'Alcohol and Literature Essay\r'

' passim America’s history we pitch gather inn custody drinking for the sake of drinking, solely because it is a subject that men are accustomed to do. In both t testify there are saloons, taverns, and every otherwise sort of gathering place for men to bang soak their very souls in alcoholic beverageic bever sequence. This ideology is non uniquely American, nor is it an exclusively masculine tradition, but it has start so intertwined with the idea of a ro compositiontic toil American vision that only the deaf, dumb, and blind could non see it reflected in the huge American novel.\r\nAnd the non bad(p) American novel that I will demonstrate: John barley. One of Jack capital of the United Kingdom’s late plant, actu entirelyy written three historic period in the beginning his death by suicide (he would render died from alcohol embittering within the year). The book is very much an autobiography, although capital of the United Kingdom never admitted it , and it details his manners throughout his ages and phases and turn outs how easily angiotensin converting enzyme who is not suffering from a predisposition to alcohol can generate so dependant upon it. Jack capital of the United Kingdom did not run short an alcoholic until the experience leg of his vitality and he would often say so:\r\nIt is the accessibility of alcohol that has given me my taste for alcohol. I did not tuition for it; I used to laugh at it, provided here I am at the put out possessed with the drinker’s desire. It took twenty centenarian age to implant that desire; and for ten years more(prenominal)(prenominal) that desire has grown. (33)\r\nJack London was not born(p) into a wealthy family and he did not soupcon a pampered life sentence, maybe this is what made him a great salvager, or maybe it was all the amazing things he saw in his time prospecting in the Yukon, pirating oysters nigh the Pacific coast, or hunting for seals in the Be ring ocean (Teacher xi). either these things sound great and wondrous at once but at the turn of the century these were chores left to the working class, not to aspiring novelists. London was in love with a ro military servicemanticized idea of America, he love the idea of adventure and it is reflected in al near every nonpareil of his books and so is his game of chess against alcohol.\r\nLondon’s ear residest works such as Call of the Wild and ocean Wolf show the two conflicting personalities within London. In sea Wolf a puppyish man ,with a striking resemblance to a puppyisher London, is rinse out to sea and rescued by a sealing boat on it’s commission to the hunting grounds. The captain is a massive self-educated man named Wolf Larsen and he refuses to return the young lad (to whom he refers as â€Å"Hump”) to stain and offers him a job on board as a sailor. The conflict between the two original(prenominal) characters of the story come alongs to represent a conflict within London himself, one present in most of his novels. The young educated man is clearly a representation of a younger and more lordly London, what he envisioned for himself when he was a young man (and he did not drink).\r\nAn example of the similarities between London and his characters can be seen in a line from Sea Wolf regarding the young man named â€Å"Hump”; â€Å"he kept a summer cottage…and read Nietzsche and Schonpenhauer to rest his brain” (Teacher 837). We hold out London was a very avid philosopher and Nietzsche was one of his favorites which is evident in John barley, the book was influenced by Nietzsche even out if he never named him directly; â€Å"a pessimistic German Philosopher” (London 11). The older self-educated man live onn as Wolf Larsen in Sea Wolf represents what London envisioned himself becoming by and by in life; a hard man who finally realized life is given to those who postulate it the most, re gardless of how worthless or trivial it may be.\r\nThe conflict between these two characters is the basis of the story, they become uneasy friends in their nightly discussions of life and all that encompasses it and every night Wolf Larsen is victorious in their arguments. He is not a man who value life or love, money or acknowledgment; he values his life and his life alone. This leave out of â€Å"morality” goes against everything the younger â€Å"hump” has been taught yet in the end he comes to see it as true, although he retains some of his more solid values. This is the unavoidable pessimism that we see in all of Jack London’s later stories, the death of his younger idealistic side, drowned in alcohol, and the ascension of his â€Å"realist” side. As London progressed in his piece the conflict lessened and the â€Å"White Logic” took everywhere almost completely (London 192).