"Sometimes we want to believe something so badly that we allow ourselves to be taken advantage of." — Aaron B. Powell (Doomsday Diaries III: Luke the Protector). In life, there are people, who will use us, and it might just be the people closest to us. Often making us believe their lies, taking advantage of our trust, because they know they can.
The book, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, is a memoir about the Walls family: a dysfunctional, broken, and uniquely spirited bunch. Rose Mary, Jeannette’s mom, does not want the responsibility that comes with family. Rex Walls, Jeannette’s dad, when sober is charismatic and intelligent. However, when he is under the influence of alcohol, he is destructive and fraudulent, frequently taking advantage of his family, in most cases: Jeanette. Jeannette has to deal with an immature mother and an alcoholic father. She often ends up taking care of herself and her siblings, finding solutions to their problems on their own. Jeannette discovers the value of love, loyalty, and family. Finally figuring out the concept of human nature. Jeannette Walls portrays that, part of being human, is experiencing disappoint because of actions made by the people we love most.
In the book, Jeanette’s dad disappoints her because he takes advantage of the faith she has in him. For example it states, "He knew I had a soft spot for him the way no one else in the family did, and he was taking advantage of it” (209). In other words, Rex knew that he could use her, and so he did because he knew he could get away with it. This is the definition of “taken advantage of”. Rex exploited Jeanette. This can teach us that in life, there are people who will want us for their own use, and we must speak up for ourselves, and realize this. This is considerable because we need to figure out the honest people in our lives and the disloyal people in our lives, because they affect the way our future turns out to be.
Furthermore, it states, “He simply waited for me to fork over the cash, as if he knew I didn’t have it in me to say no” (208). Jeannette doesn’t have it in her to say ‘no’ because she has a soft spot for her dad. Jeannette cannot believe that he is taking her for granted, and is using her for his own selfish desires. She begins to understand that her father was taking advantage of the faith she had in him. This proves that the people we love most could potentially be the ones who are deceiving us. Since we love them so much, we don’t want to believe that they could be harming us, and this may be leaving us discombobulated. We must have our epiphany and realize the destruction they are causing, and confront it.
Throughout the story, Rex promises her that he will build the her ‘The Glass Castle’, a big house made up of glass ceilings, glass walls, and a glass staircase. He never goes about to do it. “Never did build that Glass Castle” (279). The glass castle symbolizes Jeannette’s faith in her dad. Her father had promised her so much, never keeping those promises. This represents all his empty promises and broken deals. It represents all the times he let her down, how much Jeannette believes in him, and how he misused this trust.
We have all been taken advantage of by our loved ones, whether it be a big deal or not. Its hard to realize when this happens since they are so close to us, we can’t bring ourselves to imagine how they could’ve possibly done this to us. If we don’t envisage this soon, we may be damaging our persona. This book has taught me that we might be ignoring the problems in front of us. Additionally, it has proved to me that our loved ones could be filling us with false hope and potentially using us for their own cause. This might be inevitable, but that doesn’t mean we can’t minimize the disappointment from their actions, if we realize who they really are then we won’t feel the pain of their action. We can be better off without them .
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