Hi there,
The main character in the book is a likeable personality even with all his flaws. The man was born to parents who were in their forties when he came along. They were already grandparents and had spent the early 1900s building their farm which consisted of hard manual labor. The man was a curious, busy person as a young child. He tried his parents’ patience because they thought themselves too old and tired to raise this creative child.
As a child, the man was extremely interested how things worked. His Pop was just as strict as the boy was curious. This conflict between the two never resolved. Pop thought the boy would never grow up in the way he thought he should, so he consistently told the boy why the boy’s ideas were folly. This did not keep the boy from rebelling. The structured home and church life kept the boy within boundaries of a sort. Pop’s expectations for the boy were not what should have been expected for a young boy. Punishments were harsh. The boy’s Mom had a different personality. She did not believe there was only one way to accomplish a task. She was more open to the boy’s fun ideas. She did what she could to make the boy feel loved and spoiled him as often as she could get away with. Mom and Pop’s dichotomy in how to raise the boy confused him.
The boy grew up and joined the U S Marines to fight in the Korean War. Conditions in Korea were painful. The fighting was intense and many times the Americans were outnumbered in their battles. Fear was a constant while the man was in Korea. He had been trained to hate the enemy and to shoot to kill. With the strict religious upbringing the boy had, this clash of beliefs was something he dealt with on a daily basis. After serving his tour of duty, the man was a war veteran who was expected to pick up where he left off before going to war.
The man found solace in drinking alcohol. He enjoyed the buzz he would get after a few drinks, but he could not stop drinking once he stopped. He became loud and argumentative when drinking. His personality changed into a different person with the alcohol. If he did not drink, he was a smiling person with a fun sense of humor. When he did drink, he was an angry man who brought up grudges he had with others or he tried to start arguments. When becoming sober, he felt embarrassed of his actions. He had no self esteem. To get out of facing reality he started new arguments to give him a reason to get drunk.
The man loses his family. The confusion in the man’s mind is so massive that he never knows what he is feeling. He wants to drink himself into oblivion so he doesn’t have to feel. He has become a prisoner to his addiction, alcohol. Nelson Mandela wrote “Your freedom and mind cannot be separated.”
See ya later,
Lula Phine
Click here to buy the book.
