Late English professor Scott Russell Sanders essay “Under the Influence: Paying the Price of My Father’s Booze” was originally published in a collection of essays titled Secrets of the Universe: Scenes from the Journey Home, an insight of his childhood going into an awareness of his adulthood. Sanders felt as if alcohol changed his dad completely when he is under the influence which transformed sanders outlook on life. The narrative story does not intend to make readers show sympathy but show them that Sanders was really affected by his dad’s actions and does not want to do the same to his children. Sanders uses narration, description, definition, and compare and contrast modes to explore his dad’s long-term addiction to alcohol, how he compares outside experiences to his dad’s reactions, and more importantly, evaluates his dad’s personality when he is under the influence and when he is sober.
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Most of the terms are explained as he says, “humorous lexicon” (183). He then begins to describe a play and how in the play they see drunks as comically obnoxious and funny. Sanders says, “in the audience you notice a few laughing faces turn grim when the drunk lurches onstage, don't be surprised, for these are the children of alcoholics” (183). He explains this because in reality versus in plays it is hard actually living with a person that is an alcoholic. He also points out that the plays are stereotypical because when his father is drunk he is “neither funny nor honest” (183). He compares his father’s drinking to a “prince [turning} into a frog “and “no dictionary or synonyms for drunk” could compare to how his dad would behave when he was under the influence. (Sanders 184). In this section, he explains that how the world reenacts drunks does not compare to how a household is with the disease of alcoholism. His father’s alcoholism is a family
Most of the terms are explained as he says, “humorous lexicon” (183). He then begins to describe a play and how in the play they see drunks as comically obnoxious and funny. Sanders says, “in the audience you notice a few laughing faces turn grim when the drunk lurches onstage, don't be surprised, for these are the children of alcoholics” (183). He explains this because in reality versus in plays it is hard actually living with a person that is an alcoholic. He also points out that the plays are stereotypical because when his father is drunk he is “neither funny nor honest” (183). He compares his father’s drinking to a “prince [turning} into a frog “and “no dictionary or synonyms for drunk” could compare to how his dad would behave when he was under the influence. (Sanders 184). In this section, he explains that how the world reenacts drunks does not compare to how a household is with the disease of alcoholism. His father’s alcoholism is a family