The Destructive Parent In The Glass Castle By Rex Walls

How can one be loving, yet destructive; caring, yet negligent? Rex Walls is the father of Jeannette Walls, who wrote the a memoir titled The Glass Castle, which highlighted her childhood and the crazy, and adventurous events that she went through as a kid. In this memoir, the crazy antic of her parents were truly brought to life. Rex Walls, specifically was a character with unique ways of doing things. He would tell his kids extreme stories and would try and teach his children his way of doing things. Rex Walls is a very complicated character because he wants to care for his kids yet would leave them for alcohol, he wants to look like a good father infront of his kids yet does not consistantly make the effort to do so, he is very intelligent

When Rex has money he normally takes his kids out to a nice dinner to feed them. Rex has the best interest of his family and specifically his kids, as he will take them out of bad situations and bring them to new and hopeful places doing what Jeanette called the, “Skidaddle.” However, what makes Rex a complex person is that he has the want to care for his kids, yet he does not always show care towards them. During some parts of the book, Rex will completely abandon his family and go out and leave his family for the night, like in this example, “...Dad disappeared. I waited on the front steps until bedtime, but he didn’t come home”(121). Rex leaving his family after taking care of them is what makes him a complex character. He will show affection to his children, and then later that night he will leave his family. These actions are contradictory, thus making him

He would try and appear as the best father in front of his kids. Rex would tell stories to his kids, to try and better then anyone else. Jennette pointed this out when she said, “Dad always fought harder, flew faster, and gambled smarter than anyone else in his stories”(24). Rex also liked to get approval from his children that he was being a good father. In one instance, Rex brought his children lunch during school when they didn’t have any, and before he left he said, “Have I ever let you down?”(78). Rex appreciated this approval because it was a way for him to feel good about how he was as a father, because he was not always perfect. He showed this multiple times throughout the story when he would lose his job. Rex wanted to be a good father, yet was not consistent as the best father. He could never hold a job for more than a couple of months throughout the story, and this severely affected his family financially, and physically, as they would never stay in the same town for more than a couple of months. This shows Rex’s complexity because he would try to be a good father and go as far as to ask for approval, yet he could not be consistent with his good parenting, and would often lack with his parenting