Alcoholism: causes, effects, and treatment approaches

Alcoholism

Plea to Remember the Children -- a rhetorical analysis of an essay on alcoholism

The essay entitled "Who are the real victims of alcoholism?" uses the pathos of the family dynamic as a persuasive strategy to encourage readers to view alcoholism, and drinking to excess, not simply as a minor vice, but as a serious social issue. It argues that children of alcoholics must be treated with compassion, just as much as the alcoholics themselves. It also stresses that when alcoholics drink and destroy their lives, they destroy their children's lives in the present -- and the future. Alcoholism does not just rob the alcoholic of a good family life, it does the same to the alcoholic's children, and even robs the children of their future happiness, if the children do not receive appropriate counseling, support, and care afterwards.

The essay begins using the rhetorical strategy of the anecdote, or arguing from example. It is set in the family home of a single individual. The author is intent upon personalizing the sickness of alcoholism to encourage the reader to feel deeply about the issue. The essay is set in what should be the comfortable atmosphere of the home, but begins in an atmosphere of fear. The author's father-in-law, mercifully driven in a car by his wife so he does not at least drink and drive, demands of his son that the man give him ten dollars at two o'clock in the morning. Instead of a young boy asking his father for money, the traditional roles of fathers and son are entirely reversed. This sets the reader on edge, in preparation of what is to come.

This anecdote is used to illustrate how alcoholism is a family disease, not an individual disease, and it has lasting effects not just upon the lives and psychology of the sufferers, but of the sufferer's children. Only by understanding the family situation her family came from, writes the author, does she understand her husband's various habits and psychological "quirks" (52). But although it begins in the realm of the personal, the essay is not purely personal in its intent to persuade the reader of the suffering that alcoholism caused. Even in detailing this eviscerating anecdote from their lives, the author draws a literary connection between the experience and Molly Peacock's poem on a similar subject entitled "Say you love me" (52).

The author's identity as a writer and a consumer of literature is also subtly conveyed in his note, given that someone without such a background might draw a connection between the 2am visit with a soap opera or move of the week. It unites the personal, literary, and sociological in the connections it establishes through the use of anecdote, poem, and statistics. The author shifts to logos, or the logical element of effective persuasion, when she that it is staggering to think that, not only are there millions of alcoholics in this nation, but there are also millions of children of alcoholics -- 28 million according to the essay (52).

These millions of children and former children are survivors, but damaged survivors, who may have superior coping and competency skills. They may be deemed a hero, a scapegoat, or lost by both in the family context and society, because of the psychological or economic needs of the family and the needs of society to see them as damaged or strong to shoulder the burdens typically assumed by parents. The children, the author notes, long for love, just like all children. However, somewhat to the deficit of the essay and her argument, she does not cite any statistical or qualitative evidence as to why certain individuals are affected differently by parental alcoholism or how they are treated or not treated through therapy. She does not draw a connection between her husband's experiences and these statistics and vague images of childhood alcoholics who are lost, scapegoats, or hyper-competent compensators.

Instead, she moves on to quote the Molly Peacock poem again, and paints a dark vision of the future of children of alcoholics -- migraines, illnesses, poor school performance and "suicide attempts" (53). This negative imagery causes the reader to ask, after such an effective start -- what is the purpose of this essay? Is the idea that adult children of alcoholics suffer really such a radical claim? The tone of the essay, beginning in a scene of bleakness, gests darker as it seems to foster a sense of despair rather than hope, without real evidence for such bleakness beyond the anecdotal and poetic evidence provided by the essay.

Shifting to the register of logos once again, the essay, to educate the reader beyond the information provided by the author's own experience gives a textbook, generic definition of alcoholism, which the author says lacks even an educational function because it is so broad and does not take into consideration the consequences of alcoholism. "Denial," is part of the illness, and alcoholism has "genetic, social, and environmental" causes (53). The author criticizes the definition for not discussing its implications for children of alcoholics, but this might be true of any psychological illness -- the brother of a someone who is mentally ill with schizophrenia will also feel effects of the suffering of the sibling.

The victims of 'Say you love me' are clearly the two young girls" points out the author (53). The persistent use of the Peacock poem raises the question of the author really wanted to do a rhetorical analysis of the poem than discuss preventative techniques for alcoholism, or a more compassionate treatment program or societal view of the fallout of the illness for the children of alcoholics. She notes that sons and daughters of alcoholism as more at risk for alcoholism (52-54). Whether this is the case because of genetic or psychological factors is not discussed, even though this would affect how the emotional implications of alcoholism are addressed in the children of alcoholics.

The reader is moved to ask -- but how can society prevent these children from abusing alcohol as a coping mechanism? The author is silent upon this fact, or about how her husband weathered his own childhood ineffectively or effectively, and what she has done to aid him, or get him professional counseling. Because it begins with her husband, the reader also cannot help but wonder what were the quirks and strange behaviors the author's husband, a child of an alcoholic exhibited to his wife -- was he a lost child, a hyper-compensator for his father's failings (which seems to be the case, given that his father sought money from him), or did he fail in school and family and professional life? Or did he shine?