"But the wonderful thing about porter was the way it made you stand aside, or rather float aloft like a cherub rolling on a cloud, and watch yourself with your legs crossed, leaning against a bar counter, not worrying about trifles but thinking deep, serious, grown-up thoughts about life and death" (35).
This sentence pretty much sums up every connection I made within this short story.
First off, there are many motifs to death, shed in a positive light. The husband was at a funeral, but decided to drink as he was accustomed to. When the son drinks the alcohol, he then feels like a cherub. His mother then goes on to call the son a "guardian angel" (84). This relation between death and the alcoholism must mean something, but I just cannot put my finger on what exactly so I will make an educated, but definitely wrong, guess.
Alcohol is the Achilles Heel of the father who was an indispensable piece of the family.
You cannot possibly read the above quote without finding irony in the idea that being drunk could give someone "deep, serious, grown-up thoughts about life and death," but it actually makes sense in my head (though, as usual, my logic will not make any sense to others). Since the father saw how foolish his son made him look when he was drunk, maybe the father now understands how stupid he looks drunk also. I do not think that he felt that, unfortunately, judging by how "woe is me" he was in his last statements. Still, the adjectives used by the son to describe his drunken state had to have meant something, but I cannot decide towards what.
No comments:
Post a Comment