“One disease that appears to have a genetic component predisposing an individual to be susceptible to environmental stimuli that triggers the disease alcoholism” (Kalumuck). In simpler terms, alcoholism is a disease that can be passed down from parent to child. In John Cheever’s “Reunion”, the protagonist of the story, Charlie, is retelling the events of the last time he saw his father. Thinking back, Charlie thought, “… (My father would be) my future and my doom. I knew that when I was grown I would be something like him; I would have to plan my campaigns within his limitations” (Cheever 124). This made the rest of the story seem as if it was being told by the present tense version of Charlie. It also brought insight that he, Charlie,
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He was actually smelling himself mixed with his father’s scent of after-shave lotion and shoe polish. The manner in which Charlie sniffed his father the way his mother smells a rose indicates that he was not in his right mind at all.
When Charlie thinks about how he “would have to plan his campaign within his father’s limitations,” he shows that he knew he was going to have a problem with alcohol. Yet, he did nothing to prevent what was to come. As a result, he blames his father for his downfall with alcoholism. The genes that were passed down from his father that is susceptible to alcohol is what made Charlie indignant with his father. This is why he, Charlie, would exaggerate the story of the last time he saw his father; he wanted to make his father seem like the one who has the problem when in reality it is Charlie.
Charlie blames his father for his present state of alcoholism using two methods. He uses exaggeration to disintegrate his father’s reputation with the listeners. He uses the switching of roles in his retelling to make the listeners. sympathize with him and not his father. Charlie should not blame his father for his alcoholism because he knew that he should avoid being in that situation from the start. He was the one who made the decision to drink. No one made him drink. It is his own fault for falling into this
He was actually smelling himself mixed with his father’s scent of after-shave lotion and shoe polish. The manner in which Charlie sniffed his father the way his mother smells a rose indicates that he was not in his right mind at all.
When Charlie thinks about how he “would have to plan his campaign within his father’s limitations,” he shows that he knew he was going to have a problem with alcohol. Yet, he did nothing to prevent what was to come. As a result, he blames his father for his downfall with alcoholism. The genes that were passed down from his father that is susceptible to alcohol is what made Charlie indignant with his father. This is why he, Charlie, would exaggerate the story of the last time he saw his father; he wanted to make his father seem like the one who has the problem when in reality it is Charlie.
Charlie blames his father for his present state of alcoholism using two methods. He uses exaggeration to disintegrate his father’s reputation with the listeners. He uses the switching of roles in his retelling to make the listeners. sympathize with him and not his father. Charlie should not blame his father for his alcoholism because he knew that he should avoid being in that situation from the start. He was the one who made the decision to drink. No one made him drink. It is his own fault for falling into this