Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Avaunt OP t1_j67p6jz wrote

Reply to comment by SeaAnything8 in I’m finish up reading “The Glass Castle”, and my blood is boiling. by Avaunt

I’ve worked with kids that come from disadvantaged and neglectful backgrounds, so it makes me quite mad when parents do preventable damage to their kids. I do not have any personal experience though which keeps it from hitting uncomfortably close to home.

Some of the stories are infuriating. Like, I wish I could get a window into the parents heads to see how they justified their actions. It takes a special level of cognitive dissonance to be too proud to apply for welfare/accept charity, but not too proud to let your children starve, dig through dumpsters, and sneak chocolate behind their backs.

When I read through Goodreads reviews, there was a lot of criticism towards the author regarding how she framed the story and the innocent nostalgia and love for her parents that was present even after everything they put them through. Personally, I thought it was quite impressive. I suspect that capturing the conflicted emotions was not easy to do. It would be very easy to paint the parents as outright villains, but she found a really good balance.

67

marybowman t1_j67zuu7 wrote

>The Glass Castle

I haven't read it yet, however, it's now in my digital library so that's what I'll be doing this weekend....:o)

It's amazing how kids still love their parents even after abuse, neglect, etc. I lived it many years ago but still harbor PTSD from it all. I'm in therapy so I'm hoping that gives me some relief. I become so angry at people who do these things to their children.

20

vivahermione t1_j68u9fj wrote

>When I read through Goodreads reviews, there was a lot of criticism towards the author regarding how she framed the story and the innocent nostalgia and love for her parents that was present even after everything they put them through.

Maybe they were young. I read it when I was college-aged, and I couldn't believe she still loved her parents after all that. "Why not just cut them off?" I wondered. But young people sometimes see things in black and white or absolute terms. I'm going to reread this, because my opinion has probably evolved.

12