Haley Edwards Ms. Parrott English IIH 10 May 2024 Symbols throughout Beautiful Boy In 2022, the American Addiction Centers reported that “46.8 million (16.7%) Americans (aged 12 and older) battled a substance use disorder in the past year.” Substance abuse is not a new issue. In America, the issue has been plaguing the nation for decades. The numbers do not lie, and when looking at the struggle with addiction as a whole, the results are horrifying. What is more horrifying than the multitude of numbers concerning the topic is the effect addiction has on a family or relationship. In Beautiful Boy, author David Sheff outlines the experience he had with his son’s addiction and the toll it took on the family as a whole. Throughout the book, …show more content…
“Nic has an eccentric, hip, and often fickle taste. He does not seem to tire of some discoveries, but otherwise, he is into the edgiest music and then grows bored with it” (Sheff 47). As Nic grows older, like any teenager, he begins to form his own identity. Nic enjoys music that is new and edgy, giving him a sharper personality. Nic’s music taste is constantly changing and evolving, symbolizing David’s feelings towards his son. During this time, Nic begins hanging out with a new crowd, listening to new music, and becoming more of an angsty teen. Nic’s music taste changes, as does Nic himself, making it difficult for David to keep up with his son. It is soon after this moment that Nic is caught using marijuana for the first time, cementing that David does not know his son like he thought. While the book uses music frequently, there is a long break before music is used again. As Nic’s addiction hits highs and lows, David and Nic’s relationship starts to crack. While David loves his son dearly, he cannot bear to witness what Nic eventually does to himself. After multiple trips to rehabilitation centers and Nic finally getting clean, the music appears once more. “Feeling hopeful about Nic’s future, I can …show more content…
Phones are used for communication, entertainment, and, in some instances, education. In Beautiful Boy, the use of phones has a deeper meaning; the phone in Beautiful Boy represents David Sheff’s own insecurity. David, after discovering Nic’s addiction was more severe than he initially recognized, became fearful of anything negative happening to Nic. He forms anxiety around the idea that his child could be in danger or slowly wasting away. While Nic is highly addicted, the main form of communication with his father is through the phone. The phone rings. My anxious reaction is recognizable. Who else would call this early in the morning? It must be “Nic” (Sheff 184). Nic and David communicate through the phone so much that David associates the phone with Nic. If the phone rings in David’s mind, it is either Nic calling or something is wrong with Nic. The phone becomes a symbol to the audience that something is wrong due to David’s own association of the phone with Nic. This association creates a damaging cycle for David, where he is in constant fear of the phone ringing. The phone makes David feel insecure about his son's status. “The phone, when it rings, brings on the same state of panic. I am always worried that there will be news of another crisis. Or it’s Nic, and I don’t know if he will be sane or high” (Sheff 293). David expresses to himself that there is a constant fear of Nic being hurt when the phone rings.
The book I chose to read for this assignment is called “Stay Close: A Mother’s Story of Her Son’s Addiction”. The target audience can be parents, adolescents, recovering addicts, college students and mental health professionals.
Everyone’s lives are affected by the decisions they have made and past experiences they have had. In the novel A River Runs Through It, author Norman Maclean uses the theme of experiences to portray the difficulties a person can face throughout life. Although Norman and Paul are brothers and bond through fly fishing, they are two different people who have different life paths. Norman chose to get a stable job and live a domestic life, whereas Paul chose to become a bachelor and a lower class reporter. The main character is Norman himself, and he also experiences the difficulties his troubled brother Paul is faced with. Unlike his brother, Paul has chosen a different route in life, and he has an addiction problem. As a result of Paul’s alcoholism, his life is destroyed by financial issues, family disconnects and gambling.
The author of “Fahrenheit 451”, Ray Bradbury connects many issues in his society to a distant future where everyone can not read and question any aspect of their society do to the advanced technology in which the government controls everyone. Bradbury comes to this conclusion because as growing up he has always been fascinated by sci fi books and space adventures. As a young author Bradbury struggled to make a living out his writing. He first made the news articles in the LA times and then his most famous novel is Fahrenheit 451 .The novel concludes many aspects but the major conflicts that stood out to me were multiple marriages , addiction, and teen violence.
Sonny states, “Her voice reminded me for a minute of what heroin feels like sometimes--when it's in your veins. It makes you feel sort of warm and cool at the same time. And distant. And---and sure [...] It makes you feel---in control. Sometimes you’ve got to have the feeling.”(Baldwin,16). Baldwin uses the comparison of music and heroin to emphasize the addictive quality of music for Sonny as well as the feeling of control it gives him. This imagery of the overwhelming feeling shooting heroin serves as an illustration of the power that music has over Sonny. Through this metaphor, the reader gains an understanding of why Sonny needs music.
The movie, Augusta Gone, portrays a teenage girl, whose life had turned completely upside down in the blink of an eye. Her name was Augusta and she had no idea what she walked herself into.
Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction is a best selling book written by a famous journalist David Sheff. After the book was published in 2008, Starbucks Company chose Beautiful Boy to be one of the books that can be bought in its coffee shops. Beautiful Boy is a memoir written by David Sheff, who is a father of a substance-addicted son Nic. This book shows the perspective of a parent who struggles with son’s addiction and wants to bring him back to the family, along with father’s desire to protect family from destructive behavior and influence of drug-addicted son.
