In James Baldwin short story "Sony's Blue" he uses music to represent Sonny's struggle with his addiction to heroin. Throughout the story, music was present whenever Sonny's addiction was mentioned. When Sonny first told his brother that he wanted to play jazz music for a living he mentioned that Charlie Parker was one of his inspirations, this is interesting because Charlie Parker was a drug addict who died from his addiction. This also seemed like it took place around the time that Sonny started abusing drugs with the goal of completely focusing on playing the piano. At the end of the story, Sonny talked to his brother about how he felt while he was taking heroin.
The intense word choice of “huge” to describe the hat may further be seen as a symbol of grief and the mourning of her son’s death. Coral and her husband, Roy’s journey to the Gold Coast can also be seen as both a physical and emotional venture as we can see the assumed release of anguish and mourning of Roy and Coral through the use of the beach’s shells. The physical metaphor of the “Shells” and them being placed in her hat may act as an emotional going ‘Away’ of grief and loss. Further the beach is often associated with relaxation and “letting go” of all worries which is also seen as a parallel to coral as her and her husband after the
“Words are pale shadows of forgotten names. As names have power, words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts,” Patrick Rothfuss. Authors use many ways to develop the setting.
Through Richard Morrison in Stephen King’s short story “Quitters, Inc.” it shows that love is stronger than any addiction. Morrison tells his wife, Cindy, that he is kicking the habit of smoking for her and their son, Alvin. When he learns that Quitters Inc.’s punishment involves his family; “How horrible would it be for the boy. He wouldn't understand it even if someone explained. He’ll only know someone is hurting him because Daddy was bad.
An average of 110,000 people die each year due to excessive alcohol use and alcohol withdrawal. Alcohol abuse is a major problem in our community and the book The Glass Castle is a perfect example of showing what alcoholism does to the human body. In The Glass Castle, the father, Rex Walls, dies due to overuse of alcohol. Excessive alcohol drinking leads to heart disease, cancer, and mental health problems. “Dad was tied to the bed with ropes and belts.
Everyone should have a place to call home that will provide them with a safe, supportive, and stable environment. However, every household is different and it does not always turn out that way for some people. Unfortunately, based on the memoir Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard, Liz Murray’s life is an example of this. Liz grew up in an impoverished neighborhood in the Bronx, New York. Liz yearned for the parental support and guidance from her parents; however, due to their ongoing battle with substance abuse it prevented them giving her a safe, supportive, and stable environment.
The large state of California stretches almost 900 miles along the Pacific Ocean and the Mexican border. This state is best known for the city of Los Angeles, which is the seat of the entertainment industry in Hollywood. This glamour of the entertainment industry of course comes along with negative elements like substance abuse and mental illness. Read below to learn more: California’s Substance Abuse Numbers: Death from drug abuse is the number one premature killer in California.
In “Find Your Beach”, a narrative essay written by Zadie Smith, the writer expresses her belief that is one is adamant enough, one can arrive at their beach - a paradise-like environment that people dream of, but is believed to be very hard to obtain. The idea of a person’s “beach” being hard to discover can be observed through Smith’s personal background, as it is almost mythical for this English writer living in Soho, Manhattan to come by a beach. What I took away from Smith’s text is the idea that when you finally arrive at your beach, “sooner or later you will be sitting on that beach wondering what comes next”. Overall, I interpreted one’s beach being defined as a person’s happiness. It is something we all have the potential to posses
Mental Illness and Addiction In The Glass Castle, written by Jeannette Walls, there are many different themes that relate to issues faced in today’s society. The book is a memoir, written about Jeannette’s family life and experiences. Throughout her life, Jeannette and her siblings faced many hardships, living in poverty with their border line abusive parents. The Walls children endured many struggles due to their parents’ battles with mental illness and addiction.
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.
Drug Addiction Imagine a life where someone is controlled by something that doesn't have a pulse, controlled by a substance that they can see ruining their life but for some reason they can't control the outcome. Substance abuse costs the health care system about $11 billion, with overall costs reaching $193 billion. That $11 Billion dollars could go to treating the addiction rather than treating the outcome, and instead of locking up low level drug offenders, we as a society should help them through their difficult time. And according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), approximately 27 million Americans, or 10.2% of the American population over the age of 12 reported using illicit drugs in 2014. 10% of our society is
The beach symbolize the childhood that jerry was living in because when he was at the beach he didn't care about nothing anybody said to him. “they understood that he was a foreigner strayed from his own beach, and they proceeded to forget him. But he was happy. He was with them.” (3) .
Drug abuse is the habitual taking of addictive or illegal drugs in order to feel a euphoria, treat pain, or help with sleeping disorders. Drug abuse is a chronic brain disease that causes drug use despite the harmful consequences to the user and the people around them. In Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the dystopian society portrayed is oblivious to the impact of the censorship around them. Books are banned and if found, they are burned along with their houses. The people in this society do not have time to think about anything because they are constantly surrounded by the constant chaos of loud noises on commercials or televisions and are over stimulated.
In the NY Times article “Why the Beach Is a Bummer,” Roxane Gay exploits the beach and the ways it never actually lives up to the expectation many have when summer comes around. Gay speaks of her childhood on the beaches of Haiti and how beautiful it was, but how different it is in the United States because there's such a high expectation for the beach since many areas aren’t surrounded by them. “The beach becomes a kind of utopia — the place where all our dreams come true”(Gay), meaning the beach becomes romanticized by so many when in reality there’s just sand in places where it doesn't belong whether in your book or on your body. Gay expresses how soon after arriving at the beach boredom approaches from having nothing to do besides
The poem was formatted in this way so that the reader would have to logically assume that the grandmother was not only taking a picture of her granddaughter at the beach, but was reflecting back to her past and admiring the opportunity that her granddaughter was getting to have that she did