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While Rose Wall's loyalty to her husband is admirable, it is also dangerous. Rose sees how Rex is dragging the family down, drinking away the money, and a chronic liar. Rose is advised to leave Rex, but she never listens. Rex mistreats her and blames her for their misfortune when in reality it is Rex himself that is using up their money. After Rex falls back into his old habits, he comes after Rose with insulting words and a sharp knife. In his drunken state he says to Rose, " 'Yeah, but you love this old drunk, don't you?' Dad said. Mom at first said no, she didn't, but Dad kept asking her again and again and when she finally said yes, the fight disappeared from both of them. Vanished as if it had never existed. Dad started laughing and hugging Mom, who was laughing and hugging him. It was as if they were so happy they hadn't killed each other that they fell in love all over again." (Walls 123) Rose Walls can admit that her husband has a problem but time and time again does nothing productive about it. Rose may be able to take care of the kids on her own, but she will not leave Rex and the situation he keeps putting them in which makes her ineffective in the children's well being. When her kids grow up, they point out that Rose could pull herself out of her homeless life. Rose ignores their suggestions and points. Rose Walls does not try to make her life better, she just complains about her misfortunes. (Walls 259). Rose could have sold family land to have her family live comfortably, but instead she kept the land, never used it, all while her family was barely getting by. " All those years living in Welch with no food, no coal, no plumbing, and Mom had been sitting on land worth a million dollars?" Rose's pride and knowledge got the best of her which created a childhood of poverty for her four kids.

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One of the largest negative factors in the household is Rex Wall's alcoholism. Rex is often drunk and making poor judgement calls which leads to lying and job termination. Rex has such a severe case of alcoholism that he cannot just give it up. Rex has tried and tried again to give up drinking whether it is for himself or his family, he always finds himself and the bottom the the bottle. On Jeanette's 10th birthday she tells her father that what she wants more than anything else in the world is for her father to stop drinking. At just one decade, Jeanette knew how problematic Rex's drinking was. For a while things were looking up for the Walls, and then Rex begun to drink once again. Rose knew that his sobriety would not last when she tells Jeanette that their life would return to its chaotic state soon. This was because, "He tried stopping before, but it never lasted." Rex Walls is not willing to truly fight his illness for his family or himself.

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Rex and Rose Walls are constantly switching jobs and moving around which creates an unstable environment for the children. Rex blames Rose for using up all of the money with her art supplies while she blames Rex for using the money on alcohol. This is dangerous for the children when their parents are constantly fighting and not making enough money to support the family. On one of these occasions, there is no food in the house and when Rex finds out that the children have no food to eat he is livid. Rex immediately blames Rose and says, "No children of mine has to go hungry... Don't you kids worry about a thing." (Walls 78) Later, Brian pointed out that that their father, " spends more than he earns on booze." (Walls 78) This is concerning because it shows that Rex cannot control his illness, even to feed his children.

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While Rex and Rose where away collecting their belongings from Phoenix, Arizona, the children stayed with their grandmother. Their grandmother Erma pulled Brian Walls into a room alone. After a few minutes alone and the sounds of Brian's objections, Jeanette Walls went to investigate. What she found was Erma sexually assaulting Brian. When Jeanette told her older sister, Lori, what had happened Erma began to make excuses for herself. The situation escalated when Erma went to slap Jeanette and became Lori and Erma physically fighting each other. Erma treated all of the siblings poorly and when Rose and Rex got home Erma told them what happened before the kids could. Rex proceeded to scream at the children and blame the situation on them. Jeanette describes the encounters saying that before the children could say anything her started yelling at them, " furious at all of us, me for back-talking Erma and making wild accusations, and Lori even more for daring to strike her own grandmother, and Brian for being such a 🤬 and starting the whole thing." (Walls 147) Rex Walls sided with Brian's assaulter instead of his own children, the victims. The family continued to live with Erma and not speak of the encounter. This shows that Rex was unjustly blaming the children and continuing to put them in harms way. Also, this once again shows that Rose Walls would not stand up to Rex for the safety and benefit of her children.

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Since Rose and Rex did not have the money to heat their house with a thermostat, the family would burn wood. When the wood was too wet to burn, the family would put kerosene on the wood. Kerosene is a very dangerous and flammable substance that can lead to skin damage and carbon monoxide poisoning. This chemical helped keep the family warm, but it also hurt Lori Walls. Lori Walls suffered from at least second degree burns, she was never taken to the hospital for treatment. Rose claimed that, " what doesn't kill you makes you stronger." ( Walls 179) .While Rex had cautioned the kids about how kerosene was flammable he still allowed the kids to use it. Under Rex and Rose's poor supervision, both Lori and Jeanette have been burned.

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After losing his job in a mine, Rex Walls can not afford to buy anything for  Christmas. Instead, Rex takes the children out to the desert and shows them the stars. After telling the kids about all the different stars he says his gift to them is that they get to pick out whichever one they want. This was moment taught the kids that not all gifts are physical and worth money. Sometimes, the value of gifts is based on how much care is put behind them. This moment also shows how much Rex cares about his children even if he cannot always provide for them.

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Rex Walls kidnapped his 3 year old daughter from the hospital where she was receiving care for severe burns. This shows irresponsibility on his part and shows that he is not acting towards his daughters best interest. Rose and Rex are often lying to their children about their misfortunes. Although lying may be an attempt to conceal harsh realties from small children, as they grow up Rose and Rex's lying become more about self preservation and image. Lori and Brian get progressively less tolerant of their parent's lies while Jeanette believes many of her parents twisted words and half truths. Jeanette explains that," The reason Dad was having a tough time getting steady work-as he kept trying to tell us- was that the electricians'' union in Phoenix was corrupt....That required a lot of undercover research, and the best place to gather information was at the bars the mobsters owned. So Dad started spending most of his time in those joints.' ( Walls 112) This shows that Rex is willing to make up outrageous lies to feed his alcoholism. Rex brings up his "research" when he needs more money. Sometimes Rex claims his research is about a million different things. Eventually, Jeanette began to catch on to his fathers attempts at getting more money from the rest of the family, " Mom rolled her eyes whenever Dad mentioned his research. I began to have my own doubts about what he was up to." (Walls 112) Rex takes what he pleases and does not think about the repercussions.

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Three year old female is brought in the hospital after suffering from severe burn. The young girl reports that she was at home cooking on the stove top when her outfit caught on fire. "I screamed. I smelled the burning and heard a horrible crackling as the fire singed my hair and eyelashes." ( Walls 9 ). This shows neglect on her parents part for not watching their child when she was performing a dangerous activity. There is reason to believe that the child cooks on her own regularly. This shows that this situation could happen again and more dangerous situations

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Assessing whether or not Rose and Rex Walls are fit to be guardians of the Walls children.

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Assessing whether or not Rose and Rex Walls are fit to be guardians of the Walls children.