Scott Sanders Under The Influence Summary

Sanders recalls the memories of his father’s alcoholism when he was a young boy. He would go into the garage or barn to see his father “tipping back the flat green bottles of wine, the brown cylinders of whiskey, the cans of beer disguised in paper bags.” (215). Sanders would pretend that he did not see what he saw and continued speaking to his father as if he didn’t notice that he was drunk, or that he saw the bottles of alcohol. Sanders’ father would get so drunk that he would stumble into the house and fall asleep in “his overstuffed chair.” (215). The children would all “tiptoe” (215) around their father as to not wake the “snoring dragon.” (216). Sanders mother would scream and yell at their father about his drinking. These arguments would

We are humans and a majority of us have dealt with heartache, pain, broken promises, along with the joyous things like dreams, aspirations, and successful futures. Humans mess up and make mistakes, but we have to remember that forgiveness is a very prestigious and powerful thing. Forgiveness affects people’s lives in positive ways through the hardships, difficulties, and struggles of life. There comes a time when forgiveness should not be available to some individuals. However, this depends on the past situations that have occurred in your life as well as other individuals. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls, was a girl who did not live the ordinary lifestyle. She had to overcome many occurrences with her family, from living a rough life

While it is easy to live in an era of economic stability and beat down somebody for wanting to escape the harsh reality around them, the fact remains that alcohol is the primary reason for Francis living as a bum. His problems with alcohol are first highlighted by Helen who says, “Francis wouldn’t stop drinking and then we couldn’t pay the rent” (53). This rare glimpse into a time in Francis’ life when times were prosperous for himself shows he drinks whether things are going good or bad. Nobody is a better character witness to Francis than the woman he has been friends with for nine years who has seen him at his highest and lowest points in his life, the time when the true character shines through. Or in Francis’ case, flees. As Helen says his alcoholism leads to them having to “give up [their] pillowcases and [their] dishes” (53). This instance clearly shows that by drinking away his money, Francis one by one loses his possesions and finds himself in the situation of being a bum. Another devastating affect his consumption of alcohol is when he drops his 13-day old son, Gerald who dies of a cracked neckbone because he “had four beers after work that day.” (18). While Francis does say he did not drop him because he was drunk, a person who has recently had drinks is not a good judge of anything let alone their current state. Knowing what alcohol does to the mind and the body, it is obvious

In her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee not only delves into the precarious world of prejudice but also surveys the vulnerability of those greatly affected by it. Dolphus Raymond, a wealthy white man, is teetering at the lower edge of society. In the eyes of Maycomb, he is treated as a social outcast due to his relations with African-Americans. Raymond is well-aware of the ongoing racism and prejudice in Maycomb, and as a way of tolerating it, Raymond feigns alcoholism by hiding a Coca-Cola bottle in a paper bag. Feigning alcoholism would give people a reason as to why he lived an untraditional lifestyle, and the story’s protagonist, Scout Finch, and her friend, Dill Harris, come across these true realities

Alcoholism is a significant problem in American society. About 20 million people in the United States abuse alcohol and out of that number, around 10 million are addicted to alcohol and considered an alcoholic ("Alcoholism" 1). In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Jeannette's father, Rex, shows signs of being an alcoholic. His disease puts a lot of strain on the family and relationships within the family and eventually, Jeannette's father dies from heart failure, a common disease caused by alcoholism. Rex Walls can be identified as an alcoholic father by most of the six identifiers of an alcoholic from the American Addiction Center.

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.

Fetal alcohol syndrome is a severe and devastating condition that develops in a child due to exposure to alcohol while in the womb. Symptoms of the syndrome range from physical deformities to mental disabilities. Several birth defects caused by fetal alcohol syndrome are seen in the protagonist of The Rocking Horse Winner, Paul. Paul suffers from slight facial deformities, schizophrenia, and behavioral problems. Altogether his disabilities provide evidence that his mother consumed alcohol while pregnant with him. Paul’s gambling addiction and schizophrenia are the result of brain deformities caused by fetal alcohol syndrome. On top of that, Paul’s mother not being able to feel love for her children provides evidence that she drank during the

The essay “Let It Snow” by David Sedaris is an explanation of how alcohol can have a lasting effect on a family. In this essay, Sedaris writes about his growing up with an alcoholic mother and her mistreatment of her children with this addiction. Sedaris’ writing proves this statement by sharing about one particular day when school was canceled due to a snowstorm. Sedaris is a well-known writer, playwright and radio commentator whose work often has an autobiographical focus (Faigley 89).

