Logan's Addiction: A Short Story

“Her voice reminded me of what heroin feels like...it makes you feel...distant and sure...it makes you feel in control” (pg.27) Sonny’s statement of heroin use can be compared to his admiration of music, and that is because music gave him the same feeling as using heroin. It allowed for him to “feel distant” and “feel in control”.

According to DrugAbuse.gov, long-term studies of drug use patterns show that most high school students who use other illegal drugs have tried marijuana first. Teens are often peer pressured into doing drugs; they get to comfortable with them they inevitably reframe to harder and more potent drugs. In Cole Meyer’s short story, “Addiction” the narrator is a struggling teen addict and his addiction continues to worsen as he ages. Meyer uses setting, character and conflict to illustrate the devastating effects of addiction on the individual.

The story opens with a crisis in their relationship. The narrator reads in the newspaper that Sonny was taken into custody in a drug raid. He learns that Sonny is addicted to heroin and that he will be sent to a treatment facility to be “cured.” Unable to believe that his gentle and quiet brother could have so abused himself, the narrator cannot reopen communication with Sonny until a second crisis occurs, the death of his daughter from polio. When Sonny is released, the narrator brings him to live with his family.

Brian started to think about his future. Brian has his mind set on Bellarmine already. He looked toward college and already knows that he wants to go somewhere in Southern California. Chapman and LMU are at the top of his list. After college, he fantasizes about being in the entertainment business. He has his hopes on being an actor or a youtuber, and moving to Bora Bora with all of his riches. However, No matter what happens in the future, he will always live by the most valuable lessons he has learned: family first and live life to the fullest.

When news of Sonny’s addiction to drugs has first made its way to his older brother, there is a part where his brother discusses the news with one of Sonny’s old junkie friends. His brother, in talking to the junkie friend, says, “‘You mean--they’ll let him out. And then he’ll just start working his way back in again. You mean he’ll never kick the habit.’” (Baldwin 126).

I tell you one thing though, I’d rather blow my brains out than go through this again.”(51) The drug addiction is not what Sonny wished to live with. He would rather die than go trough the battle of drugs. Living a life so bad that date is the best options gave the biggest picture of how life truly was for Sonny. In that moment self medication is what Sonny yearned for. He yearned for the intense high of a hot needle and his muscle relaxing like a breeze on tabletop but though his music. Growing up so troubled drew Sonny closer to bearing himself in self hurt and self pity. He coped through his drugs and his drugs controlled his leered emotions. The drugs overpowered him and the only way sonny could break out was through the power of jazz. Sonny only wants to control his destiny and guide himself to the right path. All his life he wasn’t destined to be anything nor did he have control of where he would go. Self medication is where the control of his own life

At the opening of the story, the narrator has just learned that his brother, Sonny, had been arrested for drug use. “He had been picked up the night before in a raid on an apartment downtown for peddling and using heroin” (Baldwin, 123 ). He quickly felt the hopelessness and despair that you feel for anyone who gets into drug usage and the unrelenting disbelief. “I didn’t want to believe that I’d ever see my brother going down, already seen so many others.” (Baldwin, 123). The narrator does not want to believe in Sonny’s downfall, but in his heart of hearts, he knows it to be true. He takes time to reflect on his students and how he watches the same addictions take over their lives. “Maybe it did more for them than algebra could.” (Baldwin, 123.) The narrator also feels like he failed his mother by not looking out for Sonny and not being aware of his downfall into addiction. “You got to hold on to your brother and don’t let him fall, no matter what it looks like is happening to him and no matter how evil you get with him.” (Baldwin, 133). Sonny’s

The characters face the issue of trying to not suffer while knowing there is no way of accomplishing it. Everyone, not just Sonny, is going through a struggle between looking on the bright side and allowing real issues to arise. After the narrator reads about his brother, he thinks back to their childhood, when Sonny was ‘‘wild, but he wasn’t crazy.’’ Made it through a day teaching classes, Sonny’s brother goes to a friend of Sonny, and the friend is being honest about how good it feels to get high when Sonny asked him about drugs. He also tries to explain what it is like to be on drugs, and why Sonny got on drugs, but the narrator just ends up more angry and

Once given the chance, he reached over to her drink, slipping in a fine powder he had crushed before hand, into her drink. Making sure she was still turned and the bartender wasn’t looking, he stirred her drink before returning to his own, taking a sip. Watching her through hooded eyes, a very slight grin turned on his lips as she took a few drinks of her alcoholic beverage. Now all he had to do was wait it out. Once she was droggy enough from the predator drug, he would take her away from the bar to a far off place that civilization didn’t know of. Most men would rape on this particular drug, but he had other plans, wanting to keep her asleep and droggy enough to ride the bike with a stranger as well as get her to the private place with ties to a chair before the drug wore off. Everette continued to watch her every move, not wanting to get her hurt from someone else's hands besides his

At the onset of events, Clyde is already ultimately headed for trouble. Not completely understanding girls or much of anything else, he lets himself get into these situations without giving it much thought at all. At least he does not not follow the little voice that is giving it thought. While working in Kansas City he is invited to go out with the boys, knowing full well that their nighttime activities include drinking and visiting houses of prostitution. Although he turns down their invitations at first, he finally goes, letting his temptation for worldly appearances and social acceptance get the better of him. When asked what he wants to drink at his first dinner out he thinks to himself " '. . . surely I can not hold back.' What would they think of him if he did not drink something? For ever since he had been among them, he had been trying to appear as

This bitter conversation with the drug user would also be regeneration for the narrator. The drug user states he feels somewhat responsible in Sonny's arrest. In turn, the narrator faces the fact that he feels somewhat responsible for Sonny's arrest. As a result of his guilt and interest in Sonny, the narrator starts to ask the drug user specific questions regarding Sonny's disposition. The drug user has knowledge of the never-ending cycle of abusing drugs and shares this information with the narrator. In return, the older brother feels a regeneration of care for the drug user, who his is viewing as Sonny. This encounter concludes by the drug user requesting money from the narrator. The narrator feels sensitive of the drug users struggles (and failures) in life and gives him more money than requested.

As a high school teacher, the narrator often sees many young boys and girls who went through a lot of the same things they experienced. Something that was frequently found around the schools they attended was drugs and drug addicts. This is how Sonny was introduced to drugs. After a long six and

He left his crayons scattered on the drawing table and all over the floor, sometimes even on the window. The crayons were stepped on, chowed on by Wolf and even melted by the hot sun! One day, the crayons had enough of Logan’s carelessness. “We have to teach him a lesson.”

Within Hollywood’s movies depiction of drug addiction, many have failed to represent all true aspects that come along with such lifestyles. The movie, The Basketball Diaries, is based off a novel Jim Carroll wrote from his own diary entries. As a teenager growing up in the sixties, Carroll reveals his progression of drug abuse which eventually leads him addicted to heroin.Heroin is a white powder derived from morphine found in opium. It is commonly prescribed as a painkiller, but is also a popular street drug.The director casted Leonardo DiCaprio as Jimmy, and concentrates on creating the character as a stereotypical drug abuser. DiCaprio’s most captivating scene is when he is going through heroin

“Addiction is a brain disease expressed in the form of compulsive behavior,” says by Alan Leshner in his article, “Addiction Is a Brain Disease” featured in the book Drug Abuse: Opposing Viewpoints. Addiction has a variety of meanings depending on what your viewpoint of addiction. According to dictionary.com, the concrete definition of the word addiction is, “the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.” Basically various doctors and therapist consider addiction to be a genetic disorder. “Provocative, controversial, unquestionably incomplete, the dopamine hypothesis provides a basic framework