Child Neglect in the Glass Castle
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Child Neglect in the Glass Castle, How It Affected the People in the Memoir and How It
Still Relates To Society and Culture Today
When children are neglected, it can have far-reaching consequences. Each instance of neglect is unique to the individual. Every day, the Walls' children were neglected. The most common form of abuse, according to Jeanette Walls' remarkable memoir, The Glass Castle, is neglect, which is the failure of guardians to provide the needed help, assistance, guidance, and attention, which may lead to physical, mental, and emotional harm, as well as substantial damage
or loss to assets. Jeannette's parents are regularly seen ignoring their children and placing their children's needs last throughout the book. Her parents' primary interest appears to be living their lives as they wish rather than providing for their children. The latter is demonstrated throughout the book when Jeannette's parents refuse to work without money and instead indulge themselves.
Regardless of the type, abuse has long-term consequences and has harmed people from various backgrounds.
The Walls family has repeatedly subjected their kids to maltreatment through neglect. Neglectful abuse is when a parent chooses not to properly care for their child despite having other options (The Calculating Mind). For instance, “I looked in the refrigerator. There was nothing inside but a half-gone stick of margarine… it was crunchy because the sugar didn’t dissolve, and it was greasy and left a filmy coat in my mouth. But I ate it all anyway (68)”. Due
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to their extreme hunger, Lori and Jeannette decided to eat a frosting made of sugar and margarine. After learning about it, their Mother exclaimed that she was saving it. In a later statement, Jeannette explains that she believed her Mother might be keeping it for herself. The Walls kids see their Mother eating a chocolate bar later on in the novel, on page 174, and she justifies it by saying she has a sugar addiction. By letting her kids go hungry while munching on a king-sized chocolate bar, her Mother was incredibly selfish, as evidenced by this. Jeannette comes dangerously close to death several times because her parents chose they didn't want to watch her suffer. “So we mixed up a batch of what Brian called nuclear fuel, pouring different liquids into a can. When I tossed in the match, a cone of flame shot up with a whoosh like a jet afterburner” (Walls 61). Her father said, “It is a place where no rules apply, or at least they have not figured them out yet. You all got a little too close to it today” (Walls 61). Her father is unconcerned about his children; they nearly kill themselves by mixing chemicals and setting them on fire. In his own figurative sense, he even concedes that they were on the verge of
death. Physical parental neglect is survivable. Someone physically ignored can have a complete and self-sufficient existence, but emotional neglect does not provide the same favorable results.
Children that have been neglected may be ignorant, have mental health issues, or lack sufficient socialization (Landers et al., 31). When children are ignored, they frequently suffer lifelong scars and are in worse condition because they lack social skills. Children who feel abandoned often act out because they subconsciously realize they should be treated with love. Children with low self-esteem experience feelings of inadequacy and rejection. They no longer have any sense of normalcy in their life due to their emotional instability (Leppäkoski et al., 12). In the Glass Castle, the Mother repeatedly fails to provide for the children emotionally and even wants to quit her job. “You cannot quit your job, I said. We need the money. Why do I always
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have to be the one who earns money?” Mom asked. ‘You can earn money. Lori can earn money too. I have got more important things to do” (Walls 218). The Mother ignores all of her responsibilities and dumps them on her kids without thinking about the stress this puts them under. Placing the entire family's financial burden on the children may result in excessive stress, which can cause despair and anxiety, negatively affecting their mental health and interfering with
their ability to succeed as adults. While physical neglect can kill and emotional abuse can leave permanent mental scars, Jennette is proof that both can be overcome.
According to Moore (87), Young children rely solely on their parents or other caretakers for emotional and physical survival. Children may face overwhelming stress and struggle to successfully express their needs if they lack the assistance of a trustworthy parent or caregiver to assist them in controlling their powerful emotions. The latter explains why a child requires their parent to satisfy their needs during the early stages of development. They can have trouble expressing their feelings and risk being too anxious or overwhelmed if it does not. The latter relates to a statement made by Jennette Walls in The Glass Castle: “Six months later, Maureen stabbed Mom. It happened after mom decided it was time for Maureen to develop a little self-
sufficiency by moving out and finding a place of her own” (Walls 275). Maureen has experienced the most neglect of all the Walls' children, which is apparent as she becomes older. Jennette frequently referred to herself as her father's favorite, Lori as her Mother's, and Brian as her best friend because of their similar ages. Maureen never learned how to adequately express her feelings because she was emotionally neglected as a child. Because her parents failed to meet
her emotional needs, when she is subjected to the ultimate violation of trust—being sent out of the house—she reacts in the only way she can—with rage and violence. Early emotional support is crucial for happiness and mental health, particularly for young children.
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If parents do NOT guide their kids in making wise decisions while their brains are still developing, they may grow up to make poor decisions in the future. According to Tufford (142), "Chronic neglect that is ongoing has a profound effect on a child's brain during early childhood and infancy. More importantly, neglect at this point prevents the development of neural networks
necessary for brain communication. The latter explains why children must have parents who can ensure they grasp the value of making good decisions as they age. In her memoir The Glass Castle, Jennette Walls writes, “I had just turned eighteen. I quit my job at the hamburger joint the
next day and became a full-time reporter for The Phoenix. I would never be happier in my life” (Walls 248). The fact that this work opportunity was in front of her convinced Jennette to accept it even though she could have found one that offered more stability. Making rational decisions was absurdly difficult for the Walls family, as seen by their persistently outrageous behavior. Even if Jennette's life does not turn out to be very successful, the dangerous choices she made to get to where she today reflect on her parents and the fact that they both followed their ambitions while growing up. Although she doesn't act as severely as some people, some of her acts certainly reflect how she was raised. Jennette might have found herself in the same situation as her parents had things not gone her way. One of the most crucial life skills is decision-making, which parents must teach their children or risk harming them for the remainder of their lives.
The book's depiction of varied parental behaviors demonstrates how neglect poses a daily threat to many children's safety and well-being. Every child should rest easy knowing that their parents are providing for them. Notably, this is true in contemporary society. In her novel, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls describes her childhood as a result of having parents that neglected
her when she was growing up. Though some may contend that kids should develop alongside
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their parents, the removal of kids may be essential if their parents fail to meet their requirements or are unable to give them a stable environment.
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Works Cited
Landers, Ashley L., et al. "A scoping review of evidence-based interventions available to parents
of maltreated children ages 0-5 involved with child welfare services." Child Abuse & Neglect 76 (2018): 546-560.
Leppäkoski, Tuija, Maaret Vuorenmaa, and Eija Paavilainen. "Psychological and physical abuse towards four-year-old children as reported by their parents: A national Finnish survey." Child Abuse & Neglect 118 (2021): 105127.
Moore, Jean. "Neglect of Neglect – Child Neglect."
The ABC of Child Protection
, 2018, pp. 80-
94.
Tufford, Lea. "Disclosure of Child Abuse and Neglect."
Child Abuse and Neglect in Canada
, 2019, pp. 135-150.
“The Glass Castle”- A Memoir of Abuse & Neglect."
The Calculating Mind
, 17 Mar. 2022, thecalculatingmind.com/2018/06/02/the-glass-castle-a-memoir-of-abuse-neglect/.
Walls, Jeannette. The glass castle: A memoir. Simon and Schuster, 2017.
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