Francis Aloysius Phelan In William Kennedy's Ironweed

In Jon Sweeney’s lecture and book, “ When Saint Francis Saved The Church”, he spoke about Francis leading a revolutionary life. There were two points that helped support with Francis leading a revolutionary life. Those points were friendship and poverty. Sweeney spoke about how important friendship and poverty was to Francis. These points helped with Francis learning what kind of person he would be and do with his life.

He rightly identified that money - both its presence and its absence - does something to people” (1). These ideals reflect what can be seen in all of his literary

Having dealt with the pressure from his parents from a young age, McCandless grew more and more embarrassed of his family’s wealth and “believed that wealth was shameful, corrupting, inherently evil”(Krakauer 115). He later burned all his money and believed strongly that “it looks poorest when you are richest”(Thoreau 9), meaning large amounts of money leave a person feeling empty, which influenced McCandless to travel very lightly at all times. This proved to be a challenge which McCandless would have to overcome after meeting and developing friendships with so many people. Ron Franz was one man who gave McCandless a particularly difficult time in keeping his baggage light. Franz thought of McCandless as a son, and cared deeply for him, but because McCandless was trying to keep his “affairs...as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand”(Thoreau 3), he kept a distance between himself and Franz, being careful to not become too attached to him.

Soon Louie became so traumatized by the events of War World II, he became an alcoholic. Once Louie’s friends and family realized how bad his drinking habit was they begged him to stop, but their words were not convincing enough. Then one day Louie turned to God and stopped drinking. Hillenbrand wrote “ When they entered the apartment, Louie went straight to his cache of liquor. It was the time of night when they usually took hold of him, but for the first time in years, Louie had no desire to drink”(383).

Alcoholics are often used in stories as comic relief, which to a person who grew up under the shadow of alcoholism, isn’t very funny at all. This point was to illustrate that people really don’t understand alcoholism for what it really is: a disease that has devastating effects on families for generations. Instead of directly countering those misconceptions, Sanders describes his upbringing in vivid detail. He describes his father’s behavior in a way that makes the reader appreciate that there comes a point where alcoholism is not really a matter of a person having a moral weakness, a lack of self-control, or is weak-willed. It’s a disease that robs people of their lives and of themselves.

Throughout my whole life, my father has been an alcoholic. There have been times when he has tried to quit, but it never lasted for more than a few months. His addiction has brought on stressful times for my family. Some days we did not know where he was or if he was coming home. Although my father’s addiction might not have made the best childhood, he did show me the kind of person I did not want to be.

The short story, “The Rich Brother” accounts the journey of two brothers with great different personalities. After Donald, the younger naive religious brother, is kicked out of a communal farm, Pete, the older wealthier brother, goes to pick him up. Pete feels that Donald is too carefree, and that he always has to help him out of his mistakes. The tensions between these siblings are evident--they both feel that they need to prove themselves to each other; they need to provide evidence of their “prosperity” (Wolff 324). Pete more than Donald tends to always try to impress others, such as buying expressive items.

Ironweed shares Francis Phelan’s daunting experience during events set during the Great Depression. Francis Phelan, a washed up baseball player that turns into an alcoholic after the accidental death of his younger son Gerald (XX). The consequences of these events result in Francis, fleeing home, working at a graveyard, reconciling with ghosts and witnessing the death of his two friends and lover before his eyes. Francis turned away from his family and all that loved him most. Depressed and desolated, while perfecting the art of forgetting his past struggles; guilt and alcohol are all that remained in his life.

It is indicated that he already convinced himself, and was trying to convince others that alcoholism is just a foolish habit and he can stop it anytime he wished. The analysis of those around him, the places he visits, how he relates with his family members and the people at work brought out facts about his real life. This convinced him to attend the AA program. His brothers had also given up on him, and they did not care about him so long as he was employed and was not causing trouble at home. After and involvement with the researchers of the AA program, the brothers accepted that alcoholism is a disease, and that their brother needed

Financial power is alluring in more that one way; ignorance and love - the two extremes, in this case it caused the suitcase lady to loose the only person she had. It is up to others to change the perspective of people in need, rather than listening to what society says. This is seen in both Of Mice and Men with Curly’s wife and Candy and in the “Suitcase Lady”. To get power, people take it from others, this creates

Eugene and his friend Bobby were so drunk that Eugene was killed over who got the last drink of wine, “The police think Eugene and Bobby fought over the last drink in a bottle of wine”(168). These two cases show how alcoholism

However, his free-will gravitated towards alcohol and pushed his fate to the side. Jeanette suffered with his decisions, even on the days that are supposed to be filled with nothing but joy.

However, as he recognized the atrocities of the human world, he abandoned his future plans and set out for the outside world in hopes to find his happiness through an independent and different life. In order to achieve happiness, McCandless began by leaving his old life behind, as “he intended to invent an utterly new life for himself, one in which he would be free to wallow in unfiltered experience” (Krakauer 22), and sank away from the money-driven lifestyle he was born into. McCandless recognized his parents’ need for money to fulfill satisfaction and could not accept how people could continuously live off the joy of wealth. McCandless’s distaste of American society is further strengthened by the fact that “McCandless’s face would darken with anger and he’d fulminate about his parents or politicians or the endemic idiocy of mainstream American life. ”(Krakauer 52)

When he and Cynthia returned to their apartment after this experience, “Louie went straight to his cache of liquor. It was the time of night when the need usually took hold of him, but for the first time in years, Louie had no desire to drink. He carried the bottles to the kitchen sink, opened them, and poured their contents into the drain” (383). With a wife and child he should have been with for quite some time, it was for the better that he gave up his harmful habits. Through the events that occurred at this point in his life, his determination was strengthened even further; this time, he used it to turn his life around.

Really?” which highlights the anxiousness and power of money. The man is also paying for affection even though he knows it’s not real which shows his desperateness for affection and showing the audience the extent of damage money has