The Glass Castle

Maureen is often forgotten throughout the entire story of The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls. We are very tragically reminded of Maureen’s presence when she stabs her own mother while living in New York. Reflecting back to the beginning of the story, we can see why Maureen has a mental breakdown. She is born into a world of violence, her parents fail to care for her, and she lives her entire childhood in neglect. The announcement that Mary is pregnant seems to be thrown into this story as if Walls forgot to include the part in the first place. Rex is holding a job at the gypsum mine and Mary makes sculptures out of the excess dust that Rex brings home. Just as it seems that things are taking a positive turn, it is told that Mary is pregnant. Usually a family (depending on the circumstance) is happy to be bringing a new baby into this world, but the Walls family sees this pregnancy as more of a burden. Not to mention, Rex and Mary cannot even decide on how far along in the pregnancy they are.
Before Maureen is even born, Rex and Mary get into a huge fight in the dessert. Mary exits the car in which the fight starts, and Rex chases after Mary. Walls writes, “[Rex] cornered [Mary] against some rocks…[Rex] dragged [Mary] back, legs flailing, and threw [Mary] into the car” (43). This occurrence is not justifiable in any case, but on top of this, Mary is pregnant and Maureen is put into great danger. Sadly, this proves that Maureen will be born into a very hostile environment.
Three months after Maureen is born, the Walls family is in their car when a police officer tries to pull them over for not having any brake lights. Rex says that if they do get pulled over, they would all be arrested because their car is not registered and does not have any insurance. This results in a car chase during which Maureen is literally tossed around. There is not actually a car seat for Maureen and her life is put in the hands of Jeannette. No newly born baby should be