In the memoir, “Another Bullshit Night in Suck City” by Nick Flynn, drug use plays a huge role. Throughout the memoir, Flynn describes his father’s struggles with alcoholism and how it continually caused negative events in his life. Along with his father he also explains the drug use of his mother and friends. Flynn not only describes the consequences of other’s drug use, but also his own. During his memoir, Flynn continually gives drug use a negative connotation, through the actions and decisions of his characters. While, expressing his negative opinion of drug use Flynn also accurately describes the effects of multiple drugs and the profile of drug users who are drug dependent.
One huge example of drug dependence is Flynn’s father. Continually,
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To illustrate, due to fact that Flynn grew up around adults that used drugs he was put at a higher risk of using them himself. For example, knowing adults who use marijuana is a risk factor that leads to a higher chance of using drugs (Hart and Ksir 14). Flynn is often exposed to adults using drugs throughout his childhood-especially his stepfather. For instance, “After building the master bedroom his second act had been the cultivation of marijuana in our very public backyard” (Flynn 93). Flynn is also put at greater risk through his association with multiple individuals who use drugs. This is shown when he begins drinking, “I got drunk for the first time when I was twelve, at a place called Dreamworld. This baptism in beer takes place outdoors, in daylight, at an Octoberfest. My preteen friends and I find unattended pitchers and we empty them. Then we find more” (Flynn 86). This risk factor not only takes place when he first starts drinking, but also later in his life. For example, his friendship with Richard, who has a problem with heroin, “…Richard, a sculptor, landed in Provincetown from New York a few months earlier to escape a heroin habit that had gotten out of hand, sick as a dog when we met” (Flynn 149). These risk factors in his life helped encourage and influence his view of drugs. By including these risk factors Flynn accurately describes the beginnings of drug
Drugs can ruin your life, family, career and future. Jude Hassan author and main subject of the novel Suburban Junky, has a lot of similarities and differences with Chris Herren, former NBA player and star of the ESPN Documentary, Unguarded, regarding their addictions to drugs. The major similarities are their rehab time, painful withdraw and the major difference with them is that Jude did it to be popular and Chris did it to deal with the stress. Both Jude and Chris served a long period of time in jail because of their problems with drugs.
He assumes that drug addiction originated by younger years adversity in major cases; like many women who are addicted are victims of sexual assault in childhood years. Similar, he tells that males suffered “series of abandonment or severe physical and psychological abuse” (Maté 274) in childhood memory would easily be involved in addiction. According to Mate, drug addicts are usually in a state of unawareness; they can self-harm without feeling pain (274). Maté’s patient, Carl, thirty-six year-old native, angrily hurt himself with a knife as punishment for using cocaine (274). However, people misunderstand that addiction will not happen in families that raise children with a “secure nurturing home” (Maté 275). He argues that it still exists in those secure homes, even though they do not recognize it. In brief, Maté describes the mental factors such as stress, anxiety, and depression which are saddled “from family problem, or from outside circumstance” (274); this pressures can emotionally affect to the process of “endorphin-liberating interaction with their children” (Maté 275). He thinks children would rely on opiates to comfort their deepest emotions; it would be a best solution to escape their lonely world. For that reason, Maté confirms addicts usually blame themselves for “stupid decision” (Maté 275) after being suffered of drug starvation. In the last paragraph, Maté concludes his essay by stating “that is the great wound of all” (275),
“Alcohol addiction stunts the spiritual, emotional and mental growth of a person”~Anonymous. Sherman Alexie’s novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, is a book based off the author’s teenage life. The novel is about a poor 14 year old named Junior who faced numerous challenges in his life. Junior has experienced bullying, he was called a traitor for following his dreams, got in a huge fight with his best friend and lost three very important people in his life because of alcohol. Fortunately in the end, Junior got through the pain and lived on but he learned many lessons. One of the lessons Junior learned was that the fall into addiction, in this situation alcohol, leads to a great deal of misery for the individual and those
The essay, “Under the Influence”, was written by Scott Russell Sanders at his forty-two years old. As the son of an alcoholic, Sander described his fearful childhood memory and how his family was affected by his alcoholic father in the long run. The purpose for Sander wrote this essay is that he wants his son can be saved from the chain of influences passed by his father.
Scott Russell Sanders’ “Under the Influence” is about a family growing up with alcoholism, mental and physical abuse. When Sanders was very young, he didn’t recognize that his father was an alcoholic, but as he grew older, he saw the bloodshot eyes, hiding alcohol, the deceptions, and the dual personalities of an alcoholic. “My father drank. He drank as a gut-punched boxer gasps for breath, as a starving dog gobbles food—compulsively, secretly, in pain and trembling.” (215). Sanders story starts at the end, where his father dies from alcoholism. The turmoil and fear this family suffered because of their father’s alcoholism, is a story a lot of families are familiar with.
