An Essay that i wrote for my cultural analysis class

1. The Drive Of The Human Race
(An Analysis of The Glass Castle)
By Tyler Gelinas
In my opinion the central idea of The Glass Castle is to prove that “The past doesn't
define who you are, it just gives you the starting point of who you're going to be” . All the kids1
grew up in a horrible environment; Brian split his skull at the age of 1-2 while his 3 year old sister
caught herself on fire cooking hot dogs. All of this because her mother was too busy painting
within earshot to cook her daughter some food (that is truly pathetic). They had a drunk father
who would “spend more money than he makes, on booze”(Jeannette Walls) they were
dysfunctional to say the least, to say the most would be downright neglectful; no more than that
they actively put their kids in bad situations. Yet look at the kids at the end, they are the proof
that being told by everyone that they wouldn't go far and that their family is doomed and they
went further than anyone expected them too, from California to New York City “in New York you
can be a new man”.2
These kids they had a drive to succeed and thrive; here’s why, all the negativity
surrounded them and formed them, crushing their spirits down. What happens when you crush
something? You make it denser. They were determined to be better than their parents any
naysayers, they would find their own place and thrive in it. They had each other and a drive
stronger than most, because they had a reason to push through, they would endure the blows,
leaving their enemy exhausted; their enemy was life and their parents, it wouldn't be easy but
they would outlast them. The Walls were strong, they could have been stronger but, what they
lacked in strength of character they made up for in resilience; they refused to become their
parents. Negative stimuli to positive change, a rare occurrence but the best thing that it can do,
every so often it throws out a success. These kids were some of the successes, fractured
gems with deep cracks in them. But still holding because they went through that predicament
together, damaging each but their drive to make it through with each other meant they took
blows for one another.
So the question remains where did the kids get this inexorable drive, the need to be
better? My belief is their parents, they learned what they could from what they were taught. They
then learned from what they saw, a mother obsessed with the little things like decor and the
spirit, they saw a father too obsessed with booze, trying to make some paradise for his family
but no feasible way of achieving his goals. They took the best aspects of their parents and
rejected the rest; none of them wavering except for Maureen, I think I know why. She is the least
mentioned main character in the book, showing that as time went on she didn't have her
siblings. She came to rely on others, but in a flighty way which produced the druggy who mopes
around a slum all day instead of being like her siblings and becoming successful. When kicked
out she resorts to stabbing her own mother. She's far too dependent on other people, no other
person in the book has stooped that low. She gets out of jail to run off to California to do
something (drugs) but who can say what she did.
1
Agent Carolina Red vs Blue
2
Hamilton the broadway musical

2. I have some insight into this because I’ve learned from the mistakes and flaws in others.
I've learned not to be too quiet about my opinions, I've learned to be able to laugh at myself from
those who couldn't. I’ve learned from my family. I have seen their failures and have since given
up on most of them. Two brothers and a mother who seems to lack the determination to do
anything now that her life has gone to shit. My two failed brothers: one with the good heart, the
other with the good brain, but both failed because their drive faltered. I have learned from them
all;I will not destroy myself over my own failures. I will learn from them and grow as a person. I
will succeed because to fail would make me no better than them and I have to be better, have to
be smarter.
I can show that the kids didn’t grow up the way they did because of tough love or a
certain kind of parenting; it was a lack of parenting, a lack of drive in the parents that caused the
kids to develop their own. They had all managed to get out of West Virginia within four years of
each other to the illustrious New York City. They go to where they can make something of
themselves and they do. They all made something of themselves even something as pathetic
as a drugged up bum, to high ranking writers and a police sergeant; they all did something.
Some got married and had families. They struggled however, in more common ways. They
brought themselves into a different social class; every human is born with the drive to do all of
these things, to achieve what you want is all on you keeping your drive and applying it
consistently.
If you go forward with your life properly, you can live sixty percent of your life off the
wealth of your own labors and decisions. This story of these people is proof that in the end
neglect and bad parenting can produce some of the brightest lights in our world. These are
some of the best examples of what being thrown in the dirt, and treated far worse can do to
people, yet there they stood making a name for themselves in the Big Apple.