Family systems theory is a framework for understanding families and their strengths and dysfunctions. The strengths identified among family relations can be used to help solve existing problems. The same applies with problems identified. The family system theory is based on Bowen’s theory which argues that people cannot leave independent of each other’s network of relationships. People within a family are connected emotionally, which affects their overall well being and social relations and behaviour. There is a growing complexity and diversity in families. Family systems theory provides a foundation for analysis of such complex and diversified families, making it easy to understand for effective therapy (Zastrow &

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. The anecdotal story is also used to provide the reader with what the author feels about his father. After explaining that his hammer’s handle is made out of hickory, the speaker

What does it take for a person to be truly evil? Is there such a thing as truly evil people? Do perfect role models exist? Each of these questions are prominent and reoccurring throughout the book The Great Gatsby and have significant meaning to the message that the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, is attempting to convey. Fitzgerald uses several of his characters as a portrayal of the seven deadly sins and the cardinal virtues throughout the novel. Throughout The Great Gatsby, Tom Buchanan is used to embody the seven deadly sins, Nick Carraway represents the cardinal virtues, and Jay Gatsby displaying both positive and negative character traits, symbolizes human nature.

Addiction is a condition in which a person is compelled to continue an act even if it interferes with ordinary life responsibilities. Life with addiction can become overwhelming and even stressful because there is such a need for a specific item. Addictions cause harm, abuse, fatality, behavioral problems such as, aggressiveness, loss of self-control and paranoia. In “Sonny’s Blues” we see a different type of addiction than what we see in “A River Runs Through It.” In “Sonny’s Blues” Sonny was addicted to heroine, a drug that triggers a release of dopamine into the brain. In the story “A River Runs Through It” Paul was caught in the wrath of alcohol and gambling. Addiction overtakes Paul’s life in “A River Runs Through It” by excessive drinking

Alcoholism is a physical and psychological disorder of the brain that involves the chronic and exorbitant consumption of alcoholic beverages. The consumption can be in response to stressful situations, at overwhelming amounts of social activities, and even in the comfort of one's own home. Alcoholism can trigger other psychological disorders such as depression and schizophrenia, and it also has other negative consequences such as kidney failure, heart defects, and even death. An example of alcoholism in a piece of literature is Rex Walls from The Glass Castle. His actions throughout the novel have extremely detrimental consequences for his wife, children, and himself. It can be concluded from various clues and pieces of contextual evidence

He didn't smoke or drink at all, he didn't even want to try it. There are reasons behind his morals though. His grandmother suffered daily because of smoking, his father's home life was miserable when his mom would pick up a bottle and start drinking. He always thought about his future and he told himself he wasn't going to make his kids go through that. He wanted to be the first person in his family to never drink or smoke. Another rare moral of teenagers was that he was going ot make sure he wasn't going to have a child in high school. He didn't want to mess up his plan of going to college and getting a job. He didn't want his children to go without, he wanted them to have everything they needed. These morals are everything a young man needs to succeed, except there is one thing missing. He needed someone there to keep encouraging him. He had a girlfriend his senior year of high school and that's when his life started looking up. His grades started getting better, he started to look at things a different way, and he started to believe in

Timothy Shay Arthur’s “Ten Nights in a Bar-Room” is a novel filled with unfortunate events that change the lives of many families. It illustrates the lives of a few men, who were once proper gentlemen, but transformed into undesirable people due to intemperance. Their stories demonstrate how destructive alcohol was to their lives, not only for them, but for their families as well. One of the characters that immediately caught my attention was Joe Morgan. Joe went from being an enviable father and husband, and even Mr. Slade’s former business partner, to the town drunk and an absent father. 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