The novel “Beautiful Boy” written by David Sheff is a non-fiction story told through his perspective based on his experience of with addiction. His son Nicholas Sheff has an addiction; his drug of choice is methamphetamine, documented to be one of the hardest drug addictions to combat. The novel shows the progression of Nic’s life told through the eyes of his father, from the moment he was born until he was twenty three years of age. Before Nic’s addiction he started off as a well-rounded child who enjoyed many activities and was quite intelligent. Through the progression of the book Nic started getting into trouble with substance abuse, he was admitted to rehab which failed. He returned again, but had the same result he was in and out of rehab for the majority of the novel.
Even though they may want to other factors are usually at play. It takes a team in this instant to work through and accomplish the goal of sobriety. This novel has aided me in understanding the world of an addict better. It gave the insight that only a person in the addiction can give you. It helped me to see that whatever the driving force is in an addict, it can sometimes consume you. Some people can fight the urge to use, while others give in to the temptation. The most important task in addiction is to surround yourself with positive people and positive activity. Correspondingly, loss or drastic change should always be handled with caution. The divorce of his parents and going between his dad and mom’s house was upsetting. Nic not feeling like a part of his dad’s new family was depressing
David Sheff’s memoir, Beautiful Boy, revolves around addiction, the people affected by addiction, and the results of addiction. When we think of the word addiction, we usually associate it with drugs or alcohol. By definition, addiction is an unusually great interest in something or a need to do or have something (“Addiction”). All throughout the memoir, we are forced to decide if David Sheff is a worried father who is fearful that his son, Nic Sheff’s, addiction will kill him or if he is addicted to his son’s addiction. Although many parents would be worried that their son is an addict, David Sheff goes above and beyond to become involved in his son’s life and relationship with methamphetamine, making him an addict to his son’s addiction.
The author uses his knowledge of the human brain to emphasize the importance of “Endorphins” when growing up and how the lack of the chemicals “in infancy and early childhood,[creates a greater need] for external sources” (289) such as drugs. Along with his scientific evidence, Mate also uses many of his patients traumatic childhood experiences such as having “dishwashing liquid poured down his throat . . . and was tied to a chair in a dark room to control to his hyperactivity” (289). These patients help create an image for the readers to be able to understand the feelings and the pain addict 's often face in their childhood, that leaves them feeling abandoned and neglected from the rest of the world. Mate even analysis the fact that addict 's can come from home where there is no abuse and the parents try their best to provide a loving and nurturing home. The problem in families like this is often a parent is the one who faced traumatic experience as a child and are not able to transmit the proper love to their child, because they lack the feeling themselves. The author uses the strategy of looking at both the child and the parent experiences to show that the root problem originates from the same outcome, wanting to feel “unconditionally [loved and be] fully accepted even when most ornery”
Substance disorders affects all social, educational, cultural, and age groups. Substance abuse research often focusses on the abuser and the family as a whole but not how it affects their spouse. United States misuse is linked to approximately 590,000 deaths and is responsible for injury or illness to almost 40 million individuals every year. (Cox, R., Ketner, J. & Blow, A. 2013). The consequences resulted from this disorder, are not only related to the substance abusers, but also have a great influence on their behavior and other layers of their life, especially their wives (Salehyan, Bigdeli, & Hashemian 2011). When the husband or boyfriend has an addiction the wife takes on responsibilities of her spouse which causes an increase in stress. Marriage is generally described as a protective factor against substance use. The concept of codependency was developed to explain what happens to the spouse of a substance abuser.
Every single person in an addict’s immediate family is affected in some way by the individual’s substance abuse. In recent years, our society has moved further away from the traditional nuclear family. There are single-parent homes and blended family homes. Each of these family structures and more will affect the addict’s overall impact on the family. If young children are a part of the family, their
Most people do not understand how a person become addicted to drugs. We tend to assume that is more an individual problem rather than a social problem. However, teen substance abuse is indeed a social problem considered a priority for the USA department of public health due to 9 out of 10 Americans with addictions started using drugs before the age 18 (CASA Columbia University). Similarly, 1 in 4 Americans with addictions started using the substance during their teenage years, which show a significant different with 1 in 25 Americans with addiction who started using at 21 or older (CASA, 2011).
The alarming statistics of children that are living with an addicted parent within the United States today has become problematic and challenging to transform. According to Tower (2013) 12% of children that are eighteen or younger live with at least on parent that has an addiction to drugs or alcohol (p. 88). This is not a fixed statistic due to the fact that not all child welfare agencies keep statistical information on parents that abuse substances. Also, some drug treatment programs do not inquire on whether the substance abuser has children (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2009).
Addiction, Is it just an issue or is it one’s choice? Although no one chooses to walk around in their life and decides if he or she has or wants an addiction. An addiction is a “condition of being addicted to a particular substance” (Peele, 2016). One can be addicted to nicotine, drugs, alcohol, gambling, food, and even shopping if it has an impact on their everyday life. Consequently, some people with an addiction may reach a point in their life where it can turn harmful, therefore, people need to look for assistance. Even so, people still neglect to talk about addictions because people are ashamed, or in denial, and it is probably not one’s choice of topics that is brought up at your breakfast table, or you may never have confronted anyone before. Still, addiction is all around us, and most people today still do not understand or have misconceptions about addictions because addiction is a disease, and studies have indicated that addictions are a physical defect in the brain, thus, making it hard for some people to give up their addictions on their own.