Alcoholism
by Chris Pike
Alcoholism Portrayed as a Monster
Throughout this course, we learn that monsters are evil creatures that represent horror and/or disgust to society. Monsters come in different shapes and sizes and are harmful toward humans. They can change shapes or emotions frantically, and are always in search for more power or a better life. Alcoholism is a great representation of a monster, according to the definition our class has come up with throughout the semester. Alcoholism causes harm to people, it changes peoples’ personalities, it makes people greedy and want attention, and it is an evil creature which in the eyes of society is a discomforting disease to possess. The disease is like Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein because all the monsters are looking for a better life. Also, they all cause people to die in search of that better life. The disease follows Sigmund Freud’s idea of “The Uncanny” because when people are under the influence, and the monster is within their body, an unfamil iar side of that person is shown. Alcoholism also follows all of Cohen’s seven theses, which define what a monster is depicted as in Cohen’s eyes. Monsters can be tamed; we just need to figure out what it is that will keep them calm. If we give a little of support in taming the alcoholism monster by drinking less or making new prohibitions against drinking, then, in return the monsters that cause us problems can be controlled.
Many people try to have a good time by consuming alcohol, which is fine; however
people must first realize their limitations of the drug so that they don’t
do anything they would have wanted to avoid or be ashamed of. When someone
doesn’t pay attention to his or her limitations repeatedly and turn
into an alcoholic, this is the first stage of alcoholism taking over that
person’s body. “Alcoholism is excessive consumption of and psychophisiological
dependence on alcoholic beverages” (Webster’s II Dictionary 18).
How can someone be certain if they or another person is suffering from the
“Alcoholism Monster?” This is where Freud’s idea of the
uncanny is shown in alcoholism. You can’t necessarily be certain of
when someone is suffering from alcoholism. Different people have different
personalities, different tolerance levels, and different lifestyles, so there
is no set theory that can prove if a person is suffering from alcoholism or
if he or she is just a socially stable drinker. In the book, What You Should
Know About Alcoholism, we can get a good idea of whether someone is suffering
from alcoholism when the author writes, “The invisible, mysterious demarcation
line that separates the alcoholic from the social drinker is that point at
which the social drinker who has always known he can quit at any time finds
that he can’t” (Tracy 23). Anyone can suffer from the alcoholism
monster; however some people will never know if they are suffering from it
because they may believe that they are socially stable drinkers. Freud reminds
us that “what is uncanny is frightening precisely because it is not
known and familiar” (Freud 195). People are afraid of alcoholism due
to the fact that they are unsure of who is being bothered by the alcoholism
monster. If we could be sure of who is a victim of the alcoholism monster
then we could find them help.
The problem with alcoholism is that “alcoholism is one of the three
most deathly diseases, after cardiovascular diseases and cancer” (Tracy
18). We can’t help many of the people suffering from alcoholism because
we are “uncanny” on if they have the disease or not, and we don’t
want to aggravate them by introducing to them that they might be suffering
from alcoholism. No one takes such an assumption lightly because most people
who suffer from alcoholism suffer from depression, frustration, distress and
or loneliness from life. They don’t want people to help them because
they don’t want people to know of their problems. This is when they
“meet the accusers with an angry denial” (23). Here is where we
fail to see alcoholism has taken over the person’s body. This is when
we should get help for the plagued body, or the person with the plagued body
should realize that the disease has him or her under its control. Denial is
the first stage of being weighed down with alcoholi sm; however the subject
is dropped because we feel that we may be causing more problems by speaking
about it. By dropping the subject is when more problems are created for the
person plagued with alcoholism, and they may create many problems in the future
if they aren’t helped. Their depression is what causes them to drink
and they don’t want to reveal their problems to other people because
they are using alcohol as a medicine to relieve them from their pains. If
limitations were made at restaurants or bars, this may help bring down the
alcoholism monster to a smaller problem we face as a society. We should feel
more open to share our problems with people so that we don’t suffer
from depression, causing us to give the alcoholism monster a chance to take
over our bodies.
Alcohol is a necessity for a person suffering from alcoholism just like blood
is a necessity for the Count in Dracula. For the alcoholic, “When alcohol
is consumed for a great amount of time, it causes a sequence of mental, physical,
and behavioral reactions, which are moderate at first, but become progressively
worse. If this development is not interrupted by an abrupt and permanent cessation
of drinking, it proceeds inevitably to total deterioration” (Milt 4).
Like alcohol, when the Count consumes blood, he goes through a sequence of
changes. He is rejuvenated. His figure is that of a stronger and younger being,
and his want for more blood becomes much greater because he wants to be powerful
and lively. People who suffer from alcoholism want more alcohol to feel better
about themselves, for relaxation and pleasure, and to escape unbearable pressures.
