Essay On The Glass Castle

The Glass Castle is a book by Jeanette Walls that tells the story of her childhood and her experience growing up. Through the book you are able to see the rough situations that her and her siblings have to go through because of her parent’s irresponsibility and neglect. Neglect and the effects of neglect are a huge theme in this book and when reading the book neglect is apparent. The Federal Child Abuse Treatment and Prevention Act defines child neglect as “Any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation; or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm.” Jeannette Walls parent’s actions throughout the book …show more content…
When they lived in Battle Mountain the kids had little food at all and the adults around them wouldn’t take action to get them food. In a section Jeannette addresses the issue of hunger as a child she writes “If we asked mom about food- in a casual way, because we didn’t want to cause trouble- she’d simply shrug and say she could make something out of nothing” pg. 68. In order to eat the children are forced to steal food in the book there are stories of the kids stealing from their friends pantries when they were over and also taking lunch from other kids lunch boxes during school in order to stay fed. Along with not feeding their children Jeannette Wall’s parents often left their children unsupervised and in dangerous situations. On pg.33 Walls describes how the kids are left along in a hotel room while their parents are away and a fire starts that almost kills the kids. Another example of the children being left alone is described on pg.88. Their parents have left them, a kid in the neighborhood breaks a window and starts to shoot them with a BB gun and Lori the oldest sister goes upstairs and grabs her dads gun and starts to fire it at the kid, no one is hurt but if Walls parents hadn’t left them alone this situation wouldn’t have

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The Glass Castle Essay