English composition II
11 July 2012
The Drunkard Answer Questions
The sources of humor in the Drunkard are when the little boy actually became the drunkard. I found it very funny how the little boy started off thinking he had to be in watch of his Father and it becoming vice versa. It arises from observations on life. The element of the story that was funniest to me was how he ran into the wall and excused his self from running into it while also cutting his face. The way he felt and what he was feeling was very funny throughout the entire story.
The chief insights into life and character presented by the story was the marriage and how the family live. How the mother is deeply upset at the Father when returning home obviously already learning about what happen to her son from the streets. How she goes on and on about how he made a fool of them. In contrast, the next morning the story tells us how she quietly praises Larry for being his fathers “guardian angel”. And how she felt so much better that for once the shame wasn’t on her by protecting her husband but on her husband for once thanks to her son
The title is of course fiction, but it seriously meant pertaining to this story. The title refers to not only the father but the son as well.
The four perspectives is from the son who was too young to be in the bar but old enough to usually have to watch his father. He had seen how it actually felt to be drunk. Another was the father who is ashamed and mad that his son drunk his beer. The mother who just knew it was going to be her husband drunk and finding out it was her son who in the end was happier that the father got a taste of his own medicine. Also, the townspeople who passed judgment on the father thinking he intentionally got his young son drunk.
The principal irony in this dramatic story is the son and father trading places in the act of one becoming drunk.
The removal in time gives readers the sense of something being omitted