Prompt #2
The way that I reacted when Jeannette Walls said, “We didn’t have food but at the same time, we were luckier than other kids”, was that she was finding reasons to be grateful. As a child Jeannette Walls lived in extreme poverty with parents who were not supportive financially, or emotionally. In order to cope with the downs of her childhood, Jeannette Walls, tells herself that she didn’t have it as bad as other people. A couple ways one could look back on Jeannette Walls’ childhood and find ways that she was ‘luckier’ would be to look at the valuable life lessons that her dad taught her. “We laughed about all the kids who believed in the Santa myth and got nothing for Christmas but a bunch of cheap plastic toys. ‘Years from now when …show more content…
It is very evident that Maureen was abandoned, or looked over, as a very young child through the lack of presence through the beginning of this memoir. I can only imagine how the emotions must have bottled up inside of her by her sudden breakdown after the parents moved to New York after the kids had finally gotten away. “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.”(275) As for Lori, Jeannette, and Brian, I feel as if the benefited just a tiny bit from their bad upbringing. Seeing how poorly, financially and morally, their parents lived eventually inspired them to rise up, break the cycle and move away to make better lives for themselves. “I had made two decisions… The second was that, like Lori, I was going to get out of Welch. The sooner, the better… It would be the beginning of my escape fund.” …show more content…
I have concluded that, to me, the main points that this memoir has to say about families are that where you come from should not define who you eventually become and the issue of how alcoholism affects everyone in a household. Unfortunately there are parents around the world who, either, purposely or ignorantly neglect their children. Neglect can anything from not putting food on the table and causing starvation, not paying bills or providing adequate necessities such as school or a, physically, stable home to not allowing modeling good/ supportive parenting and love. In this memoir the mother, Rosemary, is a prime example of neglect. “A few days later, Mom came home… ‘It’s time I start doing something for myself’… ‘ Mom, you spent the whole summer renewing your certificate… You can’t quit your job… We need the money’ ‘Why do I always have to be the one who earns the money?’ Mom asked, ‘You have a job. You can earn money… I’ve got more important things to do’” (218) In this quote Rosemary undermines everything that her husband and children have done for her just because she doesn’t feel like going back to work. I believe that parenting can be about making sacrifices to benefit the future of your children. Making her children believe that the family’s problems are now rested upon their shoulders, so the