The Poverty Cycle In The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

The poverty cycle affects many American families, it is the phenomenon in which poor families are poverty-stricken for at least three generations. In Jeannette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette and her siblings break that cycle. It is a story of triumph over adversity as Jeannette did not let the label of “poor” create an obstacle in her path. It did not come easy, as her parents obscured her view of what life out of poverty could look like. Although the weight of poverty strayed her relationship with her parents, it was all she knew, due to hard work and determination she defied the odds stacked against her and broke loose. Poverty was the parent Jeanette never had. Through her childhood it was the only thing that was constant and gave her something to learn from. Both of her parents appeared and disappeared just as fast their paychecks and did not set good examples. Her mother enjoyed a free lifestyle with no sense of responsibility, while her father used what was earned for gambling, drinking, or women. Although the poverty Jeanette endoured in her childhood was always there to set its weight on her, it shaped her. It taught her that if she wanted escape it, she had to escape her

She had to take matters into her own hands and she was well aware of that. After putting her foot down in front of her parents, she made a decision,“... the next day I’d go to G.C. Murphy and buy a pink plastic piggy bank I’d seen there. I’d put in the seventy-five dollars I had managed to save while working at Becker’s Jewel Box. It would be the beginning of my escape fund” (Walls 221). This continued, as she worked multiple jobs and poured her savings into the piggy bank for New York. Even when her father betrayed her and her oldest sister Lori by taking their savings, Jeanette got back up from the hit and began the fund again. The strike by her father would not be the final