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1 24 April 2020 Choice Novel Essay Jeannette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle, takes readers through her troublesome childhood where she was involved with many villains, who took advantage of others and who stood still and did nothing but watch evil-doings occur. As an attempt to seek justice and independence, characters go on their hero’s journey to escape evil and find goodness in the world. When Jeannette was nine years old, she woke up in the middle of the night due to a strange man touching her private areas. “Pervert!” I yelled and kicked at the man’s hand. Brian came running into the room with a hatchet he kept by his bed, and the man bolted out the door. . . We searched for him for a few blocks . . . but we couldn’t find him. . .” (Walls 103). The villain in this scene is the “scraggly guy with sunken cheeks who had been hanging around North Third Street.” (Walls 103). The man is clearly just an indecent lustful person who preyed on young Jeannette. When the molestation occurred, the victim screamed for help and her upright brother rushed into her room with a weapon as an attempt to protect her. Despite the fact that there are people who commit wrongdoings, there will always be more people who do selfless things, like Brian. When Brian reached the age of twenty, he was sworn in as a police officer. Throughout his childhood, he experienced and witnessed gruesome things which led to his choice of becoming a symbol of justice in order to prevent such terrible things from happening. Readers can assume that because of the reality the Walls children faced, they have the need to become better people. The Walls family temporarily stayed at Erma’s house, and during their stay they encountered another villain. Erma, their grandmother, was caught “grabbing. . . squeezing and

2 kneading” Brian’s crotch. Jeannette stood up to her grandmother which caused an uproar that caught her older sister’s attention which led to more chaos. Erma jerked her hand out of Lori’s grasp and slapped her so hard that Lori’s glasses went flying across the room. Lori. . . slapped her back. Erma hit Lori again, and this time Lori struck Erma a blow in the jaw. Then they flew at each other, tussling and flailing and pulling hair, locked together, with Brian and me cheering on Lori until we woke up Uncle Stanley, who staggered into the room and pushed them apart. (Walls 147). After the disturbance, the children went and told their parents. However, their reaction was not up to the children’s standard. Their father, Rex Walls, told his two daughters and son that he does care what happened and that “Brian’s a man, he can take it.” (Walls 148). Erma portrays villain traits as she molested her own grandchild but Rex also mimics qualities of a villain as he ignores the wrongdoing his mother did. His indifference and disregard allows the villain to act, behave, and do whatever they want, which is problematic. Lori is aware of the lack of humanity the adults in her family have and wishes to leave them behind. As she grows older, her and her siblings plan to break away from their parents. In order to leave the Walls household, they began to save up money that they earned in a piggy bank named Oz. One day, Jeannette finds Oz shattered into pieces and knows automatically it was the doing of her father. Lori discovers the missing money and goes on to confront their dad. He does nothing and shows no regret. “I’ll never get out of here,” Lori kept saying. “I’ll never get out of here.” “You will,” I said. “I swear it.” I believed she would. Because I knew that if Lori never got out of Welsh, neither would I.” (Walls 229). Eventually, Lori does leave followed by Jeannette and Brian. They all went on to become ideal adults with morals. Lori, who had the passion to create, became an artist, Jeannette,

3 who enjoyed the art of writing, became a writer, and Brian, who had a strong sense of justice, lived his life as a police officer. They were able to escape, gain independence, and embark on another hero’s journey. Brian, Jeannette, and Lori endured the abuse they had received from their personal villains and learned from them. Despite the hardships, they did not grow up and repeat the same evil doings, instead they escaped their harsh life and lived a new different life. Their villain encounters taught them that they will always be evil in the world, but rather than getting consumed by evil and committing more evil acts, they must prevail and go good....