IM BACK....

So I am back. Currently, I am 84 pages into the sister book to the Glass Castle, Half Broke Horses. Its really unlike any book I have ever read. Its called a 'True Life Novel'. I guess that this book is like a memoir, but like a memoir of someone who is dead. Jeannette, somehow, discovered how her gma lived her life, all the life events, and how she felt. It says in the begining of the book that she talked to her mom and other family about her gma. Somehow, though I just don't know how you could get all this information from the family...my mom said that maybe her gma kept journals. Oh well, its a really cool book.

So far, I am incredibly impressed with her life. (Her is now Lily, the gma) Lily is the absolute opposite of her lady like sister. She wants to help her father break horses, do barn chores, and learn. What I find so very interesting about both books is that the children always want to learn. ... not a common trait we find in children today. During sections 1-3, Lily got sent to boarding school, note: she wanted to go, and she loved it there. One day, the tuition stopped getting paid, and Lily had to go home. When her father picked her up, with him were 4 dogs. He goes on to explain that these dogs were worth a lot of money, and that this was going to help the 'get rich' (does the whole get rich seem familiar?). She later gets a job 500 miles away teaching. This brave, strong soul rides her horse there. 5 weeks, 15 years old, 1 horse, barely any money. She makes it. After she gets laid off because qualified teachers have applied for the jobs she decides to go to Chicago (no this doesn't happen in 2 pages, I am basically just summin' it up). She just hops on a train, and says I will somehow find a way to live. I mean she doesn't have an ideal job, but she sets herself up for night school. Later, she gets married. While, Tom (husband) is away for buisness, Lily gets hit by a car. The person that hit her insists that she call the office that he works for because even if it is away there will be someway to make contact. Turns out that Tom is with his wife, Margret. From what we know about Lily, we know that she will be enraged. AND SHE IS. she spys on him to guarentee that he is cheating on her. Then she confronts him. After she yells at him, she marches her butt down to the church that married them, and fills a bigamy report (i guess). So far, I basically idolize the strong and independant woman Lily is. I mean she finds out that her husband has a whole other family, and she just keeps chugging. Never one moment that she cries. <3 xxx

American Dream and The Glass Castle

The Glass Castle has many connections to the American Dream.

So first, what the heck is the American Dream?
Here is a definition from www.dictionary.com 

 

 

So now I want basically illustrate what the Wallses had. Good and bad.



 

 

 

I want to touch point on all 4 of these traits. So if you are only interested in one then scroll down to that section. Please note that these findings are purely based on my view of the American Dream.

 

 

Family



The Walls were a [relatively] close knit family. Brian, Jeannette, Lori and Maureen were all very close. (Maureen wasn't as close to the other siblings...but she was still connected) These children would spend almost every waking moment together. (They even slept in the same bed.) Being close, in my opinion, seems to be a very typical trait of a family living the American Dream.

 

On the other hand, their family was EXTREMELY dysfunctional. Rex Walls was a severe alcholic; Rose Walls had something going on in her mind that put barriers on what she was mentally capable of. For example, Rose would pitch temper-tantrums once a week about going to work. Maureen was practically living with other people. Brian and Jeannette (in particular) were being sexually harrased consistantly, and the parents shrugged it off.

 

 

 

Cooking





 

In a typical family, living the American Dream, the mother cooks all of the meals. In the Glass Castle, Rose cooks the food. I mean, she doesn't cook on a regular basis, but when someone needs to prepare food Rose does it. Often, Rose will make enough food for one month, and it will just sit on the counter. Eventually, rodents and pests will infest the food. Sadly, during many times the family doesn't have food to eat or the food is uneatable.

 

 

Father

 

An extremely important part of the American Dream family is the father. In the dream, the father is the dominant figure and is headstrong. Rex fits this mold perfectly. Although in my vision, I believe that the father (figure) works to pay for the family. That is one thing that rex doesn't do. Additionally, the dad is a very important person; his job is to inspire, educate, and set a good example. For the most part, Rex is this person. The only thing that Rex doesn't do is: set a good example. Throughout the book we can see how much Jeannette idolizes her father. As stated in the book, these children were smarter than all of the other kids in their classes, and most of the education came from their father.

