Walls Family: Not a Typical Nuclear Family - Essay Example

Even though Rex, Jeannette’s father argued that he missed her, he is more engrossed in his feelings of her being in the hospital, preferring that she would have been taken to a witch doctor, than he is about her presence at home. In a sudden turn of events through Rex’s storytelling and the subsequent appearance of Jeannette’s brother head bandaged and not taken to hospital, we learn that all the kids in that family had suffered accidents and incidences one time or another, which did not seem to bother the parents.

In the words of Jeannette’s mother, “one kid at a time in hospital is enough,” (3). Rex is found to be making fun of his son’s accident, arguing that he must have hurt the floor more than it did hurt him; this is an indication of parents who are careless and indifferent to the wellbeing of their kids, a sharp contrast to any typical nuclear family. Rex is a typical fool who does not really care about her daughter’s welfare. His misunderstanding of issues is of a great magnitude. Through confronting a doctor and wanting to hit him just because he had bandages on her daughter Jeannette, is a clear indication of this.

When explained to him the relevance of such bandaging, he seem to take t as an insult, because according to him, “wounds need to breathe,” (5). He is still an irresponsible father, who would snatch her daughter out of the hospital and run away with her to take her home, where there was not any care or attention paid to her. Even after coming out of hospital with such injuries that she obtained from cooking herself hotdogs, Jeannette had to do it again, since there was no one to feed her. There are some experiences that Jeannette experienced as a child that made her strong and resourceful even in her future.

After the incident in which she was burnt, Rex embarked on training her on how to overcome her enemy, fire. She was required to brave candle fire. She engaged to learn it by herself by teaching herself even some more. The irresponsibility and vulgar nature of Rex is depicted by the kind of language he uses, always abusive and vulgar. His actions are still queer, and his relationship with his family is ruthless. He wakes the up at the middle of the night to have them move from their residence to a different one.

Rex’s response to the concerns of her daughter is unfriendly. When asked about why they had to move, he says, “Don’t you worry, you leave that to me,” (6). With time though, the relationship between Rex and Jeannette seem to be improving, with Rex always admiring the brevity of Jeannette and referring her as so. Together with the others, Rex taught Jeannette lot of other lessons in life, the hard way including sleeping in the open and living in the desert. It is such lessons that made her strong and more resourceful in the future.

More lessons were taught by Rex to Jeannette on how to fight and even kill. Education and learning skills were also instilled on Jeannette by Rex. She was taught to read and do arithmetic the hard way. Whipping was also used to teach Jeannette how to observe direct orders, and she was taught how to make her own money by collecting can and redeeming them for money, rather than borrow. Swimming is a lesson Jeannette learnt from Rex, in the most uninteresting manner.