The Theme Of Addiction, Family And Love In 'Fallout'

Addiction, family, and love are the main themes in “Fallout”. Addiction is traced all the way back to the beginning of the three narrators’ lives. Family, related or not, at the heart of it all. Each in the search of the love they never received from their mother growing up.

Addiction is what got Hunter, Autumn, and Summer to the places they are now. Their mother, Kristina, started using methamphetamine at the young age of seventeen. Almost two decades later and it is still the most important thing in her life. Clearly addiction didn't just affect the user and it never does. Now they’ve all grown up and began experiencing having a “monkey on the back” first hand. Hunter smoked weed and did “a little coke”, Autumn is just getting a taste of addiction from alcohol, Summer, yet to get involved personally, is struggling to convince her boyfriend, Kyle, to quit using meth before it goes too far. Genetically predisposed or not, addiction is powerful and can suck anybody in. …show more content…
Hunter was raised by his grandparents, which he calls his parents, since as long as he could remember. Kristina didn’t have the time to raise a baby then, or ever. He didn’t know who his father was, due to being the result of rape, up until recently, and Brendon didn’t even know Hunter was his son. Autumn was raised by her Aunt Cora, her dad’s sister, and grandfather. It’s the only family she’s ever known, having never even met her mother and with only a few memories with her father as a young girl. Summer wasn’t as lucky. She was raised by her father and a few slightly abusive girlfriends, but when her father screwed up, which was on several occasions, she was sent to foster homes. She never stayed there long, each one more appealing than the