 

The Glass Castle

 

Everyone's dream is to own, design, and decorate their dream home. Throughout the book, all characters talk about the 'Glass Castle'. The glass castle is the dream home that Rex (and the kids) designed for them to live in. In their last house, the children even dug out the foundation/basement. Sadly, it never got built. The family was to poor, Rex was too drunk to build it, and (I guess) the family was happy with their house. 

 







 

Bibliography...Literary Criticism

http://layla.miltsov.org/discussion-of-the-glass-castle-by-jeannette-walls/

Abdel Rahim, Layla. "In Praise of the Wild: Discussion of Jeannette Walls’ “The Glass Castle” | Layla.Miltsov.org." Discussion of Jeannette Walls’ “The Glass Castle”. N.p., 19 Mar. 2008. Web. 08 Jan. 2015. <http://layla.miltsov.org/discussion-of-the-glass-castle-by-jeannette-walls/>. In this Literary Criticism, Layla Abdel Rahim explains problematic themes, behaviors, and values. Rahim explains that Rose and Rex's subjective behavior toward Erma might be a result of rape or sexual threats. She also goes into great depth about mental health. Any reader can see that the parents suffer from mental health disorders, but Rahim goes into great depth about mental health. Layla Abdel Rahim provides great supplemental information regarding The Glass Castle.

http://www.umbc.edu/undergrad_ed/book/docs/LanaZangEssay.pdf

Zhang, Lana. The Glass Castle Close Analysis. UMBC. UMBC, n.d. Web. 8 Jan. 2015. <http://www.umbc.edu/undergrad_ed/book/docs/LanaZangEssay.pdf>. In this Literary Analysis, Lana Zhang describes Jeannette's relationship with her father. Throughout the story, Jeannette makes excuses for her father's wrongs. This analysis emphisises the wrongs Rex makes and the valdadating excuses Jeanette makes for him.

______________________________________________________________________
In my opinion, the second one is the best resource. :)

Part 5. (FINAL BLOG ABOUT MY FEELINGS, OPINIONS, MINI SUMMARIES, ETC.)

This section was titled Thanksgiving. Can I say I absolutly LOVED this section??

This section was heart warming. This section was perfect. This section was all around happy. This section ended perfectly.

There wasn't anything that really stood out...well stood out from the most stood out part...so I just picked the part that made my heart flutter.

 

 

 

Charlie the dog loping after her. The cover sagged beneath them, and she fell down,

shrieking with laughter. John and Brian had to help pull her off as Brian's daughter, Veronica—who

hadn't seen Mom since she was a toddler—stared wideeyed.

"Grandma Walls is different from your other grandma," I told her.

"Way different," Veronica said.

John's daughter, Jessica, turned to me and said, "But she laughs just like you do."
 




Some people might percieve this to be wierd, rude, offending, or not politically correct. I just love it. Not an inappropriate love. A love for the truth and room for individuality. I don't find this offending. Its the truth. She is way different. Different isn't a bad thing. [Do you think it its?] I also love it becasue I feel a bit of admiration in the tone. The way that they accept her indivuality and in a way love it. I might have been digging to deep, You might not agree with me. But I think that this is the way it was meant.


Do you think I was completely off?? Comments are encouraged.

Part 4

Okay so at this point Lori got to NYC, and Jeannette arrived shortly after. Since Jeannette worked at a newspaper company, she had unlimited acess to a typewriter. Jeannette constantly wrote to Brian. Eventually, both sisters wanted Brian to come live with them.
I wrote Brian long letters describing the sweet life in New York City. He wrote back saying things in

Welch were still going downhill. Dad was drunk all the time except when he was in jail; Mom had

completely withdrawn into her own world; and Maureen was more or less living with neighbors. The

ceiling in the bedroom had collapsed, and Brian had moved his bed onto the porch. He made walls by

nailing boards along the railings, but it leaked pretty badly out there, too, so he still slept under the

inflatable raft.

I told Lori that Brian should come live with us in New York, and she agreed. But I was afraid Brian

would want to stay in Welch. He seemed more of a country boy than a city kid. He was always

wandering through the woods, tinkering with a discarded twostroke

engine, chopping wood, or carving

a block of wood into an animal head. He never complained about Welch, and unlike Lori and me, he'd

made a lot of friends there. But I thought it was in Brian's longterm

interest to get out of the town. I

made a list of reasons he should move to New York, so I could argue him into it.

