Alcoholic Literature

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses two memoirs dealing with the effect that the alcoholic parent has on the child and on the structure and working of the entire family unit. Drinking is also associated in both books with the creation of myth, with story-telling, and with a search for friendship and camaraderie. The writer examines the way that the children in each novel deal with the situation and it effects them socially and emotionally.

From the Paper:

"In McCourt's book, the alcoholic is the father, a man who has a sort of Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde personality because of his drinking. When sober, he is regarded as a kindly and wonderful father, and indeed as a hard-working family man on the job. During the week, he does not drink, while on weekends, after he receives his weekly pay, he comes home drunk and with his money all spent. He is still a major force in the family, getting his children to sing Irish songs and march around the house asserting their readiness to die for their country. His son, though, hates the weekend father who drinks and spends all the family's money. The book reports how the family lived in terrible poverty, and clearly the primary reason for this is the way the father wastes his earnings. In time, he goes away to England to work during the war, promising as other fathers did that he would send money home for the family. As might be expected, he continues to drink his earnings and sends back very little."

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