Both the Count and the alcoholics depend on a substance to make them feel
free and better about who they are. They b
elieve it is necessary for them to live; however they don’t realize
that this isn’t the way in which they were intended to live. The Count
should realize that life should be mortal, and in the end he suffers for trying
to keep an immortal lifestyle. Alcoholics should realize that everyone has
problems; yet they don’t need alcohol to keep from depression. They
suffer from depression just as badly as the Count suffers from losing his
life, and in some cases, the alcoholics end up losing their lives.
In the novel, Dracula, the Count acts in a greedy way by taking over other
peoples’ lives in order to prolong his young immortal life. Alcoholism
kills people as it alters their moods, leading to many suicides, many accidents
from misjudgment, and overpowering other innocent people. Both alcoholism
and the Count are seen as monsters as they both take the lives of people.
This is one of the monstrous traits that our class has come up with. The day
after Lucy died John saw an image of the Count. John was terrified, “I
believe it is the Count [I see], but he has grown young. My God, if this be
so! Oh, my God! my God! If I only knew! if I only knew” (Stoker 155).
Here is where John realizes how powerful the Count can become if he isn’t
stopped. He goes into hysteria, because he is scared for all of mankind. This
is how people feel when they are within the proximity of an alcoholic. They
are scarred of the person because of how he or she acts while intoxicated.
Alcoh olism causes people to want to keep drinking when they have already
had enough. When they’ve had too much they can act in a belligerent
manner because they feel that they are ashamed of the way they live life and
angry with the way they feel that other people treat them. There is no stopping
a belligerent drunk because they are out of control. The Count is out of control
by the end of Dracula as well because he has consumed so much blood. The only
way the Count could be stopped was by being murdered; however we need not
murder an alcoholic. It would be nice to murder alcoholism though. If we could
solve a cure for alcoholism then society would live in a much safer world.
The first thing we must do is take care of our alcohol levels. You can have
fun drinking socially, so why drink to get drunk? It starts with our generation.
We should make it a point to teach our youth more about the problems with
alcohol in the school programs, and think about making more strict rules.
Frankenstein’s monster is a great representation of alcoholism. Frankenstein
created a hybrid of different body parts to create a type of human being;
however his creation was so ugly that he shunned it. Frankenstein’s
monster didn’t appreciate this at all and pursued revenge against Frankenstein,
and all of the humans who rejected him. Alcoholism is a hybrid of an alcoholic
and an overly excessive amount of alcohol in that person’s system. People
who suffer from alcoholism are most likely to do so because they are depressed
with how they are treated by society. Frankenstein’s monster and those
suffering from alcoholism both let out their frustrations in the wrong way.
They are dangerous to humans, which is what causes us to view them both as
monsters. We see this in Frankenstein when Frankenstein’s monster tells
Frankenstein of his dismal life:
“At the time a slight sleep relieved me from the pain of reflection,
which was disturbed by the approach of a beautiful child, who came running
into the recess I had chosen, with all the sportiveness of infancy. Suddenly,
as I gazed at him, an idea seized me, that this little creature was unprejudiced,
and had lived too short a time to have imbibed a horror of deformity. If,
therefore I could seize him, and educate him as my companion and friend, I
should not be so desolate in this peopled earth…[The boy cried] ‘Hideous
monster! Let me go. My papa is a Syndic – he is M. Frankenstein –
he will punish you. You dare not keep me.’ [The monster tells the boy]
‘Frankenstein! You belong to the enemy – to him towards whom I
have sworn eternal revenge; you shall be my first victim’” (Shelley
126-127).
The monster should have spoke to Frankenstein before he let
out his revenge upon mankind. As we learn from the monster’s mistake,
people should talk out their problems when they believe that they may be suffering
from alcoholism, not after they have already created extra problems for society
to deal with. If people who experience alcoholism would talk out their problems,
they would feel much better about themselves. They would have someone to console
them and give them the self-confidence needed to help overcome their problems.
According to Cohen’s seven theses, alcoholism is a perfect
representation of what a monster is. In Cohen’s first thesis (The Monster’s
Body is a Cultural Body), he writes, “[the monster] is always a displacement,
always inhabits the gap between time of upheaval that created it and the moment
into which it is received, to be born again” (Cohen 4). Alcoholism takes
upon this role because people who suffer from the disease do so to get rid
of depression. They hope for a new and better life, so they drink and wish
to wake up in a new body. They act in a much different way when under the
influence; however they are still in the same body when the night is over.
