Examples Of Alcoholism In The Glass Castle

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Alcoholism. A disease that not only affects one person, but others around them. Alcoholism is defined as a chronic disorder characterized on the dependence of alcohol all the time. In The Glass Castle, alcoholism affects many characters, but the one it truly affects is Rex Walls. Rex Walls uses alcohol whenever he can. Spending a majority of his time spending the money he is making on alcohol and cigarettes. He even asks Jeanette when she’s in charge of the money at times throughout the novel to see if he can get her to lend him some money when he runs out. Mr. Walls puts his own family through poverty making himself a burden on the children and his wife. His alcoholism becomes so bad that at one point Jeanette ask, “Do you think you could maybe stop drinking” (117). After Jeanette asks this simple yet harsh question to her father, he stops. Maybe he's ashamed that he has let his drinking get this bad or maybe he feels guilty for putting his family last and the alcohol first. Rex Walls wasn't always this way though. Maybe it is so hard for Rex to stay sober …show more content…

Being more engaged in his drinking, and less engaged in his word was one thing Rex Walls was good at. After neglecting this promise Jeannette, his favorite daughter, who always believed in him, eventually sees how awful alcohol makes him. Leading her to draw a end with believing in her father's word saying, “you will never build the glass castle” (238). Which then causes Rex to go into an even bigger depression.
However, nothing has ever made Rex more depressed than losing his little girl, Mary Charlene, when she was just nine months old. After she died he was never quite the same. This is possibly the main depressing event which happened the Rex Walls life that caused him to start drinking. Rex Walls has had a series of unfortunate events happen to him throughout his life time. All of these events leading up to his addiction to

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