The End of the Glass Castle

The book as I said in my last entry is extremely interesting, but so depressing. All three children leave their parents early to look for a better life in New York City. Yet their parents follow them to New York City, living as homeless. I think the end is a great example of forgiveness. The youngest, Maureen, tries to stab her mother after finally hitting rock bottom, yet her mother does not press charges or is in anyway angry. The children forgive their parents for making their childhoods so hard. Parts of the father's personality come out too. Such as his helpfulness in the scene where Jeannette needs money for college donations and her father gives her some, even while he and his wife are homeless. And you can tell by the end that he is feeling remorse for not supporting their family. There was an interesting scene where the father is sober for many weeks and moves upstate to stay that way. But because of the absence of his wife he comes back to New York City and soon he is drinking again. So the question is whose fault is it that the Walls lived so poorly for so long? I think it is both the father and mother combined. Jeannette's mother did not act like an adult throughout the book. And her father had his drinking problem which wasted so much money. Yet he tried to stop, but the mother did not encourage him to continue to be sober. She is almost afraid of loosing the drunk Rex Walls, because then her life would not be "an adventure" as she says many times in the book.