"What if they don't?"
"That just means you haven't come to the end yet” (259).
Jeannette changes over the course of the novel tremendously, and she uses acceptance to obtain the fact that life is not as successful as it could be. In the book The Glass Castle there are many instances where the family has a problem and they have to accept the fact that life is going to change. Doing this guides them through their hardships so that they are able to move on faster. Despite the fact that Jeannette has an unstable home and family, she accepts her drunk father, poor family, and her struggling mom, which shows that inner strength is essential to overcome dilemmas.
First, Jeannette and her family have struggled …show more content…
Her mom is proving that even though the dad might be drunk a considerable amount, and might say something stupid, they still accept him for who he is. She used a metaphor in this quote, and it is also a biblical allusion to portray that Rex is a sin that we must deal with. Jeannette has been in many instances where her dad has gotten drunk, but she has never gotten insulted for being the daughter of an alcoholic, so when she does get offended she decides to stand up for her dad. The driver hurtfully said, ¨For the daughter of the town drunk, you sure got big plans,¨ he said. ¨Stop the truck,¨ I said. ¨We can make it on our own from here¨ (183). As a result of expressing her emotion the reader can tell that Jeannette takes this extremely hurtful, so standing up for her dad shows that she is not just accepting the fact that her dad is the town drunk, but fighting for her dad. This section of the book shows how much Jeannette's dad means to her, and also that she is willing to stand up for him even though he is not aware of it. Even though Jeannette, Lori, Brian, and their mom had just gone out and gotten presents for everyone in the family, dad once again came home drunk and couldn’t …show more content…
For instance, the family was living in Welch and went through a cold strike, were not able to afford a trip to the laundromat to use the washer and dryer, so they washed their clothes in the sink then hung them outside to dry. Jeanette said, “We brought the clothes inside-the socks had hardened into the shape of question marks, and the pants were so stiff you could lean them up against a wall-and we banged them against the stove, trying to soften them up. ‘At least we don’t have to buy starch,’ Lori said,” (177). Despite the fact that all the kids clothes have froze, and cannot afford to go to the laundromat, they still have a positive attitude about it when they say “at least we don’t have to buy starch.” Jeannette used imagery when she describes the socks and pants because she wanted the reader to create a picture in their head of what they’re going through. The Walls’s had owned many run-down cars, the Oldsmobile was by far the worst, so when they were driving to Welch it took them longer than planned. Jeanette explained, “That Oldsmobile was a clunker from the moment we bought it. The first time it conked out, we were still an hour shy of the New Mexico border...Dad got it running-‘more like limping,’ he said-but it never went any faster than fifteen or twenty miles an hour”(129). It becomes obvious to the reader that they were not able to