Do you think it was my fault that she drank? my father asked not long ago. It's the assumption of an amateur, someone who stops after his second vodka tonic and quits taking his pain medication before the prescription runs out. It's almost laughable, this insistence on a reason. I think my mother was lonely without her children-her fan club. But I think she drank because she was an alcoholic.
In the narrative, the father reflects on the impact of his wife’s drinking, questioning whether it was his fault. However, the author portrays this as an oversimplification of addiction, emphasizing that the complexities of alcoholism go beyond a mere cause-and-effect reasoning. The father's concern stems from a misunderstanding common among those who do not struggle with addiction themselves.
The author suggests that his mother’s loneliness after her children grew up contributed to her drinking, yet he ultimately asserts that her primary issue was her alcoholism itself. This distinction highlights the difference between emotional circumstances and the medical or psychological condition of addiction, reinforcing the idea that addiction often exists independently of external factors.
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All the things you can talk about in anyone's work are the things that are least important.
Race of Cain, ascend to heaven, And cast God down upon the earth!
