Forgiveness is a theme that is constantly reoccurring in The Glass Castle. This came as quite a surprise to me, to tell the truth. When you encounter a poor family, they often search for people that they can blame their troubles on, so when someone does something wrong, they do not easily forgive. The Walls family, however, has a tremendous capacity for forgiveness. The children in particular are most forgiving. I believe that this forgiveness comes from an understanding of the other person. For example, Lori understands her mother so well that “it didn’t bother her that when Miss Beatty showed up to observe [her mother’s] class,… [she] went so far as to order Lori up to the front of the class, where she gave her a whipping with a wooden paddle” (pg 75). Even though to many, her mother’s actions may have seemed cruel and unusual, Lori understands that she means nothing by it and it’s only purpose is to convince the visiting teacher that she is disciplining her students properly. However, forgiving people have a tendency to take their forgiveness too far. In one instance later in the book, Rex, after swearing off of alcohol for months has gone back to it and was having an argument with his wife. After criticizing him for being a “ stinking rotten drunk,” Rex says, “Yeah, but you love this old drunk don’t you?” (pg 122). His wife agrees with him and the fight is over. In this circumstance, Rex had no reason to be forgiven. He returned to a hurtful addiction after promising Jeannette that he wouldn’t. However, because his wife was struggling with her own sugar addiction, she understood him and forgave him. Both such instances and that of the like occur many times throughout the memoir, and for good or for bad, any member of the Walls family does not have to search hard to find forgiveness.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Blog #3 – Themes
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Although I do think forgiveness is a major theme, I think that even though the Walls family forgives each other earlier in the book when the kids are younger, the kids seem to struggle later on and find it more difficult to forgive their parents. This eventually causes them to find a way to get away from their family as soon as they are out of high school, if not before. Yes, Lori forgave her moment at the time, but eventually, after many other times, this built up and Lori was eventually the first to leave, and the book even said that she never looked back after getting out of the town. I think this in a way was Jeannette's way of saying Lori never forgave them. Also, after seeing her father for the last time, it mentioned how he asked her, "Have I ever let you down?" and rather than giving her normal response, she said she left without saying anything, since she knew there was only one answer she could give. Then again, I suppose in the end the Walls children must have forgiven their parents since it ends peacefully at a Thanksgiving dinner, although you could argue that they would always love their parents, even though they could never forgive them for making them go through so much in their childhoods.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your take on the theme of the novel. I was actually debating whether or not to write about the same theme in my own blog. However, I also agree with Emily's comment to a certain degree. I think she's right about Lori and possibly the other siblings not being able to forgive, but I think that it was different for Jeannette. The fact that she wrote this memoir and portrayed her parents and the memories with them in the way that she did shows that she was able to find forgiveness and acceptance. After reading the novel, I read an interview with Jeannette Walls in which she spent a great deal of time discussing her parents and the whole memoir writing process. From the interview I found that Jeannette appreciates where she comes from and if given the chance, would not alter her childhood. She even said that she was not as much forgiving because that would mean that her parents did something wrong, but was more "accepting" of how she was raised.
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