TOW #3- Self-Destruction

In a short memoir extract titled, "My Father, The Smoker" written by John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of Blood Horses and credited contributor to the New York Times, a son retells the experiences of his self-destructive father and the difficulty of change. Primarily addressed to “anyone with a mother or father who possesses fatalistic habits”, Sullivan looks back on the negative lifestyle decisions of his father leading up to his premature death, and the struggles that it placed on his entire family as a result. The father’s countless failed attempts at putting an end to his chain-smoking, excessive drinking, overeating, and negligence towards the advice of his loved ones placed a special torture on not only himself, but all those around him. Sullivan, along with his siblings and mother, slowly watched as the man in their lives withered away, and to this day he still feels the regret of not being there for his last few minutes of life.

Through the usage of personification and imagery, Sullivan achieves his purpose of reminiscing on older times with his father, while also educating readers on the important of good health. He personifies the bad habits as such an enormous takeover that they almost seemed to “squeeze him out of the room” and separate the family altogether. Sullivan also vividly describes the still-clear visions he has of his father’s “yellowed skin on his middle and index fingers on his left hand, or the way the hairs of his reddish brown mustache would brush the filter of the cigarette as he drew it in to inhale.” These bad actions were daily mannerisms that Sullivan was forced to live around, and as much as he tried to plead and confront his father the addictions seemed to never go away. They had turned a once happy and fit man into a monster, and in the end his sharp death came down to pure weakness and reluctance to make a difference. The raw emotion and description demonstrated throughout the entire piece clearly represents the importance of Sullivan's relationship with his father, and further extends his sharp feelings against self-destruction.

"My Father, the Smoker." Stopaddiction.firstrus.com. Guardian News, 2 Mar. 2013. Web. 24 Sept. 2015.