Alice In Bowl Rhetorical Analysis

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“Dirt is the musical equivalent of coughing blood—harrowing and real. Dense guitars spin ominous, flattened melodies: the sound of cages rattling…It’s primal, sickening howl from the depths of Layne Staley’s heroin addiction, and one of the most harrowing concept albums ever recorded” (Brown, 2010, p.43). The musical elements of Dirt chronicled Staley’s addiction and recovery process.
“Junkhead” off Alice in Chain’s album Dirt is the epitome of heroin use as can be seen in the following verses: “A good night, the best in a long time/ A new friend turned me on to an old favorite/ Nothing better than a dealer who’s high/ Be high, convince them to buy.” Staley is describing the scene of a previous addict being lured back into the temptation of …show more content…

As the song progresses the guitar becomes more intense to emphasize Staley’s heartfelt vocals. The ending cadence of the song has barely audible instrumentals, letting Staley take the lead. The piece concludes with a quietly sung “Wake up” sang without instrumentals, leaving the audience with a solemn message of, get help.
Grunge and the Opioid Epidemic The Grunge lifestyle from the 1990’s has accompanied Generation X throughout its cultural revolution; however, because of the drug culture within grunge, the United States is experiencing similar trends. Szatmary (2000) writes that Grunge speaks to the “middle-child” Generation X because Gen Xers feel as though their childhood has been robbed from them. Sarah Ferguson fully immersed herself within the culture of grunge by living homeless for a week joining her friend Bones. Bones was a skinny 19-year-old street punk that has been homeless most of his life; his entire life story was told on his body, skinhead, heroin addict, born-again Christian, skate punk, acid head, and sous chef. These stories contributed to who he is, a collage of different life experiences that brought him to the present like most of Generation …show more content…

M.; Harris, A. L (2003). GenXegesis: Essays on alternative youth (sub)culture. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press.
Coupland, D. (1991) Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. New York, New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Bell, T. (1998) Why Seattle? An Examination of Alternative Rock Culture Hearth. Journal of Cultural Geography, 18,(1), 35-47.
Prato, G. (2012). Grunge is Dead: the oral history of Seattle Rock music.
Cateforis, T. (2013). The Rock history reader. New York: Routledge.
Mitchell, A. (2006). Taking Mentality Seriously: A philosophical Inquiry Into the Language of Addiction and Recover. Philosophy, psychiatry, and Psychology 13(3), 211-222. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Strassman, R. J. (1984). Adverse Reactions to Psychedelic Drugs: A Review of the Literature. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 172: 577-95
NIDA. (2014, July 1). Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction. Retrieved from https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugs-brains-behavior-science-addiction on 2017, December 1
Norton. A. J; Miller L.F. (1992) Marriage, divorce, and remarriage in the 1990s. Current Population Reports. Series P-20, Population Characteristics.

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