Summary Of Under The Influence Scott Sanders

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.

and presents a paradox with which the native writers must grapple. The pathetic city drunks and

When Victor was a child his parents would drink a lot and would neglect him because they dealt with their pain by drinking. They drank because they were drinking away the problems caused by the generational trauma they and the generation before them had to endure. For example, during the New Year's party, everyone got drunk, even Victor's parents, left Victor by himself. Victor’s father and mother drank more

Mr. Sanders starts out the narrative telling a story of him seeing his father outside in the barn. As he approached his father he’d see green bottles of wine, beer cans wrapped in brown paper bags, and brown whiskey bottles thrown all over the barn. He’d witness his father drink heavily and as he finished both Mr. Sanders and his father acted as if nothing had just happened. As if it was normal for his father to drown himself in booze. They then carried on with conversation.

When we analyze Scott Russell Sanders’ memoir “Under the Influence,” using the notion of betrayal Patricia Hampl establishes in her memoir “Other People’s Secret,” we discover that “Under the Influence,” rather than being a breach of trust, is instead Sanders’ attempt to redeem his drunkard dad’s character. Patricia Hampl, in her memoir, recounts what she calls “betrayals” that she has committed against people—ranging from her friends to someone as close as her own mother— whom she writes about in her works. This betrayal often involves her inconsiderately revealing something about them, which they think is detrimental to their image: for example, Hampl revealing her mother’s epilepsy, an illness her mother had kept secret from the outside world, in her poem. “Under the Influence” has a similar context; Sanders also reveals his family’s long-standing secret that his father was a chronic drunkard. However, despite the revelation, Sander seems to focus on portraying his father not as an alcoholic but as someone afflicted by the disease of alcoholism. He tries to convince readers that his father was unlike other drunkards and focuses on his father’s character rather than on the morality of his drinking habit. In light of this, can we contend that “Under the Influence” is a betrayal committed by Sanders towards his father and his family? In this paper, I will scrutinize Hampl’s perception of betrayal and use it to analyze this question. I will also examine the possibility that

In the text:" Under the influence ", Scott Russell was a traumatized kid who suffers a lot during his childhood because of someone misconduct.You can see while reading the text, he was expressing his true feelings by telling you how drunk the father was and on how stressful the situation was for him and his family.A situation that he has to deal with during all his life.In my opinion, I think that Scott used those sources like the Bible, poems and short stories, it was just to make his story interesting and interactive.He wanted to show people how painful and how degrading his father's life was.Let's take a quick example in paragraph 28 when he illustrated:"Our ministers were fond of quoting St. Paul's pronouncement that drunkards would

Growing up, everyone must sit through the stream of presentations showing the effects of drug and alcohol use but they fail to portray the reality of situations when thrown into them. Discussing this subject is difficult and often sounds disconnected but, through the strategies of strong imagery, repeated use of anaphoric shifts, and specific, emblematic diction the author reveals his developing and true emotional response to the argument.

Have you ever been so attached to something that you could never live without it? Whether it be television, chocolate or substances more severe like alcohol, everyone has experienced addiction at one time or another. When the brain is introduced to something it enjoys very much, it tends to want to experience that same feeling again. So in a way, it forces a person to crave that specific object and eventually become dependent. Some substances like drugs or alcohol if abused, can have similar negative effects on the user. Robert Lowell, an award winning poet famous for his influence in confessional poetry, suffered problems with drugs, which ruined his life. In “The Drinker” Robert Lowell, uses symbolism, imagery, and diction to show that a person who struggles with alcoholism may desperately search for help, but eventually realize that he must overcome his addiction on his own.

Alcohol is often the destructive force behind many dead men who take one sip too many and fall into its control. In the life of Scott Russell Sanders that is exactly what happens. His father falls weak to the evil of alcohol and becomes possessed by it. This ultimately leads to the father’s own demise, and the birth of his son’s own demon that would bring torment upon him and his own family one day. Knowing full well the power of this demon Scott Russell Sanders writes” Under The Influence” in hope that his son may not be afflicted by the disease. Also, he targets the audience for those who have ever been afflicted by the disease known as alcoholism in hopes that they too can break free from the demons. Although the awareness of alcoholism as grown greatly over the last fifty years, it is still a grave issue none the less as it was when Sanders wrote this. The text as a whole convinces the audience that alcoholism does not only affect the alcoholic, but also affects future generations to come and because of this action must be made if it is to ever be stopped.

