In numerous instances, today’s world values addictions over family. Every day, the news highlights stories where addiction overpowers. For instance, a few weeks ago, Columbus, had a couple who overdosed on heroin with their grandchild in the backseat. Hence why “Under The Influence” by Scott Russell Sanders is extremely relevant. Sanders asserted his experience with his dad, who was an alcoholic. He thoroughly explained the effects alcoholism had on the family. Later in his essay, many of the father’s organs were damaged as a result of drinking. Sanders said, “My father , when drunk was neither funny nor honest; he was pathetic, frightening, deceitful.”(Under the Influence. 89). My father was an alcoholic for many years. My family encountered many of the situations that Sanders faced. Since I was little, I have witnessed the consequences of alcoholism.
As a three-year-old, if I hear someone trying to get in the house, I’m going to sprint to my parent's bedroom. I looked all over the house for my parents. It was just my brothers and I. It’s the end of the world when a
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Individuals in my life have told me that I am going to end up just like him. One day, my uncle said, “You’re likely to end up like your father. I have a lot of friends who became alcoholics because of their parents”. He really had the audacity to speak that over my life. I really had to work through that. Scott Russell Sanders said, “ Our own father never beat us, and I don’t think he ever beat Mother, but he threatened often.”(93) I will never put myself or anyone else in that situation. My family should never have to worry about abuse because of my lack of intelligence. Honestly, I choose not to indulge in alcohol. It doesn’t even sound pleasurable to me. I want nothing to do with alcohol. My childhood was full of it. The rest of my life will not consist of alcohol. Smart choices prevent atrocious
He didn’t just come out and say “my father is drunk”, but he explains what his dad is doing and how he is acting, which let the reader know how his dad changed when he was drunk. Sanders blamed himself for his father’s alcoholism, he thought that if he was perfect that
In the media, alcohol consumption is frequently portrayed as a regular social activity and glorifies both alcohol abuse and underage consumption. These messages are sent through a variety of media platforms such as, television, advertisements (print and digital), and networking websites. The messages being sent to audiences promote and encourage people to partake in such activity. Underage audiences are easily manipulated into believing that what they see in the media, is an accurate representation of social normalities. This is an important topic to examine because the underage drinking culture and alcohol abuse as become a prominent issue in the United States and consequences are deadly.
Sanders’ essay, Under the Influence, forced me to understand the complexity of alcoholism by painting a graphic picture of a horrible situation. I will no longer accept society’s whimsical terms for drunks, alchohol, or alcoholism. I will see the disease as the ravaging monster Sanders’ suffers through. I found Sanders’ honesty to be appealing and the reason I enjoyed the miserable narrative. Sanders’ essay was an wonderful persuasive piece that did its job of forcing me to understand the true horror of
Alcoholics are those who take in a daily excess amount of alcohol causing the body to be unresponsive. In the book The Glass Castle we have the thematic idea brought out by Rex Walls which is that alcohol can make oneself to go crazy and cause the family problems. Children with an alcoholic parent suffer the lack to show emotion and they are given roles to substitute the parents sue to this the children start to think about suicide. Children who are in the care of alcoholic parents suffer the idea of shutting out what they feel towards the events that go on around them. As the article “ Growing up with Alcoholism: alcoholism is a disease that affects the entire family” says, “They continue the role of being good or bad or funny or lost to keep
The paragraph in Sanders’ essay that explains the story behind the handle of his hammer and how he had broken it several times uses an anecdotal story to convey Sanders’ attitude towards his father 's death. The speaker broke his hammer’s handle once by attempting to “pull sixteen-penny nails out of floor joists”; an idea even the speaker admitted was foolish. His father’s response of “You ever hear of a crowbar?” captures the relationship Sanders had with his father. His father was sarcastic at his son’s humorous and avoidable failure, indicating a close relationship between the two. This revelation of the closeness he had with his father conveys the feelings of sadness the speaker would have immediately after his death.
Losing a battle to illness is devastating and utterly heartbreaking. With addiction, it is quite often that people fail and fall into their old habits. Others simply don’t want to be sober. In How to Help Someone with an Opioid Addiction, published by the Chicago Sun Times, the author lists ways for friends and family members to assist in the process of sobriety. But, what if it doesn’t work?
Like in the case study selected, Gustavo has a problem with addiction. Solving this problem needs the involvement of Gustavo’s relationships, and not the individual’s inner psyche like the traditional therapy methods do. This approach is based on the belief that a change in a person’s behaviour affects the family members and the family functions over time (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2009). The case study presented is a perfect example illustrating this theory.
His mother warned him about his fate if he continued to drink, like his own late father, but he felt that a few drinks would not cause any issues. Little did he know that a few drinks would turn into endless nights of drinking, and the biggest tragedy of his life; the death of his daughter. His daughter, worried sick about him, went to look for him at the tavern so they
In “Under the Influence”, Scott Russell Sanders uses a variety of sentence lengths. A few of his sentences are very long, while most are medium or short in length. I would describe these sentences as somewhat poetic. They are very descriptive and help paint of picture of what life was like for Sanders and his father.
In this essay, “Let in Snow”, Sedaris proves that alcohol abuse can have a lasting effect on an entire family. He provided several examples from his own childhood experiences that described the effects alcoholism has on the family. He gained the audience’s trust by sharing his own experiences to prove and argue his point of view. Therefore, Sedaris made an extremely strong case against
He deeply cared for his family, and wanted to be with his wife when their first baby was born. Unfortunately, with his newfound sobriety, Williams and his wife realized they were no longer meant for eachother, and they divorced(compound sentence). Despite his commitment to being sober, he still could not keep his family. This series of events heavily impacted his
Families in the United States have become more complex- growing from the traditional nuclear family to single parent families, step families, foster families etc. Therefore, when a family member is struggling with addiction, the effect on the family may vary according to family structure. Families where addictions are present often times are hard to live in. Many individuals that come from homes with substance abuse problems may become traumatized to varying degrees by things they have experienced. Families living with addiction can be put under an unusual amount of stress.
Underage drinking is a noteworthy issue at American schools, however little is thought about the degree of liquor use in various arrangements. Across countries, Teenage drinking has been a common problem of this modern world. Underage drinking can offer a diverse effects for us Teenagers, especially accidents which include car accidents, homicides, suicides, falls and burns. Research shows that legal drinkers can handle their self well compared to an immature Teenage drinker due to a lot of reasons both mentally and physiologically. Underage drinkers suffer a wide variety of consequences due to their uncontrolled drinking habit.
It was an ever growing routine. It was a routine that was very deeply ingrained within him. When I try to remember my grandpa, his drinking routine always comes right along with it. Even the earliest memories of my grandpa consist of it. For the longest time, I had believed that his drinking habits were part of him and that everyone around had just conformed to them.
In addition to addictive properties alcohol also may cause violent outbursts in the case of the drunk. The example of violent behavior in “Counterparts” would be when the drunken Farrington returns home and chastises and soon after beats his son (63). In the time of Joyce’s writings it was still legal to “punish” their children, as Farrington did. Even then he was not truly beating him out of punishment but out of aggravations over that day. This includes being chastised at work, being beaten at arm wrestling at the pub, being insulted by the woman at the pub, and in the end coming home to find his wife missing.