Mary Rose Walls Analysis

To the outside world, the Walls’ family appeared to be the classic, All – American family, which usually entailed a family of four or more, with a stay at home mother, and a common blue-collar job for the father… However in the case of this particular family when the doors were closed a night, whether it was the car doors or a little shack of a house, they were not the same put together family they appeared to be to the rest of the world… “dancing along the border between turbulence and order.” (Walls 288). Jeannette Walls, had a complex relationship with both of her parents. Mary Rose Walls was more of a free-spirit, as well as an artist. The first time the readers are introduced to Jeannette’s mother she was rooting through a dumpster. The second encounter isn’t much better. At the age of three in some words, Jeannette could be described as mature. However mature for a three-year old to most people would be: putting on their own clothes, and being properly potty-trained, but Jeannette was not like most three year olds. Which speaks to her character, but at the same time shines light on her relationship
with her mother. While she was cooking hotdogs, unsupervised, her mother was in the other room painting. Which seemed to be how their relationship remained throughout the book, distant. Even while she was being rushed around the hospital she was always putting others before herself. She defended her parents, and explained that, “It was easy, I said. You just put the hot dogs in the water and boil them. It wasn’t like there was some complicated recipe that you had to old enough to follow.” (Walls 10-11). “One day leaned over my bed and asked if the nurses and doctors were treating me okay.
If they were not, he said, he would kick some a****s. I told Dad how nice and friendly everyone was. ‘Well, of course they are,’ he said. ‘They know you’re Rex Walls’s daughter.” (Walls 12). This portrayed Jeannette and her relationship with her father throughout the book. They always looked out for her, their bond was unbreakable and Jeannette believed in and defended her father’s honor until the ends of the world. Which speaks to Jeanette’s loyal side, and her faith in people, especially her father. “It was our secret. ‘I swear, honey, there are times when I think you’re the only one around who still has faith in me,’ he said. ‘I don’t know that I’d do if you ever lost it.’ I told him that I would never lose faith in him. And I promised myself I never would.” (Walls
78-79). Jeannette grew up in very tough situations, ones that many people do not come across ever. For instance, growing up I always had a stable home, and never had to worry about when or where my next meal was coming from, or if it even was to come. Both of my parents always held a stable job and earned good pay, enough to put both my old sister and I through private school all our lives. This book made me realize that not everyone is afforded the same opportunities that I was, from the day I was born. However if I were to ever come across such circumstances that Jeannette Walls faced during her lifetime, I hope I would be able to conquer these challenges as she did, with the same amount of courage and positivity that she had. I also learned that somethings are better off as they already are. “One time I saw a tiny Joshua tree sapling growing not too far from the old tree. I wanted to dig it up and replant it near our house. I told Mom that I would protect it from the wind and water it every day so that it could grow nice and tall and straight. Mom frowned at me. ‘You'd be destroying what makes it special,’ she said. ‘It's the Joshua tree's struggle that gives it its beauty.’” (Walls 38).