Under The Influence Essay, Research Paper
Under The Influence
This story begins as a man in his forties reminiscing about his childhood. He and his siblings had to live with a family secret. The fact that his father was an alcoholic was tearing the family apart. His mother extracted pressure on them by making them watch their father’s every move when they went out. His mother was always checking his father to see if he had been drinking or not. She would do things such as smell his breath when he came home and also check for bottles.
He on the other hand would always catch his father in the act or see ruminants of his father’s actions. There were always hidden bottles. There were bottles in the woods, in the barn, in a bale of hay. None of the siblings would ever report to their mother what they had seen their father do. If the kids caught their father drinking they would act as if nothing happened.
All of this took a toll on the narrator in his later years. He knew that there was a greater chance that he would become an alcoholic, but he chose to take that first sip. Now years later he is still taking sips. He thinks because he doesn’t drink as excessively as his father he doesn’t have a problem. H is waiting for that sign to show that he is in the same predicament father. Little does he know that moment has already passed.