Alcohol and Marijuana in Catherdral by Raymond Carver

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Alcohol and marijuana

Since the beginning of time people have been using all kinds of substances to make them feel liberated. Alcohol and marijuana are consumed every day in America by teenagers to elderly people; there is no set range on who consumes these drugs. Despite efforts from imposed laws: people feel the need to consume these substances and encage in behaviors out of the ordinary. Drugs and alcohol are used in the story “Cathedral” but also they are used in Raymond Carver’s personal life.

Carver began drinking heavily in 1967 and was repeatedly hospitalized for alcoholism in the 1970’s. Carver’s minimum wage jobs, the demand of parenting and the need to bring money home led to his addiction to alcohol. Alcohol became a problem because carver was saddled with an old car, a rented house, and a serious debt as well as perennial wagonload of frustration from having neither privacy nor leisure to write: he more or less gave up, threw in the towel, and took into a full time drinking as a serious pursuit. Raymond’s wife was also drinking heavily during this period contributing to the acceleration of Raymond’s own drinking problems and the family’s general chaos. He was unable to finish his appointment at the university of California because of his addiction. In 1977, he was hospitalized on four separate occasions for acute alcoholism. Carver was an alcoholic before his “second life”, as he referred to it, after his recovery from alcoholism. Most of his short stories feature themes about loss and disappointment caused by alcoholism.

Alcohol consumption is a huge risk for many health problems. Alcohol consumption has been indentified as an important risk factor for il...

... middle of paper ...

...der, whether or not to uses of the substances help or hurt people.

Carver, Raymond. "Cathedral." Northern Dakota State University. 10 Nov. 2009. .

---. "Vitamins." New Bulgarian University. 10 Nov 2009. .

"Carver, Raymond." Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. 8 Nov. 2009. .

Nordgren, Joe. "Raymond Carver: Overview." Reference Guide to American Literature. Ed. Jim Kamp. 3rd ed. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. Literature Resource Center. Gale. 8 Nov. 2009. .

Williams, Gary. "Raymond Carver." American Writers: A Collection of Literary Biographies. Ed. Lea Beachler and A. Walton Litz. New York: Charles Scriber's Sons, 1991. Literature Resource Center. Gale. 8 Nov. 2009. .

Wriglesworth, Chad. "Raymond Carver and Alcoholics Anonymous; Religion & the Arts." 8 (2004):458-478. Academic Search Complete. 23 Nov. 2009

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