On page 58 of the book a specific quote really stood out about how it is so easy to get sucked up into the drug/alcohol game. “This game didn‘t require studying or exams. It didn‘t require a degree or vocational skills. All he needed was ambition. And guts. And, as Wes was soon to understand, and ability to live with constant fear.” This quote was referring to the other Wes since drugs were more heavily highlighted in his life than the Author Wes. For example, the other Wes’ father, Westley, fell hard into the drug/alcohol game. He was so much involved in it that the other Wes’ mother, Mary, had no choice but to leave him. Later on in the book, it is expressed that the other Wes’ children’s mother, Cheryl, grew into drug addiction. Wes realized that his customers were actually fueling Cheryl’s drug addiction, which played a toll on the other Wes. This theme of drugs and alcohol supports the statement in the textbook that drugs and alcohol are extremely
Recently, New Jersey governor and presidential candidate Chris Christie gave a heartfelt speech at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire (Vale). Governor Chris Christie is loved by his supporters and detested by his opponents for his ability to present his points in a moving and effective manner. As much as one might disagree with the governor’s politics, policies, or perhaps pushy personality, it is undeniable that the man can deliver a solid speech. Chris Christie has a way of wrapping his audience around his finger, with every word instilling the exact intended emotion. Chris Christie’s “Drug Speech” delivers his point on how Americans neglect what he describes as the “Heroin, cocaine, [and] alcohol” addicts to the listener masterfully through a pairing of anecdotes, using ethos and pathos very effectively.
In the chapter "Rat Park," it is said that addicts are swarming everywhere in the nation today. The reason why there are numerous of people that are addicts are because the substances are easily obtained or available, and also because the substances are the only way people can cope with things.
In Claire’s Sterk’s book, “Fast Lives: women who used crack cocaine”, she uses information from observation, conversations, interviews and group discussions to explain how using crack affects active users. She also shows how they started using, how they survived, how they developed and maintained relationships with friends and family, and how they were mothers and drug users at the same time. In addition, Sterk started Project FAST, the Female Atlanta Study to identify the impact of drug use patterns on lives of active female users. In this study, most of the women’s stories are similar but yet different in many ways to each other. While curiosity and peer pressure caused these women to experiment with drugs, others were
The motif of drugs and addiction ignites the dominant style of drama in the stories. In “Car Crash While Hitchhiking,” Johnson conveys the message readers and allows them to empathize the addicts mental state. This is prominently shown in the last paragraph of the short story. The use of drugs that Johnson reveals through Fuckhead and Georgie is significant to the plot. In the stories “Emergency” and “Steady Hands at Seattle Grace” this
The book traces the devastating effect that the drug war has had on minority Communities, classed as ghettos where predominantly black or brown people reside. This group of people have suffered from years of harassment and biased law enforcement. Frankly the War on Drugs is a racist cause, an excuse to discriminate against African American communities in order to achieve
In her first paragraphs, Talbot introduces a Harvard student by the name of "Alex". Alex is shown as a normal college student who wants to keep a balanced life between school and friends, but finds it challenging without the use of Adderall. Talbot goes on to explain that Alex got started on these drugs because he found "life to be impossible" to live without its use (para. 2). Alex's reliance on drugs was not the only personal account that Talbot brings up. In fact later in her article, Talbot brings up a business man by the name of Nicholas Seltzer. Talbot mentions that Seltzer had a different outlook for the use of the drugs than Alex did. She even marks to mention that Seltzer saw his habit as a "pursuit that aligns him with a larger movement for improving humanity"(para.12). By comparing the two personal interviewers, Talbot is able to connect to a more open audience and is able to prove her point with the use of these real life evidence. As more readers connect to these personal interviews the more they realize how the use of drugs has been increasing because they can connect to Talbots real life
In Bret Aston Ellis’s The Rules of Attraction, drug and alcohol abuse runs rampant throughout the novel. The main characters of the novel, Sean Bateman, Lauren Hynde, and Paul Denton, heavily use drugs and alcohol throughout the novel. Moreover, as the author portrays, drug and alcohol use are heavily integrated into the college campus culture, as nearly every character is using a wide assortment of drugs or alcohol readily available in the 1980s. Even though awareness of this problem is spreading, drug and alcohol use is still a big concern decades later. First, the problem of alcohol use and abuse will be explained. An analysis will reveal that Ellis’s The Rules of Attraction is an accurate portrayal of the drug culture on college
The protagonist of the story is an unnamed male whose experiments with alcohol and weed at fifteen years old lead to harder drugs and greater consequences that threaten his safety and security. For example, the narrator says, “Donny said he saw me standing sorta wonky in the back and said I need a hit. Donny was the first to get me high”, he implies that his friend Donny got him high because of how he was standing. The use of drugs did not just stop at marijuana, the narrator also indulged in alcohol, he goes on saying, “The rest of the kids would watch as Mark and I shotgunned Schlitz beneath the bleachers of the stadium”. Which eventually led to him dropping out if school and focusing on his habits and not his well-being. The protagonist constant influences from his friend and associates increased his use and encouraged the damages that were being done to him and his body. His habits started to heighten and the stronger drugs were amongst him,
The movie, Requiem for a Dream (Selby & Mansell, 2000) exposes the multiple faces of addiction. Addiction can change a person’s identity and therefore, impacts each person differently. This movie explores the life of four addicts who push the boundaries of their own lives leaving the viewer to wonder, how far will they go to use drugs? The focus of this paper is on what addiction looks like for the character, Harry Goldfarb.