A Contrast Paper

In the story “A Mother in Mannville” and the novel The Glass Castle, we see two distinctly different relationships between adults and children. In spite of the fact that the narrator was not the real parent of Jerry, she was more parental towards Jerry than Jeannette’s real parents were to her. The relationship between Jerry and the narrator was encouraging, responsible and indirect, while the biological relationship was rough, irresponsible and direct.

Firstly, the parenting style of the narrator, like a mother figure, was comforting and encouraging, in contrast to that of Jeannette’s parents which was rough and hard. The moment the narrator saw the wood Jerry had cut, she praised his work as “splendid” and said “You’ve done as much as a man”. She also described Jerry in the setting sun in a beautiful way. By using metaphors and describing the color of his hair and eyes, she illustrated a miraculous image in which Jerry was like an angel. I can imagine the way the narrator gazed at Jerry, it must have been full of love and mercy, trying to protect the little prince from all possible hurt. However, in The Glass Castle, Rosemary, the mother of three children, had her own theory of bringing up children; she ignored her kids when they cried, she said that fussing over children who cry only encouraged them and that was positive reinforcement for negative behavior.

Secondly, the sense of parental responsibility was different in the two stories. Although the narrator was not the real mother of Jerry, she took care of him and even had the idea to adopt him, which can be proved in her upset reaction when she heard that Jerry had a mother in Mannville. But as Jeannette’s real father, Rex Walls was not qualified as a parent because he did not provide financially, ha was not able to afford all the necessaries needed to raise a child, such as sufficient food or simply an apartment. As Jeannette said “We were sort of like the cactus. We ate irregularly, and when we did, we’d gorge ourselves”. It was also unbelievable that they once ate green grapes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for several weeks. 

Thirdly, in “A Mother in Mannville”, the mother figure expressed her love for Jerry in an indirect way, while in The Glass Castle, Jeannette’s father Rex showed his love for his children directly. Clear proof of the narrator’s indirect expression is when she told Jerry, “you may come tomorrow”, instead of saying that she enjoyed his accompany. When she finally decided to leave for Mexico, she thought it was relieving for her to not see Jerry again, but she left some money to buy gifts for Jerry at Christmas and on his birthday. It was obvious that the mother figure was thoughtful and generous to prepare the gifts for him in advance, but she just did all these things silently. In contrast, Rex never begrudged his words about how much he loved his children and what he was going to do for them. He assured his kids that as long as he was around, they would not have to defend themselves. He found it easy to announce that he could put all his kids under his protection. What’s more, he told his kids that he would build a Glass Castle for them, that is, “a great big house he was going to build for us in the desert”. Rex had a dream, he wanted to make a better life for his family though the idea seemed a little ridiculous, and he felt free to speak it out and share it with his kids.

In conclusion, when it comes to the relationship between adults and children, the story “A Mother in Mannville” and the novel The Glass Castle take on different types. The first one was comforting, responsible and indirect, while the other was hard, irresponsible and direct. But as the saying goes, whatever exists is reasonable. Love is eternal whatever the expressions.