The Poverty Levels

Have you ever thought about how big of an issue poverty is within the United States? The official poverty rate is 12.7% based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2016 estimates (What, 2017)”. In 2016 alone, “an estimated 43.1 million Americans lived in poverty (What, 2017)”. “47% of children less than three years old live in low-income families (Ranney, 2018)”. Poverty is a major issue in not only society but within The Glass Castle. In The Glass, Castle poverty is associated with the Walls Family. The family consists of: Rex and Rose; the parents, Jeannette; the main character, Lori; the oldest sister, Brian; the youngest brother, and Maureen; the youngest sister (Jeannette).

At the beginning of the book, they live in Welch, which is a very impoverished town making them very accustomed to having little to no money, leading to a lack of food. Often, they found themselves moving around from town to town in search of better jobs and new opportunities, resulting in unstable living conditions. While they were growing up, being in poverty taught them that they had to depend on themselves and not on other people for the challenges that come up within their life.

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 To begin, To begin, poverty plays a key role in the way the Walls family operates. In the beginning, they live in Welch, which is a very impoverished town making them very accustomed to having little to no money. For example, when they lived in Welch, they never believed in Santa because their parents never had the money to go out and buy presents like other families did (Walls, 2005 p.

39). This issue made me upset because children should be given that opportunity. For Lori, Jeannette and Brian they never had a Christmas until they moved to New York. Another example of them not having enough money was when Brian and Jeannette came across the ring on their property.

They perceptibly recognized that it was worth some amount of money and selling it would help get caught up on rent as well as getting enough food to last a while. Jeannette and Brian “figured that if they could sell it and buy food, pay off the house—Mom and Dad kept missing the monthly payments and there was talk that they were going to be evicted – and maybe still enough left over for something special, like a new pair of sneakers for each of them (Walls, 2005 p 186)”. Them wanting to sell the ring so that they could have money to buy food is a result of poverty. People in poverty lack access to supermarkets, lack of knowledge of what food is healthy or empty calories and transportation to stores to get them (Ranney, 2018). Personally, this made me really think about how much they were struggling but did not want to admit it or realize it themselves. Brian and Jeannette tried to help their parents many times in both Welch and New York, but their parents always refused to. The parents did not want the kids to know or think about how much they were struggling. Lastly, when their parents moved to New York, Jeannette tried to help buy Rex proper clothes to wear in winter and he got mad. Rex got mad because the kids had the money to buy decent things and all he was able to get them was the things that he found on the streets (Walls, 2005 p. 263). Next, the family was constantly used to moving around to different towns and living in more run-down type areas. They had a very unstable living condition. For example, the Walls family would leave town and go to different ones in search of job opportunities, gold, money, or because they got kicked out of the house that they were in for being unable to pay the rent. While they were growing up, they were never given a direct reason as to why they were moving everywhere. For example; “they lived in Las Vegas for about a month, in a motel room with dark red walls and two narrow beds (Walls, 2005 p.32)”. During their time in Las Vegas, Rex got their money by play slot machines or blackjack at a local casino. They also lived in Midland. Midland is a small town located in the Mojave Desert. During this time, they rented a house that “had been built by a mining company.

It was white, with two rooms and a swaybacked room (Walls, 2005 p 35)”. Once the children were old enough they moved to New York City, and eventually, their parents followed. They “found a room in a boarding house a few blocks from Lori’s apartment (Walls, 2005 p 253)”. But eventually, they were kicked out and living on the streets because they fell behind on paying rent. A result of poverty is having unstable living conditions. Unstable living conditions result in lack of employment, community violence, homeless shelters, frequent moves, lack of transportation, truancy, and bad home maintenance (Ranney, 2018). In continuance, with having to deal with poverty, the Walls children and parents understood that they needed to just depend on themselves in order to get through life’s challenges. For example, when Rex taught Jeannette how to swim. When he taught her how to swim he told her “If you don’t want to sink, you better figure out how to swim (Walls, 2005 p 66)”. He taught her this way because he wanted her to realize that in life problems will appear and challenge them, sometimes it is threatening but by moving forward with the life they will learn how to overcome it. another example of them having to depend on themselves in order to get through life was when Jeannette caught herself on fire. When Jeannette was three years old she was hungry and wanted to make hotdogs.

