Growing up, I never really had a set group of friends in my life. I always wished that I could have that small group of people that I could rely on for anything, could talk to, and be myself with. In grammar school and middle school, I had my best friends like everyone does, but one this always led to another and that would end. Even entering highschool, I had friends, but I was never sure of who the people were that I could trust. As a child, I sometimes felt very alone. This is possibly the worst thing to experience at a young age. I also went through a move during these years. Saying goodbye to old friends was not nearly as hard as finding new people that I could call best friends again.
More than any other time in my life, this year I couldn’t be more thankful for my family. However, I’m not talking about the family you think. I finally found the people that I can always count on. They are my best friends and I could never ask for anything more than them. We are all so entirely different that sometimes I wonder why we get along so well, but we are brought together by something we all love: theatre. I could not ask for better people to spend my last year a high school with, making memories with. All of them touch my heart and change my life all the same. People always say when they graduate that there are certain people and things they will never forget. Their hand prints are on my heart forever.
This year, I want to thank you guys for being all I could ever ask for. You are my heart and soul and are forming the person I am today and who I want to become. I can be myself and laugh about anything. Happy Thanksgiving guys I love you all forever.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Poverty. Who's To Blame?
Poverty. From it stems off more issues than any other social issue facing people today. From it, people are more likely to become addicted to drugs and alcohol, get a poor education, and be drawn into criminal lifestyles. In some cities, it seems that the rates of people in poverty are only climbing to new heights. Unfortunately, a large majority of these people are young children. They are unable to change their situation because they are born into a world that their parents’ poor choices have made for them. For some children, like the Walls children, they find a way out.
In The Glass Castle, who is to blame for the horrible living conditions of the family? Personally, I blame both of the parents. Firstly, the father is to blame because of his addiction to alcohol. Every time the family comes into a little bit of money, he wastes it all with no concern to how it will affect his children. I also blame the mother, maybe even just as much. In the beginning of the memoir when the children find a ring that could buy them food and decent clothing, the mother keeps it for herself. Not thinking of her starving children, she keeps it out of selfishness. Also, when the mother actually got a paying job, she often refused to go, being to lazy and greedy to get out of bed. She cared more about her tiredness and unwillingness to work more than the lives of her family.
Now that I think of it, I almost blame the mother more than the father. In the end, we find out that the mother owns a large sum of property worth a million dollars. While the children go through life scavenging for food, wearing ragged clothing, and fighting over who gets to sleep with the dogs for warmth in the winter, the mother could have easily solved all of their problems, probably for life, with this money. Also, the mother could have left the father. In all reality she would have been much better off.
When the children leave their family for New York, they made the best decision they ever would. They had been born into a life they could do nothing about. They could not solve their father’s addiction, nor could they do anything about their mother’s depression and selfishness. In leaving to start new lives, they broke away from poverty. When the parents follow them to the city, we see how unwilling the parents are to finding a new life as well. For the first winter, they live on the streets. Then, they find a home in no better condition than the broken down home in Welsh. This may sound horrible, but I do not feel bad at all for the parents. They had so many options to change their situation, even if only in a small way. Instead of trying to make their lives better for both themselves and their family, they ignored their problem and acted as if life was just one big adventure. In my opinion, the roles of the children and the parents was completely backwards in every way. It seemed as though the children wanted a better life for the parents more than the parents wanted decent lives for their children.
If children brought into these situations can change their lives for the better, why cant the adults?
In The Glass Castle, who is to blame for the horrible living conditions of the family? Personally, I blame both of the parents. Firstly, the father is to blame because of his addiction to alcohol. Every time the family comes into a little bit of money, he wastes it all with no concern to how it will affect his children. I also blame the mother, maybe even just as much. In the beginning of the memoir when the children find a ring that could buy them food and decent clothing, the mother keeps it for herself. Not thinking of her starving children, she keeps it out of selfishness. Also, when the mother actually got a paying job, she often refused to go, being to lazy and greedy to get out of bed. She cared more about her tiredness and unwillingness to work more than the lives of her family.
Now that I think of it, I almost blame the mother more than the father. In the end, we find out that the mother owns a large sum of property worth a million dollars. While the children go through life scavenging for food, wearing ragged clothing, and fighting over who gets to sleep with the dogs for warmth in the winter, the mother could have easily solved all of their problems, probably for life, with this money. Also, the mother could have left the father. In all reality she would have been much better off.
When the children leave their family for New York, they made the best decision they ever would. They had been born into a life they could do nothing about. They could not solve their father’s addiction, nor could they do anything about their mother’s depression and selfishness. In leaving to start new lives, they broke away from poverty. When the parents follow them to the city, we see how unwilling the parents are to finding a new life as well. For the first winter, they live on the streets. Then, they find a home in no better condition than the broken down home in Welsh. This may sound horrible, but I do not feel bad at all for the parents. They had so many options to change their situation, even if only in a small way. Instead of trying to make their lives better for both themselves and their family, they ignored their problem and acted as if life was just one big adventure. In my opinion, the roles of the children and the parents was completely backwards in every way. It seemed as though the children wanted a better life for the parents more than the parents wanted decent lives for their children.
If children brought into these situations can change their lives for the better, why cant the adults?
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