I called him at Grandpa's and presented my case. He'd need to get a job to pay his share of the rent and

groceries, I said, but jobs were going begging in the city. He could share the living room with me—

there was plenty of space for a second bed—the toilet flushed, and the ceiling never leaked.

When I finished, Brian was silent for a moment. Then he said, "When's the soonest I can come?"


I don't think I have felt so happy during the whole book. If you just skimmed that pasted in section, I know you are thinking, "How could she feel happy at this moment?" Well...read to the end, all the siblings (except for Maureen) are going to be together. Honestly, I don't feel like Maureen is in as bad as a situation as the other children. Like Brian said, she is [more or less] living with the neighbors. I understand that this is a less than fortunate situation, BUT she has friends. *END OF RANT ABOUT MAUREEN* Seriously though, I think that it is incredibly hard for any of us to imagine what the bond and connection between these siblings are.

1. These siblings had to sleep with each other until they were teenagers.
2. Their parents were out of it, and they basically took care of each other.
3. They didn't have friends and entertained each other.
4. Multiple times the siblings would stick up for each other.

Its completely normal for us to do #4 and [maybe] 3 with our siblings, but the rest shouldn't happen to anyone. (UNLESS BY CHOICE).
 

Section 3 (5 out of 5.)

LAST POST FOR THE DAY!!
So, Jeanette and Lori had a plan for Lori to go to NYC. They had been saving up for about 1 year and planned for Jeannette to come up after she finished Junior year. They kept all of this money in a little piggy bank; they named the bank Oz.

 

"One evening in May, when we'd been saving our money for almost nine months, I came home with a

couple of dollars I'd made babysitting and went into the bedroom to stash them in Oz. The pig was not

on the old sewing machine. I began looking through all the junk in the bedroom and finally found Oz

on the floor. Someone had slashed him apart with a knife and stolen all the money.

I knew it was Dad, but at the same time, I couldn't believe he'd stoop this low. Lori obviously didn't

know yet. She was in the living room humming away as she worked on a poster. My first impulse was

to hide Oz. I had this wild thought that I could somehow replace the money before Lori discovered it

was missing. But I knew how ridiculous that was; three of us had spent the better part of a year

accumulating the money. It would be impossible for me to replace it in the month before Lori

graduated.

I went into the living room and stood beside her, trying to think of what to say. She was working on a

poster that said TAMMY! in DayGlo

colors. After a moment, she looked up. "What?" she said.

Lori could tell by my face that something was wrong. She stood up so abruptly she knocked over a

bottle of india ink, and ran into the bedroom. I braced myself, expecting to hear a scream, but there was

only silence and then a small, broken whimpering.

* * *

Lori stayed up all night to confront Dad, but he didn't come home. She skipped school the following

day in case he returned, but Dad was AWOL for three days before we heard him climbing the rickety

staircase to the porch.

"You bastard!" Lori shouted. "You stole our money!"

"What the goddamn hell are you talking about?" Dad asked. "And watch your language." He leaned

against the door and lit a cigarette.

Lori held up the slashed pig and threw it as hard as she could at Dad, but it was empty and nearly

weightless. It struck his shoulder lightly, then bounced to the floor. He bent down carefully, as if the

floor beneath him could shift at any moment, picked up our ravaged piggy bank, and turned it over in

his hands. "Someone sure as hell gutted old Oz, didn't they?" He turned to me. "Jeannette, do you know

what happened?"

He was actually half grinning at me. After the whipping, Dad had jacked up the charm with me, and

even though I was planning to leave, he could make me laugh when he tried, and he still considered me

an ally. But now I wanted to knock him over the head. "You took our money," I said. "That's what

happened."

"Well, don't that beat all," Dad said. He started going on about how a man comes home from slaying

dragons, trying to keep his family safe, and all he wants in return for his toil and sacrifice is a little love

and respect, but it seemed these days that was just too damn much to ask for. He said he didn't take our

New York money, but if Lori was hellbent

on living in that cesspool, he'd finance her trip himself.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a few wadde

dollar bills. We just stared at him, so he let the

crumpled money fall to the floor. "Suit yourself," he said.

"Why are you doing this to us, Dad?" I asked. "Why?"

His face tightened with anger, then he staggered to the sofa bed and passed out.

"I'll never get out of here," Lori kept saying. "I'll never get out of here."

"You will," I said. "I swear it." I believed she would. Because I knew that if Lori never got out of

Welch, neither would I."

