Alcoholism....

Disclaimer: I have not and hope not to live with an alcoholic. Nevertheless, I doubt my opinions would be affected if I had to live with an alcoholic.

My project focused on the causes of homelessness in The Glass Castle. Specifically, I explored alcoholism as a cause of homelessness. I showed the connection between alcoholism and poverty, and then showed the clear and obvious connection between poverty and homelessness. Thus, alcoholism is a cause of homelessness.

However, I believe there is a deeper level to this cause. Yes, alcoholism is a cause of homelessness, but poor decisions, selfishness, and lack of discipline cause alcoholism.

If this project was not so objective, I would have focused upon how poor decisions and the character of Rex contributed to homelessness. Now, I get to dive into that realm…

Disgusting. That is the first word that came to my mind after I read this book. Let’s be honest. Rex is a loser. He’s smart, and he has tons of potential, but he’s a loser. He’s described as the “town drunk” (183), and it’s his chain to alcoholism as well as his inability to turn from alcoholism (because he knows that his alcoholism is wrong…when he’s sober) that makes him a loser.

Rex’s decision to become an alcoholic says multitudes about his character. In this excerpt, Jeanette recalls the series of events that led up to Rex’s alcohol problems: “Mom said Dad was never the same after Mary Charlene died. He started having dark moods, staying out late and coming home drunk, and losing jobs” (28).

Wow. This guy should not be a father. Why? Look at why he did it. Rex felt bad because his daughter died, just as anyone would. However, he was not able to carry himself, nor his family, through that difficult time. In turn, he took action to “numb the pain” (aka…get drunk). He was only thinking about himself in this situation. As the leader of his family, he should have been thinking about his family first instead of himself. However, Rex acted selfishly and tried to numb HIS pain. Though his action numbed his pain, it increased the pain of his family ten-fold in the long run. Alcoholism may provide temporary relief, but it has so many permanent consequences. One of these consequences was homelessness for the entire family.

Notice Rex’s lack of discipline. The man could not control himself. No, I’m not saying that he doesn’t have the right to feel horrible for what happened to him. I’m saying he let it get out of control. Ok, so let’s say this happened to you, and you have one drink. Fine. However, Rex took it to the next level. He became an alcoholic. That is undisciplined. He let his feelings take control of him, and lost sight of his purpose in life: to provide for his family. Instead, he started providing for himself (providing in the sense that he felt good and fulfilled his desires). That is selfish and undisciplined.

And let’s not forget – Rex’s selfishness and undisciplined behavior is repeated throughout the memoir. He continues to be an alcoholic, selfishly fulfilling his desires because he doesn’t have the discipline to pull his family (or himself for that matter) back together.

Then the blame game begins. Here are some reasons that have been posed which explain why we should not blame Rex for his alcoholism.

1. Some may say “Rex needed to be an alcoholic so that he didn’t have to feel so terrible about the horrible position in which life had placed him. It was inevitable.”

I beg to differ. Numerous crappy personal decisions put Rex and his family into homelessness. I have news for all of you: crap happens. You can’t control what happens to you, but it is possible to control your reactions and decisions resulting from what happens in life. The fact that you need to use something to “numb your pain” shows that you are afraid and aren’t disciplined enough to suck it up. We cannot place the blame on anyone else except Rex. He made decisions that would truly hurt his family and his life.

2. Some say “alcohol is a person’s way of slowing down the world, so they can figure out how they can get out of their troubles.”

I vehemently question this reasoning, simply because alcohol hinders the mind’s ability to function, thus skewing whatever sense of reality Rex already had.

How can we possibly sympathize with this man? How can we as sensible people try to shift the blame elsewhere? Look at what he did to his family and to his life! I was raised to be self-disciplined. I try to be as unselfish as possible (no I’m not perfect, and I can be very selfish at times). I cannot sympathize when his character completely contrasts mine, especially when Rex understood that he was hurting his family. I was not raised to be like Rex, which is the reason why you’ve been infused with the stench of my strong opinions in this blog.

Selfish. Undisciplined. These are not the characteristics of a good father. He must be held completely responsible for his actions. He should take all the blame. As leader of the household (or lack thereof), he is the reason for all of the hurt and turmoil that the family went through – the homelessness and financial crises. I wouldn’t be so angry at him if his actions did not affect so many people in negative ways. He wanted to feel good, but his actions hurt himself and those around him horribly.

Will we as a society refute or support such behavior? I hope it is the latter. However, in a society where mediocrity is encouraged, Rex is the type of person that will live off the government and look down from his room in a safehouse upon the street to see disciplined members of society with PhD’s who struggle to pay the rent every week.

Where is society going? What next?

Citation: Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle. New York: Scribner, 2005.