“‘Big jolt from touching the stove today,’ we’d say. ‘Wear extra rags.’” (Walls 153)
The Walls family has been making some horrible decisions since the beginning of this book and the bad decisions do not stop now. The newest situation that was shocking to me was that the parents would not pay to have the ceiling in the kitchen repaired so every time one of them entered the kitchen they had to wrap their hands in multiple socks and rags. Jeanette says “The first time I got zapped, it knocked my breath out and left me twitching on the floor.” (Walls 153). A shock that great is dangerous, especially to Maureen. Maureen is very little and an electric charge that great can not be healthy for such a small person.
The audacity of the parents to just sit back and watch their children get shocked repeatedly until it leaves them twitching on the floor really bothers me. There is absolutely no excuse for parenting that bad, even if the parents were raised badly, which we know the mother was not since she at least had a house to live in and food to eat, there is no excuse. Parents should want a better life for their children. The Walls family has the option to live a better life. They have not taken any of the opportunities that have basically been thrown at them. They have a house in Phoenix, from Jeanette’s grandmother that is just sitting there abandoned and now they are mooching off of Rex’s mother and father. Rex does not even want to be at his parents house. The novel brings up the suspicion that Erma, Rex’s mother, raped Brian. This may be why Rex does not want to return. He was so reluctant to return, only returning with the family after they begged him to, leaving an inkling of suspicion that Rex was raped as well. But if Rex was raped by Erma, then why would he leave his children at home alone with her? It is just another example of bad choices made by the parents.
The Walls family has been making some horrible decisions since the beginning of this book and the bad decisions do not stop now. The newest situation that was shocking to me was that the parents would not pay to have the ceiling in the kitchen repaired so every time one of them entered the kitchen they had to wrap their hands in multiple socks and rags. Jeanette says “The first time I got zapped, it knocked my breath out and left me twitching on the floor.” (Walls 153). A shock that great is dangerous, especially to Maureen. Maureen is very little and an electric charge that great can not be healthy for such a small person.
The audacity of the parents to just sit back and watch their children get shocked repeatedly until it leaves them twitching on the floor really bothers me. There is absolutely no excuse for parenting that bad, even if the parents were raised badly, which we know the mother was not since she at least had a house to live in and food to eat, there is no excuse. Parents should want a better life for their children. The Walls family has the option to live a better life. They have not taken any of the opportunities that have basically been thrown at them. They have a house in Phoenix, from Jeanette’s grandmother that is just sitting there abandoned and now they are mooching off of Rex’s mother and father. Rex does not even want to be at his parents house. The novel brings up the suspicion that Erma, Rex’s mother, raped Brian. This may be why Rex does not want to return. He was so reluctant to return, only returning with the family after they begged him to, leaving an inkling of suspicion that Rex was raped as well. But if Rex was raped by Erma, then why would he leave his children at home alone with her? It is just another example of bad choices made by the parents.