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What is the social commentary in The Glass Castle?
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The social commentary in "The Glass Castle" highlights the complexities of child-parent relationships in abusive environments. Jeannette Walls's memoir sheds light on child abuse, neglect, and poverty through her family's story, illustrating how children often idolize their parents despite harmful circumstances. The narrative challenges assumptions about rescuing children from their families, emphasizing the deep emotional bonds and the difficulty children face in recognizing and escaping abusive situations. It also critiques the moral implications of unconventional parenting.
There are actually several threads of social commentary running through The Glass Castle, most of them centering around the environment the Walls children grow up in and the abuse they suffer. However, almost all of this is conveyed with a childlike perspective, absent of heavy tones of condemnation that one might expect from an author writing this memoir in retrospect. Through Jeannette Walls's narrative, the reader learns that children will often cling to their parents in spite of tremendous evidence that the living situation is unhealthy.
This is an important social commentary to dialogue, especially considering that on any given day in the United States, over 400,000 children are living in foster care. Many outsiders looking into tumultuous families are quick to recommend permanent removal of the affected children from their parents. But the Walls' story shows us that these children idolize their parents, even when all evidence points...
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to the parents' inabilities to provide a safe environment.
We first see this in a shocking memory from Jeannette's early childhood. When she was only three, she had learned that if she was hungry she must provide for herself. Standing at a stove and cooking her own hot dog, she catches herself on fire and is hospitalized. Before she is fully healed and discharged, Jeannette's father comes and tells her they are doing the "skedaddle," meaning he's leaving before the hospital can bill him. Although he first failed to provide food for his three-year-old and then was willing to risk her health in order to avoid paying the bill, Jeannette processes this as another fun adventure with her dad.
Although her father is an incredibly intelligent man with skills in engineering and science, his alcoholism leads him to make painful choices for his family. For most of her life, Jeannette is his protector. She hangs on his every word, even when his advice is dangerous. This is because, in spite of the abuse and neglect, Rex has his moments when he shows that he does love his kids—like the time he gifted them stars for Christmas:
We laughed about all the kids who believed in the Santa myth and got nothing for Christmas but a bunch of cheap plastic toys. "Years from now, when all the junk they got is broken and long forgotten," Dad said, "you'll still have your stars."
At moments like these, Rex redeems his wrongdoings, especially in the eyes of his children. It is difficult for Jeanette to process (in her child's perspective) this father who both puts her in harm's way and gifts her stars. It isn't until she becomes a teenager with the ability to more accurately judge the world around her that Jeannette decides that she wants a more stable life for herself and becomes determined to find that in New York.
Based on all this, one thread of social commentary is that adults cannot take for granted that children recognize the abusive situations they are in, and they cannot assume that these children will want to be "rescued" from their parents as the parent/child relationship is incredibly complex.
Social commentary is when one acts, or rebels, against a group of people or an individual regarding social issues. In regards to The Glass Castle, Jeanette Wells is speaking out about the issues of child abuse.
Wells' novel is a memoir which speaks to her abusive childhood. Wells and her siblings were starved, lied to, and neglected. Not only that, her parents' immense debt forced them to move from place to place in order to escape their creditors.
Therefore, Wells' memoir is a piece of social commentary based upon the fact that her story speaks out against the abuse of children. Essentially, by telling her story, Wells is able to do a few different things. First, she is able to truly com to terms with her childhood. Second, her story allows others (in similar situations) to realize they are not alone and that hope exists. Lastly, the memoir speaks out against her abusive parents, naming them as abusers.
What is the social commentary in The Glass Castle?
The Glass Castle poses questions about the "proper" ways to raise a family. In her memoir, Jeannette Walls details the lifestyle that her parents created for her and her siblings, and she explains how she broke away from them. Walls seems to grapple with the issue of whether or not it is morally right for parents to subject children to a particular lifestyle. She writes the novel using an overall humorous tone; however, there are times when Walls's humor dives into critical sarcasm. For example, Walls's father decides that the family must once again move; they have been in this pattern of moving to avoid paying bills, but Rex tells his family that they are going on an adventure. This time, "[h]e had a plan. He was going to find gold." At times like this, Walls reveals that she believes her father's plans absurd and that she disagrees with having had her life uprooted so often by her parents.