Short Essay

Prompt: Do children need supportive, loving and financially secure parents in order to grow up to be healthy individuals?

         In this day and age, many families across the world are not financially secure, but they are able to give their children a loving and supportive environment. Growing up in that type of environment makes children stronger and healthier individuals with more knowledge on the world itself. In order for children to grow up to be healthy individuals, they do not need financially secure parents. In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Wall's she grows up in a very un-finacially secure environment, many times her parents are not even able to put food on the table or provide heat to keep them warm. Despite this and many other obstacles, Jeannette survived her childhood, she learned how to cope and grew up to be a healthy individual.
  One example, of Jeannette running into one of these obstacles is one of the many times that Jeannette and her siblings go hungry. Her family is not financially secure and most of the time they could go up to days without eating. One of the many instances when Jeannette came home hungry and there was nothing to eat in the house, Jeannette saw her sister Lori eating a stick of margarine. " I made some. It didn't taste like frosting . It was sort of greasy and left a filmy coat in my mouth. But i ate it all anyway." (Walls 68) Jeannette decides to eat some of the margarine as well because they were forced to eat it as they had nothing left in the house to eat. When Mary their mother came home she got very angry that they had eaten the food and even saying they were selfish for doing so. " What happened to the stick of margarine?" She asked. "We ate it," I said. Mom got angry." ( Walls 69) Mary got extremely angry when she found out that Jeannette and Lori had taken and eaten all the margarine, she thought that it was selfish. Until Jeannette had the courage to explain themselves, it was then when Mary realized she was causing her children to go hungry."Do you think I like living like this? Do you?" ( Walls 69) Mary is mad saying this because she thinks that it is not her fault that her children are forced to go hungry and have no way for providing for themselves. This type of situation was present very frequently through out the book, although Jeannette never let it get to her. She knew that life for her would always be this way but it taught her to try harder for the rest of her life not to end on a note that her childhood did. Jeannette shows that you do not need a loving and supportive environment as well as a financially secure to be a healthy and successful individual. Even when Jeannette is forced to go hungry and eat things that she would never eat she turns these negative experiences into something positive by becoming the successful and heathy individual that she is today.
    In addition, Jeannette is provided with almost nothing during her childhood, she was forced to become independent at a very young age. For example, Jeannette was very self- conscious about her teeth which were very crooked. Jeannette decided that since she made about five dollars a week she should be able to buy braces for herself knowing that it was something her parents would never be able to afford. Jeannette then realized after talking to a girl in her class that she would never be able to buy the braces for herself so "I decided to make my own braces." (Walls 201)  Jeannette is very independent at this moment because she wants so badly to look and feel good about herself and leaning on her parents is out of the question, therefore she must make her own." I needed more advanced technology. I bent a metal coat hanger into a horseshoe shape to fit the back of my head." ( Walls 201) This was part of the process in Jeannette using her independence and ambition to make something for herself. This contraption helped Jeannette for later on in her future which shows off what a healthy individual is able to do even in a not so great environment. Many people even complimented her genius workings of how such a young kid was able to make such a fantastic contraption. "Those braces are a goddamn feat of engineering genius," ( Walls 202) Jeannette never let her horrible background get to her in fact she took it in stride and used it to become a healthy and independent individual.
   In conclusion, it is not necessary for children to grow up in a loving, supportive and financially secure environment to become healthy individuals. Jeannette Walls grows up in a a very unstable environment although she is now a strong, smart and successful individual.