1.

I believe that the reason she opens with this story is to demonstrate the nature of her

family and especially her parents from a very young age as well as show a possible reason that

she may be weary of them during her growing up. I think that her getting burned is almost an

analogy from right at the very beginning to show the everlasting effects of poverty. I also think

that we are shown this to show the naiveness of the mom in situations like these as well as the

flight tendencies of Rex as they are running away from the hospital as well as her mother being

totally calm about her getting burned in the first place. I think that this opening sets the stage for

it to be very similar to this in a lot of ways as the book did infact turn out to be. I think that the

everlasting cycle of them being up and in a good place before tragically falling back down into a

situation that was even worse than it was before hand is supposed to start with this incident of

Jeannette being burned and only a few weeks later leaving the hospital and the surrounding area

for good to continue being on the run from basically nothing and as they are on the run they

consistently are up and down until eventually landing on the streets of new york at the very end.

During this time they blew a whole inheritance as well as held on to land possibly worth upwards

of a million dollars while still living in hunger and on the streets. I think that the mothers

naiveness was definitely one of the biggest causes of this, specifically with being selfish about

food with her own children and still holding on to property that could save her whole families

life if only she gave it up and sold it as well as later asking her children to buy more of the land

for a million dollars and saying that she is very disappointed when they refuse. I think that the

fathers flight responses also play into this with when they were younger constantly moving

around until ending up a welch, which was easily one of the worst places that they could stay,

and staying there for one of the longest periods of time besides new york. I think that this is why
she opens up the story with her getting burned, in order to introduce us to her parents and how

they will continue to act throughout the rest of the memoir.

3. Rex Walls was an alcoholic and earlier in his life, constantly on the run from nothing. I

think that he is someone that was quite possibly damaged at a very young age by Erma who is a

possible sexual predator as evidenced by her actions against brian. I think that him growing up in

welch is almost certainly the cause of many of his illnesses and addiction problems. I do believe

that he was a good man in his heart and truly did want the best for his kids but only he was also a

fairly weak man in his heart, constantly running and falling back to alcohol to cope with the

poverty going on around him. I think that this weakness is very likely caused by him growing up

in Welch with Erma and Uncle Stanley and being shown alcoholism and sexual abuse all around

him and a very poverty stricken town. I think that he was possible very intelligent and skilled but

was ultimately brought down by this and due to that was given a very hard time trying to manage

his family when times were tough and was ultimately pulled by stress down to alcohol, which

proceeded to tear his family apart as he was spending far to much on his own and leaving the rest

of them with barely anything to get by with food and heat and shelter for the winter. I think that

his upbringing was the ultimate flaw in his character and he unfortunately had very little or

almost no control over it at all but It ended up in the end tearing him down until he died in his

late 50s. I think that he was a good man and did have a lot going foring but this is what really

brought him to his knees. I think this along with Rosemary being totally naive about the whole

situation is really what allowed this to go on for so long with little reparation against it to at least

try and keep him in line with his family. I think that it is ultimately his fault for falling to alcohol

and leaving everything behind but I do also believe that those around him growing up as well as

his wife did very little to help with that and with their final decision to stay in welch for so many
years only making it worse for him as now he was surrounded by others in the same situation

stricken by poverty.

4. Rose Mary Walls seems to be a very mentally ill woman living with her alcoholic

husband as neither of them can seem to ever get away from each other even if they are clearly

each other’s downfall. I think that to me, at least, it seems like her naiveness and the reason that

she is the way she is, stuff like keeping land that could save her family or not seeing how her

husband was being affected by alcohol and how to stop, I think this could all be because of

severe mental illness and delusions, something like schizophrenia, that prevents her from

thinking clearly and is cleary degenerative as it seems to get worse and worse throughout

Jeannettes Life. I think that this is one of the biggest reasons why her family is like the way they

are. I think that the parents together, with Rex being a several alcoholic, and her being mentally

ill and not seeing much wrong and often neglecting her kids and keeping food and money from

them. I think that it is a major issue that likely was a reason they are in the situation and she

didn’t see anything wrong with living on the streets in new york or at 93 Little Hobart Street. I

think that her description of herself was almost a clear indication of her mental illness as she

refused to settle and hold a job for very long and often used it as an excuse to get herself out of

those situations and not feel bad about herself. Also probably influenced by her mental illness

that she might not even realize what she is doing to herself. I think that the combination of Her

and Rex are the biggest reasons why the kids moved to new york, climaxing in Maureen stabbing

her and she not realizing the magnitude of the situation and forgiving her saying she was just

missguided.

5. I think that the tone of this whole book is one of the best parts of it for me. I really

enjoyed the way that she wrote about this life of little to no money but kept it in a way that child
would think, just with a little extra vocabulary. I think that a neutral but still kind of childish tone

is the reason for this as a very young child would likely not think of things like these, especially

with the words their parents use to describe them, as bad and suffering and terrible until they

grow up a little bit and grow out of childhood, as seen in the book when Jeannette gets older and

older and seeing how bad her family really is and how much she needs to get out of it before it

ruins her life. This book is describing a very difficult life but mostly from the perspective of

someone who has little to no control over the situation and often doesn’t see anything wrong at

all with it. I think that this perspective and tone is also why this book has been as successful as it

is and why it resonates with so many readers. It allow for those to look at extreme poverty like

this, not from the perspective of an adult that has gotten out of the situation but as a child that

lived through it for basically her entire childhood who then ran away and wrote a memoir of

what life was like for her and her siblings underneath her parents. It also resonates with how

many people may think of their parents even when they are clearly being neglected as she always

thought highly of her father when she was young, even though it was clear that he had many

issues and was in many situations, a terrible father to his kids and an awful husband to his wife.

The way she sees the good in him is very powerful to a lot of other people that may have lived or

are living in that situation at their current moment. This is likely why she wrote the tone like this

as well as she likely knew that she did not go through it alone and many others are similar to her.

8. I think that the final big move to welch as kids is kind of like the nail in the coffin for

the family in my opinion. I think that moving to Welch for Rex was almost like a cowardly

retreat back to home as he might not have been able to take care of his family any longer and

must return to the likely origin of his alcoholism and why he is the way he is for the rest of his

life. I think that this move is, until they move to new york, the climax of the up and downs that
have plagued them for most of their lives of constantly running around and then finally settling

in likely the worst possible place that they could. I think that them moving also showed a large

shift in the book's tone. This was around the time that Jeanette was beginning to grow older and

self-aware of her family and with that it took a very grim turn as it was also possibly the hardest

part of her life. I think that living in Welch at the time that she did is why it took this turn as well

as them getting poorer and poorer and erma assaulting brian and Uncle Stanley Assaulting

Jeannette and Rex becoming more and more alcoholic. I think that all of this at the same time

likely changed her perspective of her life and her parents as well as brought about a more grim

and dark tone of her life as she was falling apart and her family was struggling to keep afloat

while neither of the parents were doing much for the situation. I also really think that this shift in

tone really helped the book as it did reflect her becoming more self aware and knowing what the

situation her family was going through as well as what life could be like when lori went to New

York when Jeannette was just 16 or 17 years old.