Alcoholism in “Babylon Revisited” and The Last Time I Saw Paris
Ann Marnzarno says, “A tree is known by its fruit; alcoholism by its problems” (29). Even though this statement could be funny, the truth is that “In the United States, alcohol use is involved in nearly 100,000 deaths annually and plays a major role in numerous medical and social problems” (U.S. Institute of Medicine and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism1). This information can help to illustrate the negative impact of alcoholism in the United States. This serious topic of alcoholism is the argument of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s in short story “Babylon Revisited” and in the movie The Last Time I Saw Paris, directed by Richard Brooks. “Babylon Revisited” emphasizes
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According to the U.S. Institute of Medicine and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, "Alcohol problems arise through a complex interaction of personal, interpersonal, and social factors" (24). This alcoholism 's categorization divides into three levels: individual, interpersonal and social allows people to understand that alcoholism is much more complex than a simple personal whim. To illustrate this point, the movie The Last Time I Saw Paris symbolically starts showing Charlie at a bar drinking alcohol. The first person who greets him is a bartender who offers him a drink. Charlie does not need more people to go the bar and get a drink. However, the movie, also, shows Charlie drinking when he finds his friend Claude Matine and Marion; they offer him a drink for their encounter, and then, all of them are in a big party with plenty of liquor. Those scenes described above are a representation of two different levels of Charlie’s drinking. He does not need a special occasion to drink; however, if there is any motive, it is even …show more content…
First, psychologically, alcoholism causes a deterioration in the person 's self-esteem. As in the short story, the movie shows Charlie’s lack of confidence in himself. For example, Charlie collapses because his third book is rejected. He is completely beaten and cannot notice that Helen, his wife, wants to help him. She treats him with affection and encourages him to keep trying. In contrast, he yells, “I am not good Helen, go away and leave me alone!” (The Last Time I Saw Paris). In this expression, Charlie is showing a negative perception of himself; he seems like a person who cannot get things done. In this respect, summarizing what Hill Ziegler et al. point out in the article "Fragile Self-Esteem And Alcohol-Related Negative Consequences Among College Student Drinkers," self-esteem has a direct relationship to the negative effects of alcohol. The authors explain that people with low self-esteem who consume alcohol, tend to suffer more and get easily depressed because of their state of vulnerability caused by negative experiences in the past. On the other hand, they state that people with high self-esteem have more strength to cope with negative experiences (548). This lack of confidence in himself is a sign of how Chalie 's life is changing for the worse. He no longer has the psychological strength to overcome life 's drawbacks since his books were
Alcoholism. A disease that not only affects one person, but others around them. Alcoholism is defined as a chronic disorder characterized on the dependence of alcohol all the time. In The Glass Castle, alcoholism affects many characters, but the one it truly affects is Rex Walls.
Binge drinking and alcoholism have been a long-time concern in American society. While the government and schools have made great efforts to tackle the alcohol problems by enacting laws and providing education, the situation of dysfunctional alcohol consumption hasn’t been sufficiently improved. In the essay “Drinking Games,” author Malcolm Gladwell proves to the readers that besides the biological attributes of a drinker, the culture that the drinker lives in also influences his or her drinking behaviors. By talking about cultural impact, he focuses on cultural customs of drinking reflected in drinking places. He specifically examines how changing the drinking places changes people’s drinking behaviors by presenting the alcohol myopia theory.
Just one become only two, which then leads to number three that will be the last… so they say and apparently so will the one after that, after that, and after that until they can physically drink no more. For some, this might happen on their twenty first birthday or only once, but for many people in the world this happens every month, every week, or even every day. “Alcohol is the most commonly used addictive substance in the U.S. 17.6 million people, or one in every 12 adults, suffer from alcohol abuse or dependence” (“Alcohol”). The need and overdose of alcohol is called alcoholism. This addiction causes pain, anger, and loss of control all over the world. One might say, “I can handle myself. I am just fine,” but we all know they are not fine because most of the time they are causing hurt around them. In Jeannette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle, her father, Rex Walls, is an example of one of these 17.6 million alcoholics and this disease affects the family in multiple ways.
It is a fact of life that Alcoholism will distort the victim’s view of reality. With authors, they put parts of their personality and symptoms of their condition into their characters sometimes, flawed distortions included, with varying degrees
In the article “Children of Alcoholics” produced by the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, the author explains the negative effect of parental alcoholism on their children’s emotional wellbeing, when he writes, “Children with alcoholic parents are more likely to experience symptoms of anxiety and/or depression, antisocial behavior, relationship difficulties, behavioral problems, and/or alcohol abuse. One recent study finds that children of drug-abusing fathers have the worst mental health issues (Children of Alcoholics 1). Walls reflects upon her childhood experiences in which her father would become drunk and not be able to control his behavior, as she writes, “After working on the bottle for a while, Dad turned into an angry-eyed stranger who threw around furniture and threatened to beat up Mom or anyone else who got in his way. When he’d had his fill of cussing and hollering and smashing things up, he’d collapse” (Walls 23). The Walls children, who frequently encounter their father’s abusive behavior, are affected mentally in the same way that national studies have shown. Jeanette Walls describes how, after drinking, her father’s behavior becomes cruel and intolerable through his use of profanity, threats, and angry, even violent, actions. In a conventional family, a parent has the responsibility of being a role model to influence their children in a positive way as they develop. Unfortunately, in the Walls family and other families with alcoholic parents, children are often subject to abuse and violence, which places them at risk, not only physically, but mentally. Rex’s irrational behavior when he is drunk is detrimental to the children’s upbringing, causing them to lose trust in their parents, have significantly lower self-esteem and confidence, and feel insecure. Rex’s behavior contributes to Jeanette’s
To illustrate, in The Great Gatsby, alcohol is a social lubricant. For instance Nick Caraway says he has only drank twice. The second time was when Tom invited him to a party at his apartment in New York City, where he has his affairs with his mistress myrtle. Nick drinks to mute out the chatter and gossiping about Gatsby and describes everyone as superficial and fake. He describes the whole afternoon as “[having] a dim, hazy cast over it” (Fitzgerald 32).Although when The Great Gatsby takes place, the Eighteenth A...
