How Does Jeannette Benefit Her Siblings?

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Jeannette and her siblings were all forced into completing tasks and taking on roles for themselves and their other siblings that are heartbreaking to read about and uncommon for most children to experience and tackle themselves. Much of this had to do with the lack of responsibility on their parents’ part and the ways they decided to live. As I have read the book, I have been amazed over and over again at the ways Jeannette handled the parental roles—both mother and father. She was very tough and never gave up, but you could tell there were other times she was just plain discouraged. One example we can see her using the roles to benefit her siblings was when her mom left to Charleston to “renew her teaching certificate” for 8 weeks and put Jeannette in charge of the money. She budgeted out $25 a week to provide the groceries and pay all of the bills that would need to be taken care of. Even though Jeannette gave her father (Rex) money when he asked, she …show more content…

This allowed her to help Lori move to New York and even herself after she graduated. Something that I thought was very profound and mature of her was when her father asked her what she wanted for her tenth birthday and she asked him to stop drinking. This request was proof of her maturity and benefited her, her siblings, and her mother for the little time that he did remain sober. Jeannette and Lori both worked together several times to help their mom (Rose Mary) get out of bed to go to work as a teacher. This kept money coming in for the family and allowed their mom the keep her job until she decided she didn’t want to do it anymore. It seems that there are unending instances when Jeannette used her maturity and parental roles to benefit herself and her family. Life was rough, but without her bravery and hard work, life might have looked even more rough than the story we are reading

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