Question

the glass castle: “the hot pot” (excerpt)
our house in battle mountain was filled with animals. they came and went, stray dogs and cats, their puppies and kittens, non - poisonous snakes, and lizards and tortoises we caught in the desert. a coyote seemed pretty tame lived with us for a while, and once dad brought home a wounded buzzard that we named buster. he was the ugliest pet we ever owned. whenever we fed buster scraps of meat, turned his head sideways and stared at us out of one angry looking yellow eye. then he’d scream and frantically flap his good wing. i was secretly glad when his hurt wing healed and he flew away. every time we saw buzzards circling overhead, dad would say that he recognized buster among them and that he was coming back to thank us. but i knew buster would never even consider returning. that buzzard didn’t have an ounce of gratitude in him.
we couldn’t afford pet food, so the animals had to eat our leftovers, and there usually wasn’t much. “if they don’t like it, they can leave,” said mom. “just because they live here doesn’t mean i’m going to wait on them hand and foot.” mom told us that we were actually doing the animals a favor by not allowing them to become dependent on us. that way, if we ever had to leave, they’d be able to get by on their own. mom liked to encourage self - sufficiency in all living creatures.
mom also believed in letting nature take its course. she refused to kill the flies that always filled the house; she said they were nature’s food for the birds and lizards. and the birds and lizards were food for the cats. “kill the flies and you starve the cats,” she said. letting the flies live, in her view, was the same as buying cat food, only cheaper.
one day i was visiting my friend carla when i noticed that her house didn’t have any flies. i asked her mother why.
she pointed toward a shiny gold contraption dangling from the ceiling, which she proudly identified as a shell nopest strip. she said it could be bought at the filling station and that her family had one in every room. the nopest strips, she explained, released a poison that killed all the flies.
“what do your lizards eat?” i asked.
“we don’t have any lizards, either,” she said.
i went home and told mom we needed to get a nopest strip like carla’s family, but she refused. “if it kills the flies,” she said, “it can’t be very good for us.”
dad bought a wrecked old ford fairlane that winter, and one weekend when the weather got cold, he announced that we were going swimming at the hot pot. the hot pot was a natural sulfur spring in the desert north of town, surrounded by craggy rocks and quicksand. the water was warm to the touch and smelled like rotten eggs. it was so full of minerals that rough, chalky encrustations had built up along the edges, like a coral reef. dad was always saying we should buy the hot pot and develop it as a spa.
the deeper you went into the water, the hotter it got. it was very deep in the middle. some people around butte mountain picked up and moved on because, as all, that it went clean through to the center of the earth. a couple of drunks and wild teenagers had drowned there, and people at the owl club said when they brought their trucks to the surface, they’d seen horribly bloated.
both brian and lori knew how to swim, but i had never learned. large bodies of water scared the sheet out of me—swimming in the desert towns where we’d lived. we had once stayed at a motel with a swimming pool, and i worked up enough nerve to make my way around the entire length of the pool, clinging to the side. but the hot pot didn’t have any nice edges like that swimming pool. there was nothing to cling to.
i waded in up to my shoulders. the water around my chest was warm, and the rocks i was standing on felt so hot i wanted to keep moving. i looked back at dad, who watched me, unmoving. i tried to push out into deeper water, but something held me back. dad dived in and splashed his way toward me. “you’re going to learn to swim today,” he said.
he put an arm around me, and we started across the water. dad was dragging me. i felt terrified and choked his neck so tightly that his skin turned white. “there, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” dad asked when we got to the other side.
we started back, and this time, when we got to the middle, dad pried my fingers from around his neck and pushed me away. my arms flailed around, and i sank into the hot, smelly water. i instinctively breathed in. water surged into my nose and mouth down my throat. my lungs burned. my eyes were open, the water stinging them, but the water was dark and my hair was wrapped around my face and i couldn’t see anything. a pair of hands grabbed me around the waist. dad pulled me into the shallow water. i was spitting and coughing and breathing in uneven choking gasps.
“that’s okay,” dad said. “catch your breath.”
when i recovered, dad picked me up and heaved me back into the middle of the hot pot. “sink or swim,” he called out. the second time, i sank. the water once more filled my nose and lungs. i kicked and flailed and thrashed my way to the surface, gasping for air, and reached out. dad let me pushed back, and i didn’t feel his hands around me until i’d sunk one more time.
he did it again and again, until the realization that he was rescuing me only to throw me back into the water took hold, and so, rather than reaching for dad’s hands, i tried to get away from them. i kicked at him and pushed away through the water with my arms, and finally, i was able to propel myself beyond his grasp.
“you’ve doing it, baby!” dad shouted. “you’re swimming!”
i staggered out of the water and sat on the calcified rocks, my chest heaving. dad came out of the water, too, and tried to hug me, but i wouldn’t have anything to do with him, or with mom, who’d been floating on her back as if nothing were happening, or with brian and lori, who gathered around and were congratulating me. dad kept telling me that he loved me, that he never would have let me drown, but you can’t cling to the side your whole life, that one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is, “if you don’t want to sink, you better figure out how to swim.” what other reason, he asked, would possibly make him do this?
once i got my breath back, i figured he must be right. there was no other way to explain it.
the hot pot’ reading questions

1. jeannette says that her mom, rose mary, “liked to encourage self - sufficiency in all creatures” by not giving the wild animals much to eat. do you agree with rose mary? why or why not?
2. why do you think that jeannette suggests to her mother that they get a nopest strip after she sees them in her friend carla’s house? what does this show us about jeannette?
3. the hot pot was a natural sulfur spring in the desert north of town, surrounded by craggy rocks and quicksand. the water was warm to the touch and smelled like rotten eggs. it was full of minerals that rough, chalky encrustations had built up along the edges, like a coral reef.

what mood is the author trying to create in this description of the “hot pot”? how do you know?

1. what lesson does rex walls think that he is teaching jeannette in the hot pot? what lesson do you think jeannette is actually learning, based on what she says and does?
2. do you think that children should be allowed to be in risky situations in order to learn about life? why or why not?

Explanation:

1. Answer to Question 1: One may agree as it aligns with the idea of animals adapting in the wild. But some may disagree as it could be seen as neglect. Rose Mary's view promotes self - reliance, yet animals also need care.
2. Answer to Question 2: Jeannette suggests getting a NoPest strip because she saw it worked to get rid of flies at her friend's house. This shows she is observant and desires a more comfortable living environment.
3. Answer to Question 3: The author creates a somewhat eerie and other - worldly mood. The description of the hot pot's strange smell (like rotten eggs), its mineral - filled and rough - textured nature, and the odd setting with craggy rocks contribute to this.
4. Answer to Question 4: Rex Walls thinks he is teaching Jeannette to swim and be independent. Jeannette is actually learning about her father's erratic and sometimes dangerous behavior as he repeatedly throws her into the water.
5. Answer to Question 5: Some may think children should be in risky situations to learn resilience and problem - solving skills. Others may believe it is too dangerous and children should be protected from harm.

Answer:

1. Responses may vary. Some may agree due to self - reliance concept, others may disagree seeing it as neglect.
2. She saw it worked at her friend's to get rid of flies. It shows she is observant and wants a better living space.
3. An eerie and other - worldly mood. The strange smell, minerals, and setting contribute.
4. Rex thinks he's teaching swimming/independence. Jeannette is learning about her father's erratic behavior.
5. Responses may vary. Some for learning skills, others for protection reasons.