 

How could a father smash (literally) his kids' dreams? Its really hard for me to imagine this. I have to say that these kids are stronger than ever. The hope and faith that Lori and Jeannette have for this move and in each other is completely unreal. It makes me so happy that these kids have someone to talk too. The way that they treat each other is really special too. I am starting to feel bad for Rex. I think it must be hard to not remember half of the events that are going on around you because you are drunk. It also must be hard to constantly be reliant on someone because he can't provide at all for himself. Putting [false] labels on yourself and constantly letting your children down has to leave him feeling somewhat guilty.

 

Its really easy to just assume that people are completely bad [or completely good for that matter], and then forget to take a look from the person's point of view. Yes, I am guilty of this. (I mean look at my blog posts before)

Section 3 (part 4 of 5)

Rose and Lori are both out of town. Rose is at teacher training, and Lori went to a summer program for gifted students.

"Mom had told me to expect a check in early July for the lease on her Texas land. She also warned me

that Dad would try to get his hands on it. Dad actually waited at the foot of the hill for the mailman and

took it from him on the day it arrived, but when the mailman told me what had happened, I ran down

Little Hobart Street and caught Dad before he got into town. I told him Mom had wanted me to hide the

check until she returned. "Let's hide it together," Dad said and suggested we stash it in the 1933

World

Book Encyclopedia

Mom got free from the library—under. "currency."

The next day when I went to rehide the check, it was gone. Dad swore he had no idea what happened to

it. I knew he was lying, but I also knew if I accused him, he'd deny it and there'd be a loud yelling

match that wouldn't do me any good. For the first time, I had a clear idea of what Mom was up against.

Being a strong woman was harder than I had thought. Mom still had more than a month in Charleston;

we were about to run out of grocery money; and my babysitting income wasn't making up the

difference."

This just highlights Rex's terrible values and bad qualities. How can you literally lie to your daughter with a straight face? Additionally, that is Rose's money. Rose instructed Jeannette to hide it. His values inculde lying, cheating, and stealing. Are those good qualities of a dad, let alone any person? Kudos to Jeannette though for trying her hardest to follow her mother's word. It must be really hard trying to follow rules that your parents are constantly breaking.

Section 3 (part 3 of 5)

Oh Gosh! There are so many good things to highlight in this section...

I have decided that I am just going to focus on the part where Rose gets a job teaching.
 

"Mom had the same problems she'd had in Battle Mountain with organizing her paperwork and

disciplining her students. At least one morning a week, she'd throw a tantrum and refuse to go to work,

and Lori, Brian, and I would have to get her collected and down to the street where Lucy Jo waited with

a scowl, blue smoke chugging up out of the Dart's rustedthrough tailpipe."

 

These lines illustrate the reverse roles of the children and the parents. The Walls' children are incredibly mature and understand how life works. No money=No food. I just have a little bit of trouble comprehending Rose's behavior. She has a house that is literally falling apart...the floors and ceiling are rotting. Her kids are constantly out of food. Rex is always borrowing money from her and not giving it back. In her mind, how does this add up? How can you just not want to go to work...?

 

Another example of reverse roles in this section is below.

"Four days later, when Dad still hadn't come home, Mom sent me to go find him. "Why do I always have

to get Dad?" I asked.

"Because he likes you the best," she said. "And he'll come home if you tell him to."

My first stop, as always, was Junior's. It was the fanciest bar in Welch, with a picture window, a grill

that served hamburgers and french fries, and a pinball machine.

"Hey!" one of the regulars called out when I walked in. "It's Rex's little girl. How ya doin', sweetheart?"

"I'm fine, thank you. Is my dad here?"

"Rex?" He turned to the man next to him. "Where's that old polecat Rex?"

"I seen him this morning at the Howdy House."

"Honey, you look like you could use a rest," the bartender said. "Sit down and have a CocaCola

on the

house."

"No, thank you. I've got kites to fly and fish to fry."

I went to the Howdy House, which was a notch below Junior's. It was smaller and darker, and the only

food it served was pickled eggs. The bartender told me Dad had gone to the Pub, which was a notch

below the Howdy House—almost pitch black, with a sticky bar top and no food at all. There he was, in

the midst of a few other regulars, telling one of his air force stories.