Substance abuse affects the entire body, in The Black Cat it affects the narrators personality and his mood but alcohol can also have physical affects on the body. From the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, they state that alcohol can interfere with your brains communication pathways, and can also affects the way your brain works and looks in the long run. They state also along with what happens to the brain that it can disrupt mood and behavior, make it harder to think clear and move with coordinating skills. We can see how this applies to our narrator, he becomes angry and moody. He is thoughtless and doesn't care about his actions changing him from a caring, delightful human being to someone who could murder and sleep soundly through the night.
Many Americans, religious leaders, and political leaders saw alcohol as the key to all that was evil, a curse on the nation. Significant numbers of people believed that the consumption of alcoholic beverages presented a serious threat to the integrity of their most vital foundations, especially the family (“Prohibition” 846).
Robinson, David. From Drinking to Alcoholism: A Social Commentary. London: John Wiley and Sons, 1976.
Most people point to wars, Presidents or the economy when asked to describe the history of the United States, but what about alcohol. Social history in general has always taken a back seat to political and economic history, mostly because many aspects of social history are not exactly bright spots from the past. Alcohol, for example, is actually a much bigger aspect of our history than one may expect. As a matter of fact, early America was centered around drinking as a kind of social event. William Rorabaugh’s book Alcoholic Republic outlines how prevalent drinking really was during the years after the Revolutionary War. Rorabaugh argues that post-colonial Americans should be considered alcoholics. However, the evidence Rorabaugh uses
The problem of alcohol abuse has been recognized for thousands of years, but only more recently have we begun to see alcohol addiction as a treatable disorder. According to the Classical Disease Model of `Alcoholism,' habitual use of alcohol can be identified as a disease. Webster's Dictionary defines the concept of `disease' as follows: "Any departure from health presenting marked symptoms; malady; illness; disorder." Therefore, as many occurrences of alcohol excess provoke such symptoms, it is somewhat understandable that `alcoholism' is classified as a disease. The Classical Disease Model appears to offer a hopeful option. Treatment and sobriety can allow people to lead fulfilling lives. Adjacent to the notion of alcoholism as personal failure or moral deterioration, the Classical Disease Model appears to be a more desirable concept as it provides a motive for the alcoholic to seek treatment and gain sympathy, minimizing personal guilt. As alcoholism is seen as a progressive and, to an extent, hereditary illness for which those afflicted are not accountable, victims avoid being ostracized from society (Jellinek, 1960). Labeling the problem as a `disease' allows the medical profession to take responsibility for the treatment of alcoholism, which puts the problem in a more favourable light than if it were in the hands of psychologists or social workers, thus detaching the stigma connected with the problem while it is put on a par with other diseases such as diabetes or cancer. However, critics of the Classical Disease Model believe stigma helps reduce alcohol problems and aids the alcoholic. Any effort to reduce the stigma which is faced by the alcoholic will reduce pressures to moderate consumption and could have the additional ...
This research paper will help enable sociologists to determine what the ongoing effects have on an alcoholic and further provides information on the long-term effects that society has to deal with. The significance of alcoholism and sociology is the ability of sociologists to research and discover how human behaviour is affected on many aspects of its effects on a person. An alcoholic can be described as someone who is addicted to drinking alcoholic beverages in excess. What starts out as social drinking can lead to excessive drinking and the many problems associated with alcohol abuse and i...
There are many times where the narrator describes his actions towards his loved ones while under the influence of alcohol. Since the narrator is trying to draw the attention to his consumption of alcohol, he tries to make sure that his actions trace back to it. In the short story, the narrator says "But my disease grew upon me -- for what disease is like Alcohol !..."(Poe 23) which shows his addiction for alcohol becoming stronger. The narrator's madness seems to be heightened by the alcohol. He begins to chan...
Alcohol has been in the world for many centuries and has become a pain but also somewhat of a solution to society. It can be viewed as something to be a social gathering that brings friends together or it can be taking as destruction to someone. Over the years alcohol has played many roles in the world but it plays an even bigger role in substance abuse. Doctors have made several points that it is okay to have a drink every now and again but people need to realize when one drink has become too many. The ideal of having a drink with friends or going out and having an occasional drink is acceptable; However, is it still acceptable when a person find their selves having a drink first thing in the morning or runs to a drink to solve their people.
"Because time and amount of drinking are uncontrollable, the alcoholics is likely to engage in such behaviors as [1] breaking family commitments, both major and minor; [2] spending more money than planned; [3] drinking while intoxicated and getting arrested; [4] making inappropriate remarks to friends, family, and co-workers; [5] arguing, fighting and other anti-social actions. The alcoholic would probably neither do such things, nor approve of them in others unless he was drinking" (Johnson 203).