Homework Journal #4: The Glass Castle, pp. 155-213

     When the Walls family moves to Little Hobart Street, things get even worse for the Walls. Jeannette and her family learn to accept the deficiencies in their lives and try to deal with them the best that they could. One example is how badly bullied the Walls children were while they lived in Welch. Jeannette and Brian both fought back to keep themselves safe, but the bullies were relentless. One group of kids, lead by Ernie Goad, especially hated the Walls. Ernie and his gang followed the Walls and called them names and threw rocks at them. Jeannette and Brian decided that they weren't going to stand for it. After one such occasion in which Brian got hit in the head, Jeannette and him came up with a plan to stop Ernie and his gang. "Brian sat thinking, then told me he had a plan . . . Brian explained how we could make a catapult, like the medieval ones we'd read about, by piling rocks on the mattress and rigging it with ropes looped over tree branches . . . When [Ernie] came within range, Brian gave the world, and we jerked back on the ropes. The mattress shot forward, and our arsenal of rocks flew through the air. I heard them thud against Ernie's body and clatter on the road (pp.166)." Jeannette and Brian also "became expert foragers (pp. 172)" to make up for lack of food in the house. Jeannette writes, "We picked crab apples and wild blackberries and pawpaws during the summer and fall, and we swiped ears of corn from Old Man Wilson's farm (pp.172)."
   
     Jeannette and her siblings learn to tolerate abuse and deal with it in different ways. Jeannette and Brian found ways to make money. Brian would collect old liquor bottles from their dad and sell them. Jeannette got a job at a jewelry store to help pay for things and collect money so the Lori could go to New York and escape the Walls. Lori often read books and painted to get away from things. She even eventually started a small business selling her paintings to bring in money. Maureen was more or less living with the neighbors to get away. Jeannette and her siblings were put in an incredibly difficult and trying situation growing up the way that they did with the parents that they had. They made the best of a bad situation though. They rarely complained and made their own plan to get out of Welch. Most kids could not even imagine a situation like the one the Walls children faced. In the face of incredible neglect and adversity, the children rose above the challenges.