Her mother was in the next room over and she was in the kitchen with the dog Juju. She “felt a blaze of heat on her right side. She turned to see where it was coming from and realized it was coming from her dress (Walls, 2005 p.9)”. This example shows that even though Jeannette was only three years old and her mother was in the next room, she did not ask for help. Instead, she made her own food and depended on herself. Jeannette catching on fire also showed the point that they had lack of health care. Jeannette was in the hospital for nearly six weeks recovering from her burns, but her mother was highly unsure about how they were going to be paying for the costs of her treatments. Lack of health care results in; long commutes to appointments: “4% of people miss appointments due to transportation (Ranney, 2018)”, the cost, and they very rarely go to the doctor annually or at all (Ranney, 2018).Subsequently to living in Welch; Lori, Jeannette and eventually Brian and Maureen all moved to the South Bronx in New York City for a fresh start away from their parents. Moving to New York City allowed them to get away from the poverty situations and stress that they acquired during their childhood. I thought that this was a good idea because it would allow them to better themselves and have a fresh start away from their impoverished past. Lori was the first of the children to move to New York. At first, she was just living in a hotel that was only for women, but she always got a job as a waitress.

Eventually Jeanette moved to New York to be with her. On the first day of being in New York, Jeannette “landed a job at a hamburger joint on Fourteenth Street (Walls, 2005 p. 247)”. Jeannette never realized that if you try and go out to seek opportunities that they will come easily. Not only did Jeannette get a job, she re-enrolled in a high school that offered internships. At age eighteen, Jeannette was offered a job at The Phoenix, a weekly newspaper in NYC. She was working ninety hours a week, but she was bettering her life, so she could go to college. While growing up, Jeannette was unable to finish some of her schooling and she moved to New York at the end of her junior year of high school. Being impoverished can lead to lack of educational resources such as; “technology access, poorer facilities, lack of diversity of educational content, inconsistent support staff, and de facto segregation (Ranney, 2018)”.  Eventually, Jeannette got married to a guy named John and they moved to a farmhouse. Brian got married, had a little girl named Veronica, got a divorce, became an organized crime detective and moved to Brooklyn (Walls, 2005 p. 286). Maureen moved to California and sort of dropped her past as well as her family.

Rose remained a squatter who got offered an apartment in the city (Walls, 2005 p. 288) and Rex died from a heart attack (Walls, 2005 p 280). Everyone managed to better their lives since living in Welch.Overall, there are many problems that can be and are associated with poverty. Being impoverished has a greater risk of injuries, cognitive impairments due to malnutrition as well as make people more susceptible continuing illnesses such as: cancer or asthma (Ranney, 2018). In continuance, people who are in poverty receive fewer vaccinations, have attention issues, lack coordination and appear to be smaller than someone who receives proper nourishment (Ranney, 2018). There are many things that could happen to reduce the amount of poverty in the United States. To reduce the poverty levels, impoverished families should be moved out of the poorer communities (Ranney, 2018). By moving them out of the poorer communities they would be able to achieve more as well as have greater opportunities to get a stable job. By having a stable job, individuals would be able to turn their lives around. If they have children, then they would be able to get enrolled in better schools, to have a stronger education.

With moving out of impoverished communities, individuals would be able to worry less about the safety of their families, have enough food allowing them to no longer be hungry, be able to get a vehicle eventually if they chose to. Being able to enroll children in better schools leads to “more enrichment activities, less parental stress and better mental health (Ranney, 2018)”.In conclusion, the Walls family struggles with many things due to being impoverished a large majority of their lives. They often lacked having enough money to buy the proper necessities such as food. They also struggled with having a stable living condition causing them to constantly move from town to town in search of jobs and money. The Walls family also had inadequate health care due to the cost of it, so whenever something would happen they played it off as nothing important and took care of it at home. Lastly, they lacked some educational resources. This was a result of constantly moving and having to changes schools so often. Overall, the Walls children changed their lives around, moved to New York and got a job. This leads them to be able to not be in poverty like they were a large majority of their lives.