Reaction Essay
Aaron Loyola
Professor Rogovein
English 1301, Section #46135
22 July 2013
Drinking till Death For most people, alcohol is a pleasant accompaniment to social activities, though the consequences of its misuse are serious and life threatening. In Scott Sander’s “Under the Influence: Paying the Price of My Father’s Booze,” Sanders pays and continues to pay for his father’s drinking problem by having feelings of guilt and anger for him after he dies. Throughout this essay, Sanders also shows alcoholism as a social problem rather than an individual problem.
Sanders recalls that a main source of his father’s drinking problem was from a cinderblock place called Sly’s. After getting some gas and pumping the tires, his father would go inside while Mr. Sly fetches “…down from the shelf behind the cash register two green pints of Gallo wine ” (185). Sanders points out that one reason for his father’s alcoholism was the influence of Mr. and Ms. Sly for providing alcohol for him every time he goes there. Since the family that owns the cinderblock place were also their neighbors, Sanders feels angry towards them for contributing to his father’s death.
Sanders then talks about how his mother and father met. Sanders says she met him “…on the eve of World War II and fell for his butter-melting Mississippi drawl and his way red hair [and] learned that he drank heavily, but then so did a lot of men” (188). Here, Sanders suggest that his drinking problem was influenced by his father being a soldier in the war. Because most soldiers drank, it swayed him to also drink very much. In this part of the essay, Sanders also feels angry, not towards the father, but towards his mother, who was “fooled” to believe that his father’s drinking problem would start to decline. He feels this way because the sadness of the family for his father’s death could have been avoided if she had better judgment before marrying his father who already was a heavy drinker.
After his father
Professor Rogovein
English 1301, Section #46135
22 July 2013
Drinking till Death For most people, alcohol is a pleasant accompaniment to social activities, though the consequences of its misuse are serious and life threatening. In Scott Sander’s “Under the Influence: Paying the Price of My Father’s Booze,” Sanders pays and continues to pay for his father’s drinking problem by having feelings of guilt and anger for him after he dies. Throughout this essay, Sanders also shows alcoholism as a social problem rather than an individual problem.
Sanders recalls that a main source of his father’s drinking problem was from a cinderblock place called Sly’s. After getting some gas and pumping the tires, his father would go inside while Mr. Sly fetches “…down from the shelf behind the cash register two green pints of Gallo wine ” (185). Sanders points out that one reason for his father’s alcoholism was the influence of Mr. and Ms. Sly for providing alcohol for him every time he goes there. Since the family that owns the cinderblock place were also their neighbors, Sanders feels angry towards them for contributing to his father’s death.
Sanders then talks about how his mother and father met. Sanders says she met him “…on the eve of World War II and fell for his butter-melting Mississippi drawl and his way red hair [and] learned that he drank heavily, but then so did a lot of men” (188). Here, Sanders suggest that his drinking problem was influenced by his father being a soldier in the war. Because most soldiers drank, it swayed him to also drink very much. In this part of the essay, Sanders also feels angry, not towards the father, but towards his mother, who was “fooled” to believe that his father’s drinking problem would start to decline. He feels this way because the sadness of the family for his father’s death could have been avoided if she had better judgment before marrying his father who already was a heavy drinker.
After his father