The Walls family is more bad than good throughout the book, many of the actions of the parents determine if the family is good or bad. The children go through a lot in the book such as; scavenging, making their own food and even stealing from other people just to survive. The parents don’t give the children the necessities they need to live. The parents are negligent, selfish, and they live in a broken home. The parents are more bad than good because of their attitude and responsibility to the children.
The first reason why the Walls are more bad than good is that they are negligent to the children. For example, when Jeanette sets herself on fire and goes to the hospital, her parents take her out earlier than she was planned (14). Because the parents are negligent, they take Jeanette out of the hospital early and don’t let Jeanette fully recover. Another example of the parents being negligent is when Brian cracks his head open when Jeanette is in the hospital, when Jeanette asks why they don’t take Brian to the hospital, her mother says, “but one kid in the hospital at a time is enough” (13). Throughout the book the parent’s negligence makes them more bad than good throughout Jeanette’s life; as a result Brian and Lori start to detach themselves from the parents.
The second reason why the Walls are more bad than good is the parents are selfish. An example is, when the parents can’t provide food for their children, they have to scavenge (68). As a result Jeanette would scavenge the classroom after lunch for food, because instead of using money for food, Rex uses the money on booze. Another example of the parent’s selfishness is, when food is scarce Lori and Jeanette put sugar on a stick of margarine and eat it, “Mix it with sugar and it tastes just like frosting” (69). If the parents were not selfish the kids would not have to go eating out of the trash or eat solid sticks of margarine, the parents selfishness makes them bad parents.
The third reason why the Walls are more bad than good is their family is broken. The father sets the role of a drunk rather than father, when the father comes home he is drunk and starts taking out his anger on the furniture, dishes, and the children (112-113). When the father passes out the floor the mother says to pick his pockets for loose change, as a result the children learn to steal from their own father when he is passed out. Another example of their broken home is, the mother is mentally ill and puts herself first and the kids last on everything. When the mother is with the children at home, the mother is under a blanket on a couch, Brian asks what she is eating and she says her gums hurt, Brian pulls the blanket off and finds a family sized Hershey’s bar (174). The mother says “I can’t help it, I’m a sugar addict”, when the mother had the chocolate bar she was only thinking of eating it by herself, the thought of the children came last until Brian took the blanket off her. The family is broken because the mother and father cannot support the children; because the family is broken it makes the walls more bad than good.
The Walls family is more bad than good because of many reasons, the family’s main issues come from the parents, they have gone through some difficult times, but they made it through. In society today parents look after their kids and make sure they are breathing, the Walls parents have higher priorities than the children. If the Walls parents had a better perspective of life for the children then maybe they might have more positives than negatives.
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