When Dad saw me, he stopped talking and looked at me the way he did every time I had to track him

down in a bar. It was always an awkward moment for us both. I didn't want to be fetching him any more

than he wanted his ragamuffin daughter summoning him home like a wayward schoolboy. He looked at

me in this cold, strange way for just a moment, then broke into a hearty grin.

"Hey, Mountain Goat!" he shouted. "What the hell are you doing in this dive?"

"Mom says you have to come home," I said.

"She does, does she?" He ordered a CocaCola

for me and another shot of whiskey for himself. I kept

telling Dad it was time to go, but he kept putting me off and ordering more shots, as if he had to gulp a

whole bunch of them down before he could face home. He staggered off to the bathroom, came back,

ordered one for the road, slammed the shot glass down on the bar, and walked to the door. He lost his

footing trying to open it and sprawled on the floor. I tried to help him up, but he kept falling over.

"Honey, you ain't getting him nowhere like that," a man behind me said. "Here, let me give you a lift

home."

"I'd appreciate that, sir," I said. "If it's not out of your way."

Jeanette has to go out and find her dad. FIND HER DAD. Usually isn't it the parents job to go out and find their kids? Its also extremely hard to believe that he hadn't been home for 4 days. He is the parent and therefore does have paternal responsibility. Its very hard for me to imagine living like this. Personally, I think I have everything. There is [almost] always a full fridge of fruits and vegetables and a pantry full of beans, lentils, etc. I have electricity. In the summer if its hot out I can come inside and turn the air on. If its FREEZING out, and there is a draft I turn the heat on. I personally think that there is a parental responsibility to keep it this way. Kids shouldn't have to provide completely for themselves. Yes, I believe that sometimes there is a little financial hardships and a teenager can go get a job and pay for little things that they want/need. It is completely different for kids to fend for themselves, and even parent the parents. :(

Section 3 (part 2 of 5)

SEEING AS HOW WELCH

was our new home, Brian and I figured we'd make the best of it. Dad had

shown us the spot near the house where we were going to put the foundation and basement for the Glass

Castle. He'd measured it off and marked it with stakes and string. Since Dad was hardly ever home—he

was out making contacts and investigating the UMW, he told us—and never got around to breaking

ground, Brian and I decided to help. We found a shovel and pickax at an abandoned farm and spent just

about every free minute digging a hole. We knew we had to dig it big and deep. "No point in building a

good house unless you put down the right foundation," Dad always said.

It was hard work, but after a month we'd dug a hole deep enough for us to disappear in. Even though we

hadn't squared the edges or smoothed the floor, we were still pretty darn proud of ourselves. Once Dad

had poured the foundation, we could help him on the frame.

But since we couldn't afford to pay the town's trashcollection

fee, our garbage was really piling up. One

day Dad told us to dump it in the hole.

"But that's for the Glass Castle," I said.

"It's a temporary measure," Dad told me. He explained that he was going to hire a truck to cart the

garbage to the dump all at once. But he never got around to that, either, and as Brian and I watched, the

hole for the Glass Castle's foundation slowly filled with garbage.


This event breaks my heart. </3 These kids wanted to help out their dad in making their dreams, and his dreams come true. The way Rex didn't even think twice about filling in the foundation, that these kids 'spent every free minute digging' really makes me so sad.

_______________________________________________
Just to set the scene. Its winter, its freezing, the only heat this family gets/can get is from the wood stove, and usually there is nothing to put in it.

One day Brian and I climbed the hillside to try to find some dry wood while Lori stayed in the house,

stoking the fire. As Brian and I were shaking the snow off some promising branches, we heard a loud

boom from the house. I turned and saw flames leap up inside the windows.

We dropped our wood and ran back down the hill. Lori was lurching around the living room, her

eyebrows and bangs all singed off and the smell of burned hair in the air. She had used kerosene to try

to get the fire going better, and it had exploded, just like Dad had said it would. Nothing in the house

except Lori's hair had caught on fire, but the explosion had blown back her coat and skirt, and the

flames had scorched her thighs. Brian went out and got some snow, and we packed it on Lori's legs,

which were dark pink. The next day she had blisters the length of her thighs.

"Just remember," Mom said after examining the blisters. "what doesn't kill you will make you stronger."

"If that was true, I'd be Hercules by now," Lori said.

