Isabelle Butler

The story, written by James Frey is a typical one for most people who suffer from drug or alcohol addiction. A 23 year old James Frey is an alcoholic for almost ten years and takes drugs for three. This essay deals not just with the problem of how to stop using drugs and alcohol, but also with a dilemma of the problem that is related with shifting responsibility and blame on others. There are many similar situations in everyday life, when people do not understand their responsibility for their actions. Moreover, they often do not understand themselves and the world. For example, there are situations when somebody walks through the city and sees a bottle of beer or something else lying on the pavement while there is a bin nearby. One can blame it on the people thinking, “What a bad man left the litter. He could throw it away into the bin that was so close.” This is just an example with ordinary things, and this story deals with person’s responsibility for his/her health and way of life that is more serious.

The author’s manner and words touches the question of whether this character is a sympathetic and trustworthy or not. James Frey does not come about as a compassionate character as he recounts the story of how he was met head-on his mother and how the main hero’s actions led to his mum's discomfiture when he made his mother fall. One more thing that proves his being not sensitive is the case when he laughed at his mother’s anxiety about his drug problem.

On the one hand, one can argue that the hero’s actions can be explained as he had unexplainable anger towards his parents that he felt since childhood. However, we also observe a sympathetic side of the young man as he refused to let his mother and father take the responsibility for his addiction. He also admits that his parents did all they could.

In the narration, readers also face some conflicting signs of the desperate son’s trustworthiness. He could shift the blame for his addiction on genetics and his family history but did not allow do this and admitted his guilt. He makes a clean breast that his addiction problem is a result of his own choices and he is responsible for this. At the same time, the narrator is very honest in accepting that he feels a fury against his close relatives though he cannot put in plain words why.

Though many readers may tell that it is very brave deed and the hero is a candid person because he dared to express such emotions against his parents without any justification, but I find these actions ugly. The trustworthiness of the narrator and his actions at the camp, when instead of curing his drug problems, he teams up with another addict and keeps on the habit behind his parent's backs, proves the theory that people with weak mentality often become addicted. For some people, it is enough to try once some narcotic substances or alcohol and they become hooked while others may periodically use drugs for years. Doctors still do not know the answer for the question why this happens, but it is probably hereditary. No one knows in advance which group he/she relates to. People who are just enough to try one drug to get hooked are those with already damaged psyche. Probably, the hero’s parents destroyed their child as a person. And then it was very hard for him to become a completely healthy human being. Unsurprisingly that such a child hooked on drugs.

However, James Frey presents this scene from different sides. The one where he underlines that a hero undergoes personal change or transformation is the most successful. To get rid of drugs dependence, a person should completely change. The hero of this story did not manage to review and think over events that happened in his life. For this reason, he came back to his way of self-destruction.

The dilemma is who is guilty? Most often, the use of drugs begins in adolescence. The primary motivation which pushes youth to drugs is curiosity and imitation, unorganized leisure time and lack of contact with parents. In any family, even very safe, there is a real risk that the child will not resist the temptation to try drugs. Unfortunately, the parents find out about it when a terrible relationship is already settled.

Modern parents are spending all their energy on making money while paying little attention to children. Feeling guilty for it, parents compensate this lack of time with pocket money but seldom take an interest in how that money is spent. Therefore, adolescents begin to lead a vicious lifestyle, filled with false friends and predilections. 

There is also another problem. Parents too much love their child and deprive him/her of the possibility to join the family issues; thereby, a child has no responsibilities at home. Parents buy children whatever they want: good clothes, new cell phones. They hire tutor and sponsor further education. At school teenager is not bothered by studies, there is just a solid holiday. Therefore, a child may get into suspicious companies, where as it seems he/she is understood and trusted. In such cases, many parents lay the blame for what is happening on the government, a state or school. They forget that it is the family who are primarily responsible for their child.

We have to spend more time on those people, whom we love, not damage their life. People need to fill life with sense, not leave place for drugs. If I had a chance to change one event in my life, it would be the day, when I had a great quarrel with my parents, because they did not let me to make friends with a bad company. They tried to explain me that such a friendship could have bad consciences; however, I did not want to listen. I think of how and why and what happened and the thoughts come easily, but the answers don't. Then, in order to save me from those guys, who, as it became clear later, were addicts, my parents sold the house and moved to live far away from this company. Now, I understand that they just love me and tried to protect me from harm and this had a great impact on my life, as I did not become one of those addicts.

In conclusion, people build their own world by making choices all the time. We can become normal people or those who take drugs or alcohol; it is our choice. It is not complicated unless I make it so. It is not difficult unless I allow it to be. A second is no more than a second, a minute no more than a minute, a day no more than a day. They pass. All things and all time will pass. Don't force or fear, don't control or lose control. Don't fight and don't stop fighting. Embrace and endure. If you embrace, you will endure.

If something does not satisfy us, we can always say that it is not our fault. In this case, a person deprives himself/herself of opportunities. Such a way of life has long-lasting consequences since some people become puppets in the hands of more powerful ones. If a person is caring and always tries to change the world for the better, he/she effectively solves all the problems in life and is more independent. Responsibility means you know that everything depends on you, not on someone else. A person must have a willingness to admit his/her guilt, but in James Frey’s story, the hero does not have it.

This story helped me realize that people should not remain indifferent to the problems of this world. Some of us express dissatisfaction with life and do not try to change the situation while others devote their lives to the good. There are people who help drug addicts to get rid of the addiction instead of condemning them; those who take care of other people's kids instead of hating parents who abandon their children; people who plant trees instead of talking about destruction of forests. These people are active in every area of life and try to make improvements. In this eye-opening situation, I would rather join the social volunteers and constantly help to make the world a better place.