His drinking affected his actions and caused his son to be humiliated in front of his friends. It is very difficult to have a healthy relationship with someone when you are controlled by alcohol.…
The father seems to be a hard worker who takes care of his family, but things do not seem to go right for him. Studies indicate that many people drink as a means of coping with life and its accompanying economic stress, job stress and marital discord. “The whiskey on your breath” this line could be interpreted as a person who has alcohol on his breath or is drunk, but it could also be interpreted in a positive way. For example a hardworking person who has a few stumbles and falls but their way of relieving some of stress is drinking to forget which in this case applies to the father. “The hand that held my wrist was battered on one knuckle” this proves that the occupation occupied by the father, is one that requires hard labour and is quite demanding and also giving very little in return, like a gardener or even a welder which requires physical strength. Hence causing a battered…
In the short story, “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner, ten year old, Sarty struggles between doing the right thing or betraying his father. In “Doe Season” by David Kaplan, nine year old, Andy struggles in trying to be the boy her father never had or the girl she really is. In both of the short stories, with the help of the character relationships and conflicts, the authors portray the theme of children finding themselves. [Thesis]…
Childhood is a strange and wonderful time of ignorance and imagination where the floor can be lava, a sandbox can be a construction zone, and summers are filled with playing in the sun. Among these fun times there is a fundamental formation happening in our brain creating our personalities; peers and parents contribute greatly to this. Writers often introduce a childish character who is shown to change from a hardship they face. In American works such as The Death of a Salesman, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Scarlet letter, and The Body children, or childish characters, are introduced to bring light to their ever changing personalities and the forces and events that shaped them.…
In Cole’s young life, he was beat by his father quite often, and his mother always turned her back and never interfered. Both of his parents were alcoholics and his father was convinced that everything bad going on in his…
Alcohol was the father’s weakness. Although he disagreed with his family all the time, the children…
With the daunting task of facing a derelict, volatile world, an eight-year-old boy manages the unthinkable - survival. Cormac McCarthy illustrates how the boy in The Road encounters many obstacles during his childhood, and in spite of these hardships, resists numerous temptations to give up in life. The combination of growing up in a dysfunctional family as well as a bleak, barren, cataclysmic environment affects his psychological and physical development and makes his life extremely difficult to bear. The environment in which the boy inhabits is nothing short of hellish. As stated by Janet Maslin in her criticism of The Road, “the boy was born a few days after [the mother] and [father] ‘watched distant cities burn.’” (Maslin 2). The boy grows…
“Last Look” is no exception to the recurring theme of referring to local Irish people that is evident in much of Heaney’s poetry. Heaney talks about the…
This infamous short story by renowned writer, Edgar Allan Poe, contains many dramatic twists and turns while brutally describing the murderous events that took place at a marvelous masquerade ball. As the story begins Poe walks the reader through each of the rooms in the house. When he describes that sound made by the clock it shows that there is a nervousness in the crowd of people. Later on in the party this happens again but instead of just a single daunting ring there were twelve, which brought fear to the guests. Once the last bell had sounded, a mysterious masked figure appeared and took everyone by surprise.…
Gravells, A (2012) 5th Ed Preparing to teach in the lifelong learning sector, London: Learning Matters Ltd.…
One instance that demonstrates effects of drugs on family relationship is when Tom's step father Bruce, takes his anger out on Tom's mother due to the overuse of alcohol. When Tom's stepfather took his anger out on Tom's mother it caused eruption, anger, and violence. These were things that caused an unstable environment in toms home, which is the reason why he moved out. He could not handle the constant arguing and fighting. The fact that his mother took this abuse from Bruce, also brought out anger inside of Tom. Watching his own mother take the abuse day after day was frustrating for him and he believed that his mother could of moved out and created a better life for both him…
Michael Patrick MacDonald lived a frightening life. To turn the book over and read the back cover, one might picture a decidedly idyllic existence. At times frightening, at times splendid, but always full of love. But to open this book is to open the door to Southie's ugly truth, to MacDonald's ugly truth, to take it in for all it's worth, to draw our own conclusions. One boy's hell is another boy's playground. Ma MacDonald is a palm tree in a hurricane, bending and swaying in the violent winds of Southie's interior, even as things are flying at her head, she crouches down to protect her children, to keep them out of harms way. We grew up watching Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow and Peanuts. Michael Patrick MacDonald grew up watching violence, sadness and death.…
Laura struggled in school, never went to college, and had troubles at home with her father. Laura and her family had a normal life when she was growing up. She had four siblings, and her mother and father were together and both held stable jobs. To everyone else they looked like a normal happy family. But when her father got home from his job as a bartender, he was a completely different person. He drank throughout his shift every day and came home late at night drunk and angry. Although he never hit the children, he hit his wife and verbally abused his children every night. He was the hardest on Laura’s little brother, Frankie: “…Frank would be sound asleep, and my father would appear in his bedroom… He would scream and curse at the boy, as if Frank were a man he held some mortal grievance against…five minutes of yelling. Ten minutes. It seemed like it would never end” (Schroff and Trensniowski 77-78). When their father was sober, he was the perfect dad. He loved his kids and treated them well. But once he drank, he turned into a monster that everyone in the family got used to fearing. This created conflict because the children never knew which mood their father would be in. The last conflict present in this novel was the relationship between Maurice and…
She was a widow, grieving over the loss of her husband which made Glen the perfect rebound. He was very sweet to Anney and she was kind to him as well. But once he gotten used to Bone always being number one in Anney’s life, he realized he had to do something in order to be in charge of the house and everyone’s lives. “People pay for what they do, and still more,” can be related to Glen because he sexually abuses, mistreats, and beats Bone. He pays for what he’s done when her uncles beat him and out him in the hospital. “For what they have allowed themselves to become.” Throughout this story he doesn’t get much sympathy. He didn’t get much attention from his father, which most would say it’s why he lacks respects for women and doesn’t take responsibility for his own actions. His actions may be because he’s the least successful out of all his family. He allows himself to become a terrible person based on how his father treated him. He’s constantly out of work because he has the competition of his brothers and father constantly in his mind. Although, I have no sympathy for him because he is an adult. Furthermore, I do suggest that he has a mental issue wrong with him because he lashes out randomly. And they pay for it simply: by the lives they lead.” He simply pays for what he does once he gets beat up by Bone’s uncles, they find out she’s been getting beaten on and molested. The life he is leading isn’t very appealing. He can’t maintain a decent job to provide for the family and takes his anger out on them as well. Overall, in this story, he is a terrible…
Patrick Kavangh’s earlier works such as ‘Inishkeen Road: July Evening’, demonstrate the poet’s sense of isolation and frustration. ‘Inishkeen Road’ is a particularly good example of this as it is about the difficult existence of the poet and his desire to attend the country dance in ‘Billy Brennan’s barn’. I could understand the poet’s feelings here because as a teenager in Ireland today the main goal is to ‘fit in’ with ones peers. ‘I have what every poet hates in spite of solemn talk of contemplation’, I really admire the poet’s honesty here as he expresses his sense of isolation and the feeling that he is different from all the others in Co. Monaghan. The sibilance in the line ‘a footfall tapping secrecies of stone’ is wonderfully evocative. I could empathise with Kavanagh here. He felt that he was missing the key to unlocking the meaning of ‘the wink-and-elbow language of delight’ and the ‘half-talk code of mysteries’. This is a universal theme as it is something that all young people fear.…