This I think seems easy at first but once you really get to thinking, it is actually a fairly challenging question. First off I do not believe that Mr. Flood is an alcoholic. Just because you get drunk does not mean that you are not an alcoholic. Plenty of people get drunk a couple of times in their life but do not have addiction issues with alcohol. The definition of an alcoholic is "an addiction to the consumption of alcoholic liquor or the mental illness and compulsive behavior resulting from alcohol dependency." You have no form of background on wether Mr. Flood has a problem with alcohol so that is why I would say that he for a fact is an alcoholic. There is not one bit of indisputable evidence.
Another thing that I noticed after rereading the poem is that it never does state whether Mr. Flood is actually consuming alcohol. He could be drunk on his own sorrow which would fit the criteria for Modernism. If he was sad he could be talking to himself about his problems and hardships. Now it is a strong possibility that he is under the influence of alcohol but I am just trying the think deep here. Maybe this is one of those iceberg references where you only read 1/3 of the story but in the words there is another 2/3 of a story to be told.
I think that I have come up with enough information to be able to say without a doubt that Mr. Flood is not an alcoholic. So I guess that is it.
No comments:
Post a Comment