Alcoholism In A New Leaf By Scott Fitzgerald

Alcoholism is a common addiction found in all shapes and sizes in today’s society. It is classified as an unhealthy addiction with occurring amounts of long-term damage to oneself. This can result in death or life-long complications. When the trait of alcoholism is studied, psychological and physical problems are observed. The question of why alcoholism occurs is also asked. Examples of these can be found in literature such as the short story called “A New Leaf by Scott Fitzgerald”. These specific stories have described several accounts of characters with alcoholism as a common trait. Studies have been made for the damage done to one abuses alcohol. Many medical websites have published these studies to show awareness of this addiction. Alcoholism

There are also warnings in the advertisements such as “Drink responsibly” in which people overuse this substance leading to severe consequences. “I found that with a few drinks I got expansive and somehow had the ability to please people”, Dick Ragland states in the first scenes of A New Leaf (Fitzgerald).The activity of consuming alcohol can seem appealing to all audiences and as a cultural norm in many places of the world. The CDC shows that alcohol abuse has large long term effects on the human body. This includes liver, colon, breast and throat cancer from all genders (CDC). Becoming intoxicated can also result in risky sexual behavior and unprotected sex. Homicides can also be linked to intoxication as a factor to the motive of why it has occurred. On the terms to females that consume alcohol while pregnant result in a miscarriage and birth defects to the offspring. On a national level, the common danger on roadways is intoxicated driving that amounts to numerous deaths per year. The bottle brings many side effects that can be fatal if used inappropriately. In the United States, 88,000 deaths occurred from alcohol related incidents, making it the third leading cause of deaths in the county (National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol

In any romantic relationship such as the one displayed in “A New Leaf”, one could have more of a desire to drink rather than spend time with their partner. Furthermore, alcoholics in families are often dysfunctional. Children with alcoholics as parents, experience troubles such as low self-esteem, loneliness, guilt, feelings of helplessness, fears of abandonment, and chronic depression (Heffner). This develops social and emotional problems for the offspring that may live with them for the rest of their lives. This may even lead to alcoholism for themselves later in life as it was viewed as an acceptable habit. About 43% of adults in the United States have been exposed to alcoholism within their family (Statistics). This is almost half of the adults in the country that have experienced such a tragedy that brings even more hardship than normal families may face. This often results in divorce and split households causing family members to be more split up among each other. The more excessive drinking is found appealing and acceptable to the younger crowd, the more likely they are to become alcoholics in their adult