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FONTS

The Glass Castle Themes

Alcoholism Quotes (Cont...)

Facing Fears Analysis

"Dad said he needed to get together to discuss something important...Dad asked me to come down to the Lower East Side that evening. 'And if it's not to much trouble,' he added, 'could you stop on your way to pick up a bottle of vodka?' 'Oh, so that's what this is about.' 'No, no, honey. I do need to talk to you. But I would appreciate some vodka. Nothing fancy, just the cheapest rotgut they have. A pint would be fine. A fifth would be great.'" (pg. 277)

"I saw Dad eyeing the brown paper bag, and I passed it to him. 'A magnum,' Dad said, his voice choked with gratitude as he eased the big bottle from the bag. He unscrewed the cap and took a long, deep pull. 'Thank you, my darling," he said. 'you are so good to your old man.'...'This stuff could grown on you,' I said. 'Don't let it,' Dad said." (pg. 278)

"Dad, however, wouldn't talk about Mary Charlene. If her name came up, his face grew stony and he'd leave the room. He was the one who found her body in the crib, and Mom couldn't believe how much it shook him up...Mom said Dad was never the same after Mary Charlene died. He started having dark moods, staying out late and coming home drunk, losing jobs." (pg. 28)

"I took a breath and said, 'Do you think you could maybe stop drinking?'...In the morning Dad told me that for the next few days, he was going to keep to himself in his bedroom...Everything went fine for the first day. On the second day, when I came home from school, I heard a terrible groaning coming from school, I heard a terrible groaning coming from the bedroom...Dad was tied to the bed with ropes and belts. I don't know if he had done it himself or if Mom helped him, but he was thrashing about, bucking and pulling at the restraints...His face was gray and ripping with sweat...'Do something!' I yelled at (Mom)...'Your father is the only one who can help himself,' Mom said. 'Only he knows how to fight his own demons.' After the better part of a week, Dad's delirium stopped, and he asked us to come talk to him in the bedroom...His hands were shaking so badly that he had trouble holding it, and water dribbled down his chin as he drank...I told Mom that maybe I had made a terrible mistake, but Mom said sometimes you have to get sicker before you can get better. Within a few more days, Dad seemed almost normal..." (pg. 116-118)

Alcoholism Quotes

Throughout each of our lives, were are faced with challenges and new situations that we either may or may not be comfortable with. Some might jump right into these new situations, but often times, most are afraid of jumping into these situations, or are deathly afraid of facing their fears. Throughout Jeannette's life, she was faced with both scary and/or new situations. As her parents would always like to put it, their lives were an adventure. Ever since Jeannette was very little, she's been taught the value of facing fears head on. Now, to say that a philosophy such as this is either right or wrong is held in the eye of the beholder. They way the parents view this philosophy and have their kids use it, most would say that it is completely wrong. For example, when Jeannette was 3 years old, she was cooking hot dogs on the stove and she caught on fire. This lead to major burns across her torso, leaving her with lifelong scars. After all of this occurred, Jeannette's mother applauded her for jumping right back into the situation that left her with massive patches on her skin. According to Jeanette, instead of being afraid of fire, she became fascinated with it. Some would say, including her parents, that it was good she was no longer afraid of something that hurt her, but most would say that her no longer being afraid is a dangerous thing, especially at the age of 3. Jeannette learned values from her parents, and throughout her childhood, the one value I think she looked back on the most was the value of facing her fears. Throughout many of the scary situations she endured in her life, there is always a hint of that instilled value being thought of during those experiences. The one experience that really taught her to face her fears was when her father had taught her to swim. Jeanette was deathly afraid of water, especially in the water they swam in because of its deadly history. Her father decided to make her face her fears by, and I mean literally, throwing her into it. He constantly threw her into the water, basically making her almost drown every time until she finally realized that there wasn't going to be any help for her, so she finally would then have to start swimming on her own.

Her father believed that if you faced your fears head on, they would then be afraid of you and turn and run, just like the demon that they would face together. In my complete opinion, teaching a child to not be afraid of anything does have its positives, but then if they aren't afraid of anything, disaster can occur. In a world such as ours today, and in Jeanette's past, facing your fears is crucial, yes, but having a sense for fear of danger is just as important, if not more. There are numerous things in our world that are meant to be feared of, and if you aren't fearful of such things, you are now in a state of perpetual danger because you wouldn't know what to be fearful of and what is okay to be unafraid of.

