In “The Ascent” Ron Rash introduces us to a child who is brought up by cocaine addicts name Jared. Jared ventures out into the Great Smokey Mountains National Park to escape his sad home life and on his little adventure Jared finds the lost plane authorities had been looking for, for months. Upon leaving Jared takes the ring from the woman on the plan and returns home where he finds that his parents have already run out of drugs. His father takes the ring Jared had found and then sales the ring for money. His surroundings along with foreshadowing suggests Jared will have to make a life changing decision, but his youth suggests he is too naïve to come to such a realization.
Jared’s harsh environment suggests something will have to change in his life. No child should have to live in an unstable environment where nothing is provided for them. Ron Rash writes, “ On Monday morning the Baggies were empty and his parents were sick. His mother sat on the couch wrapped in a quilt, shivering” (285). Jared’s parent’s cocaine addiction is to the point that they need it to survive. His parent’s drug addiction obstructs their ability to provide for him. Jared realizes his parent are improvising with a log because they are incapable of providing a real Christmas tree when he converses with his dad, “‘you and your momma go ahead and light our Christmas tree. I’ll be back in a few minutes.’ ‘It’s not a Christmas tree,’ Jared said. ‘Sure it is, son,’ his father replied, ‘it’s just one that’s chopped up is all’” (283). He cannot keep living a life with no hope that his parents will provide for him. He will probably not make much of himself in life knowing his parents cannot provide for him due to their addiction.
The author uses foreshadowing to lea...
... middle of paper ...
...cause there he can escape from his parents and make up any scenario he wants to.
Although Jared is a naïve kid the story uses foreshadowing and an unstable environment to lead up to his character realization. Jared’s bad atmosphere suggests he will not be able to live that way forever. The author’s use of foreshadowing leads the reader to believe Jared will leave his parents. Although, Jared is a naïve child, he does finally realize he cannot continue to live in such horrid conditions and his parents will never change. The readers understand that it is his parents’ who have neglected that caused him to return to the plane. If his parents would have had their priorities straight, maybe Jared would not have died.
Works Cited
Rash, Ron. “The Assent.” The Best American Short Stories 2010. Eds. Richard Russo and Heidi Pitlor. New York: Boston, 2010. 279-287. Print
Rash uses Jared's character to show why he cannot give a trustworthy, objective truth. In the story, Jared's actions show that he does not understand death when entering the plane after discovering the dead bodies of a pilot and passenger. Rash writes, “Jared placed the knife in his pocket and climbed into the back seat and closed the passenger door” (281). He does not fully understand the seriousness of death and it does not frighten him. Jared has a big imagination and tries to help by bringing tools and repairing the plane. After he meddles around with the tools, Jared says, “I fixed it so it’ll fly now” (287). He sees what he wants to because he ca...
Children fool around every day with parental supervision always there to catch the youth when they are at risk of vulnerability. Without parental supervision, they need to be self-conscious of their own well-being. Once a child becomes an adult, they learn to take their own path through life with no safety net and to take responsibility for their own actions, unlike Chris McCandless. The novel, Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, exposes a cocky and arrogant, Chris McCandless, who is to blame for his own death, because he lives a life of taking risks, and depends on those that care for him to save him from the edge of disaster.
Jared, due to his age, misconceives the world around him, but this does not mean everything he encounters. Jared sometimes imagines things due to his age, but this helps in understanding his thought process and emotions. Rash explains, “He thought instead of Lyndee Starnes, the girl who sat in front of him in fifth-grade homeroom. Jared pretended she was walking beside him” (279). This situation shows that he is fond of this g...
Bausch, Richard, and R. V. Cassill. The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. 7th ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. Print.
“Just Say No!” A statement that takes us deep into yet another decade in the history of the United States which was excited by controversies, social issues, and drug abuse. The topic of this statement is fueled by the growing abuse of cocaine in the mid 1980s. I shall discuss the effects of the crack cocaine epidemic of the mid 1980s from a cultural and social stand point because on that decade this country moved to the rhythms and the pace of this uncanny drug. Cocaine took its told on American society by in the 1980s; it ravaged with every social group, race, class, etc. It reigned over the United States without any prejudices. Crack cocaine was the way into urban society, because of its affordability in contrast to the powdered form. In society the minorities were the ones most affected by the growing excess of crime and drug abuse, especially African Americans; so the question was “Why was nearly everybody convicted in California federal court of crack cocaine trafficking black?” (Webb: Day 3). The growing hysteria brought forth many questions which might seem to have concrete answers, but the fact of the matter is they are all but conspiracy in the end, even though it does not take away the ambiguity and doubt. I will take on only a few topics from the vast array of events and effects this period in time had tended to. Where and who this epidemic seemed to affect more notably, and perhaps how the drugs came about such territories and people. What actions this countries authority took to restore moral sanity, and how it affected people gender wise.
The Cocaine Kids focuses on the lives of eight Latino and black young cocaine dealers in New York City from 1982 to 1986. This...
_______. Critical Review of Short Fiction. Vol. III 4 vols.. Pasadena, California: Salem Press, 1991.
In Less Than Zero, cocaine addiction tests a group of three friends against the backdrop of glamorous, 1980’s Los Angeles. I chose this film because I’ve read the novel by Bret Easton Ellis. While the movie differs quite a bit from the book, it still touches on some key points about drug use that Ellis speaks to in the novel. At the beginning of the film, Clay, Julian, and Blair have graduated high school in Beverly Hills. Clay chooses to leave and attend a prestigious university. Blair (Clay’s girlfriend) stays in Los Angeles because she is too afraid to go to school. Julian’s father gives him a large sum of money to start his own recording studio. By Thanksgiving, Clay returns to Los Angeles to find Julian and Blair sleeping together. At
Baym, Nina, and Robert S. Levine. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. Print.
Sally Satel, author of “Addiction Doesn’t Discriminate? Wrong,” leads us down a harrowing path of the causes and effects that lead people to addiction. It can be a choice, possibly subconscious, or a condition that leads a person left fighting a lifelong battle they did not intend to sign up for. Mental and emotional health/conditions, personality traits, attitudes, values, behaviors, choices, and perceived rewards are just a few of the supposed causes of becoming an addict.
Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. 8th ed. Vol A. New York: W.
Evans, Robert C., Anne C. Little, and Barbara Wiedemann. Short Fiction: A Critical Companion. West Cornwall, CT: Locust Hill, 1997. 265-270.
Belasco, Susan, and Linck Johnson, eds. The Bedford Anthology of American Literature. Vol. 1, 2nd Ed., Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 1190-1203. Print.
Magill, Frank N. Critical Survey of Short Fiction. Vol. 6. Pasadena, California: Salem Press, 1993.
Drug addiction is a very big problem in today’s society. Many people have had their lives ruined due to drug addiction. The people that use the drugs don’t even realize that they have an addiction. They continue to use the drug not even realizing that their whole world is crashing down around them. Drug addicts normally lose their family and friends due to drug addiction.