The Role Of Independence In The Glass Castle

It is often questioned what level of independence one should take in relation to society, government, and the influence or aid of others. Achieving a level of independence, the ability to stand on your own, is a key area of accepting responsibility for oneself. Individuals should have total free will if they are capable of taking care of themselves. Independence is for the ones who can depend on themselves to get by, but the actions of individuals should only be limited to prevent harm to others. In other words, a person should be able to do whatever they want as long as his or her actions do not harm others. If a person’s actions only affect themselves, then society, which includes government, should not be able to stop them from what he or …show more content…
Independence cannot be reached right away and not everybody will become independent. When a baby is young he needs his mother to feed him, but as that baby gets older he learns to feed himself and no longer needs his mother to do that for him. When he becomes older he learns to do more and more on his own. Eventually that individual will get a job, which will show how responsible he is because being independent has to come with responsibility. In the beginning of The Glass Castle, Jeannette’s father was a good parent. He taught his children about the sciences and how to live a fearless life, but it was only after losing all of their money that the family gave up their nomadic lifestyle and settled down in West Virginia. Things went downhill from there as Rex began to drink heavily and his children were forced to learn to fend for themselves. They had to raise themselves because their parents were far too concerned with their own lives; therefore, Rex's parenting skills, while neglectful, forced the children to learn to survive on their own. Their independence, while coming far too early for such young children, was forced upon them given Rex's neglect. In her earlier years, Jeannette Walls evolves from a neglectful childhood into a very well-rounded and savvy adult. This is a direct result of changing and maturing through her living situation as a child. She still loves her family throughout her life, so therefore harbors neither resentment nor anger toward them and the way they raised her. However, as an adult, she no longer gives her parents the free pass she afforded them as a child. In Plato’s, The Allegory of the Cave, it says, “In the knowable realm the form of the good is the last thing to be seen, and it is reached only with difficulty” (Plato 5). Like the prisoner in the story, Jeannette was able to get out of the cave by liberating