"Dad, who had fixed someone's transmission earlier that day and used the money he'd made to buy a bottle of tequila...Dad jerked the steering wheel to one side and drove off the road into the desert after her...We shot forward toward Mom, who screamed and jumped out of the way. Dad turned around and went for her again." (pg. 42-43)

"Dad, knowing that all the bars and liquor store would be closed on Christmas, had stocked up in advanced. He'd popped open the first Budweiser before breakfast, and by the time midnight had rolled around, he was having trouble standing up." (pg. 114)

"'Hon, I need some money,' he said. 'For what?' 'Beer and cigarettes.' 'I've got sort of a tight budget, Dad.' 'I don't need much. Just five dollars.'...I took out my green plastic change purse and pulled out a crumpled five and passed it over slowly...When Dad asked me for another five bucks a few days later, I gave it to him...In a few more days he asked for twenty...Dad and I took seats at the bar. Dad ordered Buds for himself and me, even though I wanted a sprite...They ordered whiskeys and chalked their cues." (pg. 209-211)

"Dad pulled a pint of whiskey out of a paper bag...He raised his pint. 'To the family,' he said." (pg. 253)

"But it was Dad who was really getting to Lori. While he hadn't found steady work, he always had mysterious ways of hustling up pocket money, and he'd come home at night drunk and gunning for an argument." (pg. 254)

"(Brian) put a lock on the booze cabinet, but Dad he'd been there under a week when Brian came home and found that Dad had used a screwdriver to take the door off its hinges and then guzzled down every single bottle." (pg. 254)

Alcoholism

Facing Fears

Alcoholism Analysis

Facing Fears Quotes

"A few days after Mom and Dad brought me home, I cooked myself some hotdogs...'Good for you,' Mom said when she saw me cooking...'...You can't live in fear of something as basic fire.' I didn't. Instead I became fascinated with it." (pg. 15)

"Old demon was terrified because that was the first time it had met anyone who wasn't afraid of it... That was the thing to remember about all monsters, Dad said: They love to frighten people, but the minute you stare them down, they turn tail and run. 'All you have to do, Mountain Goat, is show old demon that you're not afraid.'" (pg. 37)

"I waded in up to my shoulders...I looked back at Dad, who watched me, unsmiling...'You're going to learn to swim today,' he said. He put an arm around me, and we started across the water...I felt terrified and clutched his neck neck so tightly that his skin turned white...Dad kept telling me...that one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is 'If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim.'" (pg. 65-66)

"One night when I was almost ten, I was awakened by someone running his hands over my private parts...I asked Mom and Dad if we should close the doors and windows when we went to sleep. They wouldn't consider it...it was essential that we refuse to surrender to fear." (pg. 103)

Alcoholism has always been a huge part of Jeannette's life, mainly due to her father. Her father, Rex Walls, according to her mother, Rose Mary Walls, has been a major alcoholic ever since their second child, Mary Charlene, died as an infant due to a crib death. All of that occurred before Jeannette's birth, so the alcoholic side of her father has been present for her entire life. Even from the beginning, at such a young age Jeannette was able to see the affects of alcohol on her father and know that they were terribly wrong. For example, when they were driving one night, and her father was highly intoxicated, her mother got out of the car, and because Rex, when he is drunk, becomes violently angry and just all around destructive, he decided he didn't like his wife's choice and chose to chase after her with the car, along with the kids sitting the back seat. He did this for who knows how long. Jeannette, having been there and having seen the extremely awful outcome that occurred after her father drank, she was able to tell, even at the age of 5, just how bad alcoholic substances really are. Because of all the experiences she had for the next five years of her father's abuse of alcohol, for her tenth birthday, she finally asks him to stop drinking. And, for a matter of fact, he does try to stop. Jeannette's request finally knocked some sense into him, and so he did what he had to do to become sober. Mind you, it was no easy road. Alcohol affects both the body and mind, so when attempting to deviate from its seemingly unbreakable grip, Rex experiences hell because both his body and mind are going through withdrawal symptoms. Jeannette sees this fight in her father, but not much later she sees him fall right back into the exact same position he was in before. Rex has taught her the life lesson of alcoholism; what it does to you, how it affects you, and why you should never fall into its grip. Right before he dies, she says to him, "This stuff can really grow on you." He silently pleads to her by saying, "Don't let it."

