Forgiveness In The Glass Castle

Today’s society is one where everyone makes mistakes, misunderstands, and does wrong, but not everyone accepts it. To forgive is what sets one different from the others. Jeanette Walls and her siblings have been forgiving their parents for their entire life and in the they found that they were stronger than ever. As said by Bernard Meltzer, “When you forgive, you in no way change the past - but you sure do change the future.” Although many people believe that forgiveness is portrayed through forgetting, it is clearly not true. Through analyzing “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls, the importance of forgiveness is clearly portrayed through neglecting parents, unconditional love, and acceptance.

Jeannette Walls has dealt with the neglectance …show more content…
During a time where her family barely had anything to eat, they bought a can of ham. “Mom, the ham’s full of maggots,” I said. “Don’t be so picky,” she told me. “Just slice off the maggoty parts. The inside’s fine,”(Pg 172). Walls found insects crawling in her food yet her mother doesn’t mind and is still eating it. She accepts the fact that they are poor and the ham is the only food they have. When her mother tells her to stop being picky, Walls accepts that in order to survive, she’ll have to go with her parents’ ways and that is what allows her to forgive them easily. One year, during Christmas, she gets a queer present from her father. “Years from now, when all the junk they got is broken and long forgotten, you'll still have your stars,”(Pg 41). All of the Walls children have been told that there is no such thing as Santa Claus. In the world today, it is believed that young children should be able to enjoy to the idea of a magical old man that brings gifts to them. So this Christmas, her father gives Walls and her siblings each a star in the sky. Although the gift seems unwantable and just a way to save money, Walls accepts it. She sees the gift in another light and simply forgives her parents for not being able to provide her some tangible and spoiling the whole idea of Santa. Soon, Walls is faced to accept something else. “Mom told us we would have to go shoplifting/ It's sort of like justifiable homicide. This is justifiable pilfering," (Pg…). When Wall’s younger sister was entering grade school, her mother decided that her youngest daughter needed better clothes therefore the family had to shoplifting. Walls questioned this, wondering if it was against the law and her mother answered with “It’s justifiable”. However, the author doesn’t question her mother further because she understands the reason to shoplift - to survive. Walls is forced

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