds true for my family, too. It was rough for my family when first moving to the States, none of us understood English, and we had been just barely scraping by. Because of this, my parents were constantly under a mountain of stress, barely making enough for themselves, let alone their child, me; similar to Jeannette's situation. During this time, my dad had lost his job, and my mom was the only source of income. As a still training nail tech, my mm made little to no money. Akin to the walls, my household was never a quiet one. From what I remember, nearly every night my parents fought. The 2 constantly argue over the little things. Every time, it spitballed into a massive fight. I sympathized with a lot of what happened to Jeannette, I felt almost connected to her. Smashing plates, flying cutlery, stealing, and screaming, take up nearly my entire memory of my early childhood. my home life is extremely dysfunctional. I hated my life back then, I was constantly holed up in my room, often times refusing to come out to eat. I was afraid that the littlest thing I did would spiral into another argument. Every night, just before I slept, I prayed that somehow, I'd be reborn into a happy family, one that was “normal.” Although it was cruel, I begged, constantly. Ever since we moved, I hated visiting our old house. It felt as if I was reliving its events, the awful