To sum it up, "The Glass Castle" is a memoir, a compilation of memories of the life of Jeannette Walls told so carefully and detailed that I could hardly believe it when she calmly and almost affectionately relayed stories of her negligent but loving parents and their extreme poverty and stubborn nonconformity to “normal” things.
Walls is the second oldest of four children born to Rex and Rose Mary Walls. She spent most of her childhood moving from city to city, living in dirty trailers, tiny shacks, camping in the woods or sleeping in the family’s junker car. She rarely attended school until about third through fifth grade, but when she did, her knowledge far exceeded that of the other students.
Walls’ father Rex was a charismatic man who when he was sober, captured the imagination of his children and taught them everything they needed to know, from school subjects to how to survive in this world. But survive for Rex and his wife Rose Mary was a lot different from what some may consider the word to mean.
Walls’ parents didn’t keep steady jobs, not necessarily from the lack of being qualified, Rose Mary had a teaching degree and Rex was a literal genius, but because Rex was too rowdy and couldn’t stand conforming, which to him meant having a job, and Rose Mary would rather paint or live life as “an excitement addict” which didn’t include mothering or putting food on the table.
Walls and her siblings went without eating, ate food from the trash, despite mold or maggots, and when they were younger, didn’t know the difference. They wore dirty, second hand clothes they bought at thrift stores or found. They did not take hand outs, accept charity or apply for food stamps. This was just how life was for the Walls family. When Jeannette was 10 years old they lived in an Adobe home in Phoenix, the biggest, nicest home they lived in, ever. Since her parents didn’t believe in a lot of things, one of those being bug repellant, an army of cockroaches lived with them.
Either it didn’t happen or they didn’t realize it, but the older Walls got the more dysfunctional her family seemed. Her father drank and stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. Her mother didn’t believe in rules and let her kids do whatever they wanted.
After numerous evictions, or “skedaddles” in the middle of the night because the Mafia was after them, according to Rex, the family ended up in a small town in West Virginia. Living conditions there weren’t ideal. The family lived in a three room home, with no indoor plumbing or electricity. The children were old enough now to want a better life, and when Jeannette’s older sister was close to graduating the other kids put together their money from odd jobs and got her a bus ticket out of there, in hopes they could join her soon.
And they did. When Jeannette was 17 she left for New York City to join Lori, and soon after her younger brother and sister joined.
In the city, the siblings worked and paid rent, had running water and electricity, stayed warm at night and had enough to eat. Jeannette went to college, became successful and married.
While in college, Jeannette’s grants and scholarships covered most of the tuition, but one semester she was $1,000 short. Her parents, who after all their children had left to make a better life for themselves, moved to the city and became homeless, found out. Rex came to visit Jeannette one night with $950 in cash from poker wins and a fur coat he assured her she could pawn for the last $50.
Poverty and homelessness for Rex and Rose Mary was a choice.
One day in college Jeannette joined a class discussion about homelessness: was it the “result of drug abuse and misguided entitlement program, as the conservatives claimed, or did it occur, as the liberals argued, because of cuts in social-service programs and the failure to create economic opportunity for the poor,” (Walls, 256).
“Sometimes, I think, it’s neither.”
“Can you explain yourself?”
“I think that maybe sometimes people get the lives they want.”
“Are you saying homeless people want to live on the street? Are you saying they don’t want warm beds and roofs over their heads?
“Not exactly. They do. But if some of them were willing to work hard and make compromises, they might not have ideal lives, but they could make ends meet.”
Her teacher than asked her what she knew about the lives of the underprivileged, the hardships and obstacles those of the underclass face.
And Jeannette answered, “You have a point.”
For 20 years Jeannette kept her past hidden, afraid of how people would act if they knew. But, with clear evidence from her childhood and this book, Jeannette proves the American Dream is possible even in the circumstances of the impossible. This book covers everything from social and economic class to race, sexism, alcoholism, domestic abuse, negligence, and one hell of a fight that one girl and her siblings put up to leave their circumstances behind and make a life for themselves.
I don’t know if everyone could do it. I don’t know how they did it. But it sure gives me courage in the human race. I don’t think that everyone, or even most, which are homeless want to be or choose to be. But I do think people make of life what they choose. You can be poor and not able to raise out of it, and you can also be poor and choose alcohol, cigarettes and a collection of dancing shoes and endless art supplies (yes, Rose Mary thought this was more important than food or rent).
Is lower class a social, economic circumstance or a state of mind?
No comments:
Post a Comment