The definition of alcoholism is varied between each person and their perspectives on the abuse of alcohol. We often times view alcoholism similar to the way Jeannette viewed it for most of her childhood, and that view is what she saw and we saw while reading. Her father. The image of her father drunk can often times be what we see as the definition of alcoholism, and for most cases, it is true. However, alcoholism is not just one image, it can be very different depending on the person. Even with the most common view of alcoholism, each and every case is different, because every person who lives a life of alcoholism has a different life and a different past. Rex Walls showed us what alcoholism is and what becomes of it, but the secret idea that he didn't realize he was showing us was that the definition of alcoholism is not just a sentence, but a population of thousands of different stories yet to be told. His story - his case - was one of thousands that just was lucky enough to be told and learned from.

Facing Fears Quotes (Cont...)

"Mom's threats didn't wary me. The way I saw it, Dad owed me...Dad closed the door and looked at me gravely. 'Your mother claims you back talked her.' 'Yes,' I said. 'It's true.'...'Who do you think you are?' he asked. 'She's your mother.' 'Then why doesn't she act like one?'...Then I blurted out, 'And why don't you act like a dad?' I could see the blood surge in his face. He grabbed me by the arm. 'You apologize for that comment!' 'Or what?'...'What are you going to do to punish me?' I asked. 'Stop taking me to bars?' Dad dew his hands back to smack me...'You can't be serious,' I said...'Apologize to me and your mother,' he said. 'No." Dad raised his belt. 'Apologize.' 'No."...Finally, to call his bluff, I turned around, bent over slightly, and rested my hands on my knees...there were six stinging blows to the backs of my thighs..." (pg. 219-220)

"Those last couple of weeks, I'd go from feeling excited to nervous to just plain scared back to excited in a matter of minutes... At first I resolved not to turn around. I wanted to look ahead to where I was going, not back at what I was leaving, but then I turned anyway." (pg. 239 & 241)

"He told me that he lived in an apartment over the bar. If all he wanted to do was dance some more and maybe kiss a little, I could handle that. But I had the feeling he thought he was entitled to something in return for losing so much money. 'I'm not sure,' I said. 'Aw, come on,' he said and shouted at Dad, 'I'm going to take your girl upstairs.' 'Sure,' Dad said...So, with Dad's blessing, I went upstairs...His hands dropped down. He squeezed my bottom, pushed me onto the bed, and began kissing me...Dad had said to holler if needed, but I didn't want to scream...Robbie, meanwhile, was saying something about me being too bony to screw. 'Yeah, most guys don't like me,' I said. 'Besides being skinny, I got these scars.' 'Oh, sure,' he said. But he paused. I rolled off the bed, quickly unbuttoned my dress at the waist, and pulled it open to show him the scar on my right side...Robbie looked uncertainly at his friends...'I think I hear Dad calling,' I said, then made for the door." (pg. 212-213)

Facing Fears Quotes (Cont...)

"But despite all the hell-raising and destruction and chaos he had created in our lives, I could not imagine what my life would be like -- what the world would be like -- without him in it. As awful as he could be, I always knew loved me in a way no one else ever had. I looked out the window." (pg. 279)

"Miss Caparossi started out by informing the class that it might surprise them to learn some people in this world thought they were better than other people. 'They're convinced they're so special that they don't need to follow the rules other people have to follow,' she said, 'like presenting their school records when they enroll in a new school.'

She looked at me and raised her eyebrows meaningfully...I was sitting in the second-to-last row. The students in front of me swiveled their heads around to stare. I decided to dazzle them with the answer from the Ergo Game. 'Insufficient information to draw a conclusion,' I said. 'Oh, really?' Miss Caparossi asked. 'Is that what they say in the big city like Phoenix?'...Then she turned to the class and said in a high, mocking voice, 'Insufficient information to draw a conclusion.' The class laughed violently. I felt something sharp and painful between my shoulder blades and turned around. The tall black girl with the almond eyes was sitting at the desk behind me. Holding up the sharp pencil she ahd jabbed in to my back, she smiled the same malicious smile I'd seen in the playground." (pg. 138)

"The next day, when Mr. Beker went off to the Mountaineer, I opened the display case and took out the four-band watch. I slipped it into my handbag and rearranged the remaining watched to cover the gap...Since he hadn't payed me commissions, I was only taking what I was owed...All morning I nervously waited for Mr. Becker to leave for lunch. When He was finally gone, I opened the display case, slipped the watch inside, and rearranged the other watches around it. I moved fast. The week before, I stolen the watch without breaking a sweat. But now I was terrified that someone would catch me putting it back." (pg. 216-217)

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