\r\nThe White Logic is the primary suffering of any true dipsoman iac; it is the waiver of faith in mankind and oneself, it takes pessimism and turns it into realism, it is the constant fellowship that we shall all come to pass (London 193). Although Jack London coined the term â€Å"White Logic”, the ailment has unendingly been present, at least in American novelists’ reality. It is a weighty sense of sadness that makes one flavour that life is a lie and that there is no real purpose but to grow old and die. It’s a sad thing to know and it essential be far worse to rescue this constantly on ones mind, which is exactly what happened to Jack London and more other American writers. Ernest Hemingway sank deep into his own form of the â€Å"White logic” in his last years with us as can be seen in Across the River and Into the Trees, his last two novels which the spring could never finish because of the morbid babbling they contained.\r\nA depressing majority of American writers cod had their careers in pens cut s hort by their personal matters with John Barleycorn; Ernest Hemingway shot himself because he could not take the constant whispers of death John Barleycorn would made in his ear, maybe if Truman Capote could halt put down his glass maybe he would necessitate finished Answered Prayers, Hart Crane competency grow written poetry into middle age if alcohol did not exist (Waldron 2). Upton Sinclair wrote about Sinclair Lewis’s drinking in The Cup of Fury; â€Å" done a miracle of physical stamina Lewis made it to 66, more tragic than any shortage of years was the loss of productivity and the absence of joy.” (Waldron 2). Why is it that these great people, whom galore(postnominal) of us admire and revere in the highest sense, have had their lives mired in an alcoholic binge? Is it a wise career move to drink when one is a writer? Does it give a advance understanding of fiction and life in frequent?\r\nThe answer to the above questions is obvious, no, alcohol is a li e and all that is learned through it is also a lie, although it may make the truth clear at times by loosening the tongue, this may seem like contradiction but what in life isn’t? Despite this bit of common companionship an overwhelming number of people drink and get over to drink as well as uphold others to drink with them. It’s practically impossible to evasion the lures of fermented grain; it’s a part of tender history (Crowley 35).\r\nIn truth we are all predispositioned to drink because we are human, this gives us a tilt to soak our spirits with spirits and our minds with margaritas. Hundreds of years before America was discovered writers were altering their minds with whatever was at their disposal; Poe was a poppy popper (opium), Shakespeare may have been a stoner (Hashish), Nietzsche was drunk off of his ego, and Plato and Socrates were just drunks. All these people, who table serviceed shape the intellectual progress of man, were by now’s standards drug addicts and alcoholics. They lived and died by their choice of poison (Socrates did so literarily) and it greatly influenced their writings, which brings another question to mind.\r\nIf alcohol is accountable for the deaths of many great writers and their careers thence it must be considered a faux pas and banished from the civilized serviceman right? True the world might be better off without alcohol but then again could anyone say that the great literary works would have been made better by taking the morbid realities out of them. Would War and Peace have been better if it had a happy ending (maybe if they had fluoxetine hydrocholoride back then)? Would A Farewell to Arms have been more meaningful if Hemingway wasn’t soused bit writing it?\r\nEveryone would have probably loved Romeo and Juliet if the lovers in question did not die, and John Barleycorn would have never been written in a sodding(a) world without alcohol. It seems that in literature our fa ults and weaknesses are great, they help depict a real person and permit readers to relate directly to the characters or ideas in the story, without depressive disorder there is goose egg to compare happiness too. What makes literature interesting is the positively maladjusted people who write it, if they were to be normal upstanding citizens they would have nothing to write about. To say that alcohol is directly responsible for the end of Jack London’s writing career is just as folly as saying Robert Frost could have benefited from alcoholism, yet it is infallible that it had something to do with the loss of his life and maybe even the spawn of his career.\r\nOne cannot determine the validity of statements through statistics, it does not matter how many writers were alcoholics or how many more were not. They were people just the same and they were habituated to the same temptations as the rest of us. Many read to drink and revel in John Barleycorn’s false but all uring friendship and many more choose not to do so, in the end it matters not because such is life. Although it matters to us it does not matter on the grand scheme, life is really a little game we bit and it’s depressing to think about how inconsequential we are. Knowing this why would anyone want to make life and death a constant thought in their minds like the great authors of old? Why were their manically deject words so inspiring? Simply because to regard beauty in all that is bleak is beautiful, and it is in those moments of clarity that we all shine.\r\n'