First of all, I just love Lori's remark. Because this is completely true. These parents say, what doesn't kill you will make you stronger, constantly. When the kids are sexually harrassed,  don't have any food, are freezing, what do you think the parents say? "What doesn't kill you will make you stronger." This upsets me because these kids deserve better. They deserve not to be punished for being sexually harrassed. They deserve food. They deserve heat. Don't tell me that they were to poor to afford it, and that they were using their resources. THEY WEREN'T. Rose could teach, and sometimes she did. But when they were in really tough times she just would refuse. Rex could stop drinking and save thousands of dollars.

Section 3 (part one of the section)

Can you guess what the Wallses are up to?
           If you guessed moving...you are right.

This time they moved back to Rex's home town, Welch, West Virgina. Per the usual the Wallses were broke, so they stayed with Rex's family. To say this housing had a rough start would be a fair statement.

"Welcome home, son," she said and gave Dad a long hug. She turned to Mom. "Nice of you to let me see my grandchildren before I die," she said without a smile. Without taking the cigarette out of her mouth, she gave us each a quick, stiff hug. Her cheek was tacky with sweat. "Pleased to meet you, Grandma," I said. "Don't call me Grandma," she snapped. "Name's Erma."

 

She was obviously being sarcastic and wasn't particulary happy to have this family of 5 staying with them. After the kids got all settled, Rex and Rose decided that they should go back to Phoenix for 'buisness'. While they were away, this happened. (Read about my opinion below)

 

"

After Mom and Dad left, Erma became even more cantankerous. If she didn't like the look on our faces,

she would hit us on the head with a serving spoon. Once she pulled out a framed photograph of her

father and told us he was the only person who had ever loved her. She talked on and on about how much

she'd suffered as an orphan at the hands of her aunts and uncles who hadn't treated her half as kindly as

she was treating us.

"About a week after Mom and Dad left, we kids were all sitting in Erma's living room watching TV.

Stanley was sleeping in the foyer. Erma, who'd been drinking since before breakfast, told Brian that his

britches needed mending. He started to take them off, but Erma said she didn't want him running

around the house in his skivvies or with a towel wrapped around him looking like he was wearing a

goddamn dress. It would be easier for her to mend the britches while he was still wearing them. She

ordered him to follow her into Grandpa's bedroom, where she kept her sewing kit.

They'd been gone for a minute or two when I heard Brian weakly protesting. I went into Grandpa's

bedroom and saw Erma kneeling on the floor in front of Brian, grabbing at the crotch of his pants,

squeezing and kneading while mumbling to herself and telling Brian to hold still, goddammit. Brian,

his cheeks wet with tears, was holding his hands protectively between his legs.

"Erma, you leave him alone!" I shouted.

Erma, still on her knees, twisted around and glared at me. "Why, you little bitch!" she said.

Lori heard the commotion and came running. I told Lori that Erma was touching Brian in a way she

ought not to be. Erma said she was merely mending Brian's inseam and that she shouldn't have to

defend herself against some lying little whore's accusations.

"I know what I saw," I said. "She's a pervert!"

Erma reached over to slap me, but Lori caught her hand. "Let's all calm down," Lori said in the same

voice she used when Mom and Dad got carried away, arguing. "Everybody. Calm down."

Erma jerked her hand out of Lori's grasp and slapped her so hard that Lori's glasses went flying across

the room. Lori, who had turned thirteen, slapped her back. Erma hit Lori again, and this time Lori

struck Erma a blow in the jaw. Then they flew at each other, tussling and flailing and pulling hair,

locked together, with Brian and me cheering on Lori until we woke up Uncle Stanley, who staggered

into the room and pushed them apart."

Okay, So I know that that was double-spaced and long and tiny.

So..this is disgusting. The problem I have with the whole thing is... Rex lived with his parents until he was 17 y/o (normal, but you will see the point in a sec). Do you think that his mother did something like this to him? My guess is yes, because as we will find out later in the book the Uncle is a pervert as well. He inappropriatly touched Jeannette. So if he knew this then how could he let his kids live like that.

I also hate how Rex treated the kids when he got home. HE TOOK HIS MOTHERS SIDE. How could you do that? He said that hie didn't cair what happened and how the kids could back talk, hit, and be a 'p**sy' about the whole thing. (note thsi cam eright out of the book, i just shortened it.) His mother was doing extremely inappropriate actions to Brian, and then she locked the kids in the basement. If it wasn't for Uncle Stanley, those kids wouldn't have had any food.


















 The violent part of Erma (gma) seems to show a bit in Rex.