Combining this research, with the brief information about Trudy’s attendance at a residential school allows us to infer to her alcoholism is a coping mechanism which enables her to live with the traumatic childhood memories from her residential schooling.

“Mommy, what’s wrong with Daddy?” a child asks as he witnesses his father stumbling across the living room screaming while the mother nags him about coming home drunk again. “Is Daddy going to come watch me play?” the same child asks about his first baseball game while his father is at the bar mid-day. “I haven’t ever been close to my own father” he tells his girlfriend when asked about his family. “I don’t expect my father to come to my graduation, if he does, he’ll be wasted” he half-jokingly says to his friends as they talk about how excited they are about finally getting out of high school. During his first week of college, when asked if he was enjoying the stay away from home, he explains to his newfound friends that it’s far better than being home with his “deadbeat father.” While there are many children who experience this, the impacts of an alcohol abusing parent is often overlooked and assumed that it only impacts the child in their early years.

It’s hard to understand alcoholism when your parents can have a glass of wine with dinner without finishing the whole bottle.  Or if they can have a beer when they go out with friends and stop themself so they can actually drive home at the end of the night.  My mom has struggled with alcoholism her entire life.  Once a drop of alcohol touches her tongue, she doesn’t stop until she’s on the floor.  She’d quit, and a month later drink again: the theory of an alcoholic.  There was nothing I could do, I was eight years old; innocent.  I believed her when she said she’d never drink again.  I never realized it was a disease, a sickness, an addiction.  I wasn’t aware that it was going to take more than her word for the drinking to stop.  Alcoholism affects the drinker’s body, but more emotionally, it affects every single person around him or her.

As demonstrated by the word reference, alcohol mishandle is the reliance on the use of alcoholic liquor or the useless conduct and eager lead happening in view of alcohol dependence. In “Our Mutual Friend” by Charles Dickens, alcoholic use is explaining metaphorically that alcohol dependence or alcohol addiction was common among Victorian citizens, and caused many domestic violence problems, but the women were not helped in the situations because the civilization looked at that as not breaking the law. The lady or whoever is being manhandled by the individual impaired may feel confined, and alone. In test investigates men from a harsh conduct at home treatment program as it was found that marital viciousness was eight times more inclined to occur on a day when the man had used alcohol than on a non-drinking day. In Victorian circumstances drinking liquor resembled drinking water, it was ordinary to go to the bar and get a couple of beverages in. Despite the growing intelligent affirmation exhibiting that there is no prompt causal association among alcohol and brutality, open feelings continue staying settled that alcohol accept a key part in the effect that alcohol has on awful wrongdoings. What has been deductively shown nonetheless, is that alcohol usage interferes with the chemicals in our psyche, and the more alcohol we eat up the more the alcohol intrudes with our basic subjective perceptions. Suggesting that once we are intoxicated we begin to focus on smaller parts

Sanders’s father resembles Phil in his addiction, in the sense that his family was deprived from their father and their duties were left behind unfulfilled. Yet sometimes the father run away for weeks, “Whatever my brother and sister and mother may be thinking on their own rumpled pillows, I lie there hating him, loving him, fearing him, knowing I have failed him” (182). The alcoholism causes some undesirables consequences on the family such as lack of irresponsibility and bad memories for the children. Thus, Sanders’s father is a clear example for alcoholism effects in life.

Alcoholism is defined as: The continued, excessive, and usually uncontrollable use of alcoholic drinks; the consumption of alcoholic liquor or the mental illness and compulsive behavior resulting from alcohol dependency. To some, alcoholism is seen as a genetically passed down disease that can and does destroy lives daily. Others see the development of alcoholism as the result of a choice someone makes daily to drink excessively. While each side is entitled to their own thoughts and opinions, it is a serious threat on millions of lives. Alcoholism doesn’t only affect one person, but the friends, family, and children around them. It can tear families and relationships apart in the blink of an eye. _______________________________Thesis_________________________________________.