"The Drunkard"

                In reflecting on Frank O’Connor’s “The Drunkard,” question 5 asks the reader to consider the four different perspectives from which the boy’s drunkenness is observed and analyze the key differences between these perceptions. In studying the text, however, I came to ascertain that the differences in the perspectives carry a much greater significance that I first understood. O’Connor employs both humor and, even more importantly, an interesting twist in point of view to reflect the way in which each of the individuals or groups observing the young boy’s drunkenness actually regards the father’s very dangerous drunkenness. While O’Connor utilized the boy as a narrator in order to write “The Drunkard” in the first person point of view, story actually presents the same scenario from various differing views. For example, when the father realizes that his son is drunk due to his consummation of the two pints which the father himself ordered, he becomes incredibly disgraced and embarrassed. O’Connor manifests his humiliation when describing the father and son’s walk of shame on the way home from the pub: “Father, torn between the shamefast desire to get me home as quick as he could, and the neighborly need to explain that it wasn’t his fault, finally halted outside Mrs. Roche’s” (O’Connor, 349). While the father is too proud to show any disgrace or remorse for his own violent and raging streaks of insatiable drunkenness, he certainly bears the burden or disgrace almost instantaneously after allowing his son to become drunk in his own presence among the company of his neighbors, friends, and peers. In this manner, O’Connor reflects what Father’s feelings toward his own drunkenness surely must be in his perception of his son’s drunken behavior.

                Similarly, O’Connor also reveals the opinions of other major and minor characters in regard to Father’s drinking habits through their reactions to the boy’s drinking episode. While returning home from the pub, Father and the boy fall under the observation of many observant neighbors relaxing idly on their front porches. After carefully watching the young boy with the bloody face stumble about, they merely laugh at his antics as he hums a funny tune and carry on about their business. Likewise, Father’s friends at the pub also laughed at the realization that the young boy had become drunk, yet they took no great interest in the matter after their initial comments. This reaction from the onlookers and bystanders in the story reflects the fact that, while Father’s friends and neighbors may take notice of his cyclic drunken patterns and form initial opinions, they quickly go about their lives without taking any great concern to confront Father about it.

                Lastly, O’Connor’s clever use of the first person point of view reveals the most noteworthy perceptions of the boy’s drunkenness: the boy’s observations as well as the mother’s opinion. While others may find the fact that the young boy became drunk to humorous or entertaining, the boy makes frequent comments throughout the story about how miserable his consummation of the alcohol made him feel. Likewise, the mother does not find the boy’s drunkenness to humorous either; however, she does privately laud him at the conclusion of the story for making such a sacrifice in order to protect his father from the dangers of his imminent drinking problems. By showing the boy’s disgust at the concept of drinking such a foul substance as alcohol and having to endure the painstaking effects of drunkenness, O’Connor reflects the boy’s disapproval of his father’s detrimental habits. Similarly, the mother’s appreciation of the boy’s sacrifice reveals how seriously she regards her husband’s habits and wishes for him to rid himself of drinking once and for all.