pages 75-120

In what ways is Billy's upbringing worse than that of the Walls children?

Billy's parents do not care about Billy as much as the Walls care about their children. Billy's parents don't give him very much attention and supervision, which is very important for a young child. If his parents don't supervise what Billy does he could pick up bad habits, and do bad things without getting into trouble. If this happens then he will keep doing things that he shouldn't do and no one will ever stop him. Even though Jeannette doesn't get as much supervision from her parents as she should be getting, she must get more attention than Billy does because Billy doesn't know what is right or wrong as much as Jeanette does because his parents never tell him. For example Billy laughed at his father because he didn't know it was wrong, but Jeannette knew it was wrong to laugh at your father. Jeanette’s parents may not be the best parents and they do make many mistakes, but her parents are also special and care about her, unlike Billy’s parents. When her father gave Jeannette the stars it made him seem more special because he was showing that he cared about her, and wasn’t just a drunk like Billy’s dad.

pages 55-74

One part that I found interesting was the part where Jeanette's father was teaching her how to swim. The way that he taught her to swim was different, and it made me wonder if it was the right thing to do. It might have worked, but it frightened Jeanette. Rex probably didn't expect her to react he way that she did. Jeanette was still upset, even after she had learned how to swim and every one was congratulating her. It was understandable why she was so upset, because she was mad that no one helped her, and to her it seemed like Rex really would have let her drown. Jeanette was young, so it might have been hard for her to understand why Rex was doing this, so it made her lose some trust in him because to her it looked like he was letting her drown. It wasn't right of him to do this to Jeanette because it scared her a lot, and he should have known that she could have reacted the way that she did. Rex should have used a different method to teach Jeanette to swim because even if it required more work, it wasn’t worth frightening her and causing her to lose trust in him.

pages 34-55

How is Mary affected by the death of Mary Charlene? How is this different from the way Rex deals with it?

The death of Mary Charlene does not have much of an effect on Mary. She thought that god meant for Mary Charlene to die, and she respects god’s choices. Since Mary Charlene wasn’t perfect, Mary thought that she was a mistake that god made, so god took her back. I found it very strange how Mary reacted to her daughter’s death.  Parents are supposed to care about their children no matter what, even if they aren’t perfect. It would make sense for a parent to be very upset when they lose a child, because this would show that they cared about their child. It doesn’t seem like Mary cared very much about her daughter, if she did she would have been upset when she died. The way that Rex reacted to Mary Charlene’s death was more of a normal way for a parent to react. He was very traumatized and it had a long lasting effect on him. Since he was so sad when he lost one of his children, this shows that he is a caring parent. Rex might not be a good parent to his children and he makes a lot of mistakes, but he does care about them. If he didn’t care about his children, he wouldn’t have been so upset when one of them died.

response #1

I think that Janet’s parents are irresponsible. They shouldn't have let Janet cook hotdogs by herself, because she is 3 years old and almost died the last time they let her cook hot dogs. I couldn't believe that they let her cook hot dogs after what happened and still haven’t learned their lesson. They should show more concern for her safety, and they are putting Janet in danger because it is dangerous for a three year old to be cooking hot dogs. Janette also starts playing with matches, which is also very unsafe for a three year old to be doing. Her parents should supervise her, and pay more attention to what their children are doing. If it is possible for Janette to have access to matches and for her to be able to play with them without her parents noticing, then her parents are not paying enough attention to her. Also, Janette's father gets drunk very often, and this is a very irresponsible thing for a parent to do. When her father is drunk he can't take care of them properly, and could be putting his children in danger. Janette's parents don't make an effort to take proper care of their children, and if they can't take care of their children then they don't deserve to have any children.