In most cases, they feel worse about themselves the next day, which leads
to another night of binge boozing. In Cohen’s second thesis (The Monster
Always Escapes), Cohen describes that no matter how hard we try to get rid
of a monster; it will keep haunting us when we think about it. This stands
true for alcoholism because “the disease itself is an inborn physical
vulnerability of which uncontrollable drinking is just an expression”
(Milt 6). People may take some time off from drinking, but once they have
the urge to drink, then they will never be cured because alcohol consumption
is a physical vulnerability to them. Alcoholism is a scary monster, and once
it gets into your head, it can not be defeated. We will never be able to capture
the alcoholism monster because it plagues our society too vastly. When we
try to cure people, it escapes for a while, and then comes back for that person
permanently. Cohen’s third thesis (The Monster is a Harbinger of Category
Crisis) describes how a monster is “dangerous, a form suspended between
forms that threatens to smash distinctions” (Cohen 6). We know this
is true for alcoholism as I have stated earlier that when alcohol hybrid paths
with an alcoholic’s body, it causes the disease to appear in his or
her body. In Cohen’s fourth thesis (Th e Monster Dwells at the Gates
of Difference), he describes how monsters tend to arise because they feel
depression about how different they are from society. This is why people resort
to alcohol; alcoholism arises because people are depressed with some form
of their being. Cohen’s fifth thesis (The Monster Polices the Borders
of the Possible) examines how “The monster of prohibition exists to
demarcate the bonds that hold together that system of relations we call culture,
to call horrid attention to the borders that cannot – must not –
be crossed” (13). Alcoholism acts as a monster because when we see someone
who chronically suffers from extreme alcohol intake; it should act as a paragon
against extreme drinking. We should not put ourselves through this awful disease.
We know the problems caused by alcoholism so we should never cross the line
of the social drinker. Cohen’s sixth thesis (Fear of the Monster is
really a Kind of Desire) is self explanatory. People are afraid of alcoholics
before they are even introduced to alcohol for the first time. These non-drinkers,
who suffer from low self-esteems, are willing to try anything to be happy
though; alcohol seems like the perfect prescription to them because it is
easy to come by and they desire trying something naughty. They want to live
on the wild side when things get rough. Finally, Cohen ends with the thesis
(The Monster Stands at the Threshold of Becoming) to warn society that we
should take a hold of our lives because we are the ones who set examples for
our children to follow. Society has brought our youth up to follow after their
parents. If their parents are suffering from alcoholism, the chance of their
children following in their footsteps is very high. It is not hereditary,
but viewed closely by children in the wrong way as a source of pleasure. They
get the wrong impression about drinking when they have parents who suffer
from alcoholism. Let’s set good examples; let’s drink socially.
This will help minimize the alcoholism monster.
As I have investigated with the rest of my class what makes up a monster, I have determined that alcoholism is one of the largest monsters that we face in society today. Alcoholism isn’t a person or a being; however it is a strong disease that bothers our society in many ways. There is no cure to cease this fiend that eats away at the core of society and spreads outward. Not all people are captured by the monster, but the monster will never be captured by anyone and ceased forever. There are many ways that we can slow down the monster’s growth, but we must begin to act now by creating new laws that will help people watch out for this deathly beast. If we can begin holding people to a certain amount of alcohol consumption, like breathalizing before every drink, in the long run, the monster won’t be as large of a problem as it is now. Instead of being almost as big as cancer we can drop alcoholism to act like the mumps or smallpox. These old monsters used to be treacherous; however now that we have vaccines for them, they don’t bother society as a whole as much, yet they are still monstrous. Making new prohibition laws against alcohol, yet allowing alcohol to still be legal would be like a vaccine for the mumps or small pox. Only people who break the laws will be bothered by alcoholism, just like the only people who don’t take the vaccines are likely to chance receiving mumps or small pox. The monster will never fully be rid of, but if society is willing to give up a certain amount of drinking, then the monster can be controlled. By doing this, we will also have a better idea of who suffers from alcoholism, and we will have a chance to investigate this disturbing creature.
Bibliography:
1. Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome. "Monster Culture (Seven Theses)." _Monster Theory: Reading Culture_. Ed. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996. 3-25.
2. Freud, Sigmund. “The ‘Uncanny’.” _Writing on Arts and Literature_. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997. 193-229.
3. Milt, Harry. Alcoholism: Its Causes and Cure. New York: Charles Scribner and Sons, 1976.
4. Riverside Webster’s 2 Dictionary. New College Dictionary Revised Ed. New York: Berkley Books, 1996.
5. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000.
6. Stoker, Bram. Dracula. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1997.
7. Tracy, Don. What You Need To Know About Alcoholism. New York: The Cornwall Press, 1975.
