Outside Reading- Week 3, Post B

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

A lot has happened in the chapters I read this week. I still really liking the book, and I am always surprised at what happened, but at the same time suspecting it all along, because her life is so screwed up. Jeannette is always making an attempt at making their life better, but it never really works. Jeannette tells us “After Dad collapsed, I would try to pick up the place, but Mom always made me stop. She’d been reading books on how to cope with an alcoholic […]” (pg 112). Like it says, her mom is also trying to help, but her help just gets them in deeper trouble. For example she wants to steal dresses for Maureen, Jeannette’s sister. Though this may be to better Maureen, it teaches her children a bad lesson, and they get caught, which causes them to have to pay more money, making them have less for food.

After all else fails the family decides to go to Welch, the small town where Jeannette’s parents live. Jeannette expects a warm, cozy house and nice, loving grandparents, but she gets the exact opposite. While her home life is bad enough, Jeannette has a horrible tome at school. There, kids bully her, and she is put in a class for people with learning disabilities and speech impediments because the teachers couldn’t understand her accent. Finally after suffering through harsh school days, a black girl befriends Jeannette, which Erma, Jeannette’s grandma, disapproves of. This part of the memoir kind of mad me think of Black Boy because it shows a maybe more recent, white persons perspective on those ideas.

Overall I really look forward to reading more and seeing how they end up, especially if they leave her grandparent’s house. I think that Jeannette’s mom will kick her dad out because of his drinking problem, which continues to waste their money. Though it may be better at first, I think they will still struggle.