Loyalty plays a large role as a theme in The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, but not in the familiar way a reader would suspect. In the memoir, the Walls children constantly struggle between loyalty to their parents and the need of better lives. Although the other siblings waver once they enter their teenage years, Jeannette stays loyal to her father the longest. During their younger years, Jeannette and her siblings are always told that their father’s unnecessary, outlandish, and usually illegal actions are “adventures”. At one particular point, the Walls children are told that since there would be no room for them in the front of a U-Haul rented to move and since it would be too expensive to get a larger one, they would have to ride in the back with the furniture. Jeannette exclaims, “’Here goes the adventure!” at the beginning of the trip, however this dangerous ride takes a turn for the worse when the latch in the back opens and the kids almost fall from the truck. Jeannette and her sibling first unwavering loyalty to their father and the belief that he would never do anything to harm them turns for the worse throughout the years, and evaporates quickly when Rex Walls makes it obvious he would not always choose what was in their best interests. After telling off her mother when she refuses to go to work to earn the main income for the family, Jeannette assumes her father would be on her side after maintaining her loyalty to him. He turns on her, however, and brutally whips her. Jeannette’s perspective of her father finally establishes itself as untrustworthy when she states, “I had been counting on Mom and Dad to get us out, but I now knew I had to do it on my own,” (pg 221). It is the lack of her siblings’ loyalty and her own to her father that allows the children to be free of their dire situation and let them become their own people in the world.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I found this theme to be rather refreshing. I have seen too many times people who are loyal to people that they really shouldn't be, and I saw the same in The Glass Castle. It really made me happy when they were finally able to break ties with their parents to do what was best for them, even though the parents still ended up taking advantage of them once they were gone :P
ReplyDeleteI know, and I was really impressed by their ability to do that! I think it takes a lot for a child to do that, since they generally asume their parent will always do what is best for them and will have their best interests in mind.
ReplyDelete*assume *
ReplyDeleteThe theme of loyalty is rather interesting. Personally, I can understand the idea of why Jeannette was so loyal to her father. She was raised in a home where the father was the master of the household. He appeared to be invinciable to her because that is what he portrayed himself as. I think that as a child natural instinct is to cling to one certain person and make that person your role model. Lori was very similar and more patient with her mother espicially when she was her teacher. I think that also applied for Walls. I also believe that Walls leaving the home and detaching herself from her family was the most powerful statement of loyalty.
ReplyDelete