Sandars does something interesting with his first line of "Under the Influence" - he makes us listen, right away. I was captured by this and couldn't relate personally, but my mom struggled with an alcoholic father. He wasn't violent like Sander's, but it is all and all an interesting and painful topic to see further into.
I enjoyed the listing of different words for drunkness. I think that Sanders did a great job capturing the "funniness that isn't so funny" once you pull back the initial image of a drunk person and adapt them as a drunk parent to a child. Here, Sanders does a good job of putting his readers in his shoes, which is a difficult concept when trying to show and not tell a reader from only the pages of a book.
One more area I enjoyed in this story was on page 733 when he explains the car "new in 1980, battered in 1981" and how his dad interrupts their "game of catch, our building of snow forts, or picking of plums..." again showing and not telling that this was a constant action of his father coming home drunk. It happened day in and day out, throughout the seasons.
Sam,
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed the variations of drunkenness and Sander's ability to lighten the subject a little. I feel like sarcasm is a great vehicle for doing that because it still keeps his bluntness intact. I have been further assessing the word variation and I also have been getting the idea that "it doesn't really matter what you call it." With this I feel like Sander's was showing that no matter how you sugar coat it, how educated you sound, or how nonchalant you sound the alcoholic is still an alcoholic. There is no word variation that can change their circumstances. Only they have the ability to do that.
Sam,
ReplyDeleteI was fascinated too by his opening sentence "My father drank." Three simple words that sets the solemn tone right away for the piece. I enjoy reading his personal reflections, and how he pulls information from different places instead of just focusing on his father's alcoholism. He includes the Bible, alcoholism in the US, which make this piece more dynamic. And, I agree with Taylor, there is no sugar coat for alcoholics, which I think is the main message in page 734-735. In the end, no one is laughing.