The Glass Castle
By: Ross Barnett
Mental Illness
"Rose Mary retreated to her sofa bed there for days on end, crying and ocassionaly throwing things at us." " Then the next day if the mood hade passed, she'd be painting and humming away as if nothing hade happened." the quotes listed above describe the mental illness called border line personality disorder. A major symptom of this iillness can be sudden mood swings. Evidence of this symptom is when Rose Mary would retreat to her bed and start crying and the next day she might be humming and painting happily.
Civil Disobedience
A character from The Glass Castle that showed civil disobedience would be Rex Walls. Civil disobedience means to refuse with certain laws or refuse to pay taxes and fines, as a form of political protest. Rex Walls participates in civil disobedience by not finding a way to pay for rent when he and his family would flee from the creditors to a new place rather than paying off the debt they owed to the creditors once they noticed. An example of this situation was when Jeanette's family used to livein Phoenix when she was three years old. Then one night her dad would tell the family to pack their things.
Alcoholism
A quote that relates to Jeanette's dad from the following article would be, "negative anonymity." This quote realtes to Rex's battle with alcoholism by stating that he is having a negative implication for his family and he is trying to conciel his drinking. Evidence from the book that supports my claim is when time to time Rex will steal money deviously from his own family. So then, he could spend the money on alcohol for himself.
Homelessness
The homelessness Emergency Assistanc and Rapid Transition to Housing Act would have tremendously helped Jeanette's family's chronic homelessness. If it was enacted while Jeanette was growing up, they would have a permanent home that they would recieve with no cost. This would ultamentaly solved her family's problem to struggle to have a home that they wouldn't have to struggle to pay rent for. This would save the Walls family so much money in return. An example of this struggle from the book is since Jeanette was three years old her family has hade ebt from not paying the rent for their homes on time. At this point, her family would have no choice but to find a new place to live. As Jeanette was growing up she moved from multiple cities and then finall to Welch. Judging by this, the H.E.A.R.T.H. Act would have been a vital step to helping Jeanette's family out.
Parenting
Jeanette's parents should have lost their parental rights based on the article. Rose Mary has long term mental illness and defiency. While Rex has longterm alcohol problems too. But both of her have failure to support and maintain contact with their child. Rose Mary is always focused on being an artist and does not take responsibility with bringing in money that her children need. Rex on the otherhand, just goes to any local bar when he can ever get his hands on a beer. He also fails to listen to Jeanette's birthday wish to stop drinking. After this failure, he starts to decline contact with his entire children because of drinking so much.