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. David Sheff wrote this memoir to share his story of how his son’s addiction has changed …show more content…
They found out that he had a cerebral hemorrhage, which means he had bleeding in his brain. David Sheff shares that while in the ICU, he thought “Where is Nic? Where is Nic? Where is Nic? Where is Nic? I must call Nic” (Sheff 239). He began having delusions from the medication that he was talking to his son while trying to remember his number (Sheff 241). Instead of worrying about if he would live, and if he’d ever be able to remember his name or where he was at, Sheff just worried about Nic. All throughout the true story, Beautiful Boy, David Sheff displays unhealthy addictive tendencies for his son and his son’s addiction to meth. Because of Sheff’s addiction to Nic, he became unable to trust his son, unable to care for himself when he got ill, and made it impossible for himself to enjoy time with his other children because the thought of past memories with Nic haunted him. Although it is normal that parents worry about their children, Sheff went further than many parents would to try and get through to his
His son Nic Sheff had methamphetamine addiction and the memoir explained the stages David went through to help and keep Nic alive. Sheff was trying to appeal to readers who faced a similar crisis. He wanted these readers to be able to connect and relate as much as they could. Everybody can empathize with the basic emotions of relief, depression, and fear. Hence, Sheff utilized pathos in his writing. His poignant tone was testified by phrases such as, “enormously painful” (Sheff 17), “excruciating” (Sheff 35), “fearful”(Sheff 5), and “I relive the hell” (Sheff 54). By representing the pain he felt, he aroused the feelings of regret and agony he assumed his reader would have. His variety of sentence lengths also portrayed his emotions. For example, his long, never-ending sentence reflected his frustration and helplessness. When Nic went missing one night, Sheff said, "it got so bad that I wanted to wipe out and delete and expunge every trace of him from my brain so that I would not have to worry about him anymore and I would not have to to be disappointed by him anymore and hurt by him and I would no longer have the restless and haunting slideshow of images..." (Sheff 241). He also repeated the phrase, “if only I had” (42). This revealed the guilt he had for Nic’s condition. Sheff, along with other countless parents, felt that he was responsible for his son’s
The book A Child Called “It” was written by Dave Pelzer. “In the years before I was abused, my family was the “Brady Bunch” of the 1960s. My two brothers and I were blessed with the perfect parents. Our every whim was fulfilled with love and care.” These are Dave’s words about his family before he was abused by his mother. Dave Pelzer has experienced a truly extraordinary life. As a child, he was abused by his alcoholic mother, which included physical torture, mental cruelty, and near starvation. Upon Dave's rescue, he was identified as one of the most severely abused children in California's history. At age 12, Dave's teachers risked their careers to notify the authorities and saved his life. Upon Dave's removal, he was made a ward of the court and placed in foster care until he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force at age 18. As a young adult Dave was determined to better himself--no matter what the odds.
Beautiful Boy was released in 2008 and approximately at the same time another book Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines was published. The second book is written by Nic Sheff, the addicted son who gives reader different perspective on the same events that were described by his father. These two books are unique in their own way, since they give two different perspectives on the same, very widespread and so difficult issue - the struggle with substance abuse.
Nic Sheff wrote a masterpiece that is viewed both as fiction as well as the educational and life changing book. It became one of the most selling books due to its portrayal of the effects of drug addictions. Tweak gives a chronology of events that transpired during the growth of the character, both in a forward and backward manner. Nic in the first pages of the book gives some faint reason as to why he got hooked on drug addiction. It is at this point that we come to learn about his background and family life.
Gabor Mate 's essay “Embraced by the Needle” addresses important issues on the negative effects that childhood experiences have on the development of addictions, and the long term effects that drugs play throughout an addict 's life. The author states that addictions originate from unhappiness and pain that is often inflicted upon addicts at early age such as infancy. In Mate essay, he uses many patients past childhood experiences to help create a picture of the trauma that an addict faced as child and the link it plays with who they are today. Mate builds an impressive argument based on the way he organizes his ideas on what addiction is, and how it corresponds to a person 's childhood experience. The author does this effectively
From reading the summary of the book online the man, Michael Winder wrote this brutally honest memoir about his battle with substance abuse and the conceicues and lasting affects
In the book, Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through his Son’s Addiction, the narrator, David, talks about his son, Nic, and his struggle of his methamphetamine addiction. Nic began to use pot, booze, and then LSD at the very young age of eleven. He then moved on to a bigger drug: methamphetamine. According to his father, Nic was a sweet, smart, beautiful boy who became a thief, a street person, a liar, and elusive. He was on a quick, downward spiral. David took much of the blame himself and thought if he made certain decisions in the past, Nic would have been a different person than he turned out to be. Nic and his father both knew that in order for Nic to be a better person, he would have to break the cycle of addiction. Nic refused. Nic would often break into his father and step-mother’s house and steal valuable objects and often write out checks to himself. David knew that something serious had to happen for Nic to clean up his act. He claimed he had to be desolate and desperate, but Nic had been banned there had been no change.
As a biopsychosocial disease, addiction affects every facet of a person’s life, and is a true form of suffering. It is difficult to elucidate addiction without considering the criteria of two disorders, Substance Dependence and Substance Abuse in American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th Edition (DSM IV). According to the DSM IV, the characteristics of Substance Abuse include the use of a drug despite significant negative consequences, using the drug in situations that may be dangerous, recurring legal issues, and social maladaptive behavior while intoxicated. Likewise, including the features of Substance Abuse, Substance Dependence becomes more severe and has as its fundamental qualities the physiological and psychological need for the drug. Substance Dependence has two essential aspects, tolerance for the drug [needing larger amounts of the drug t...
In David Sheff’s book “Beautiful Boy” he utilizes descriptive diction, allusions to other works, and vivid imagery to recreate the experiences he’s gone through during his son’s addiction, times in recovery, and relapses.
Often times individuals see the end result associated with addiction, unable to see how they were before the addiction took hold of their lives. Through Crank, readers are able to experience how a successful high school student with high academic aspirations leads to abandoning these goals due to substance abuse. Hopkins makes excellent use of common knowledge of teenagers being especially vulnerable in their attempt to find a place of belonging. Kristina found this belonging with Adam, leading to her meeting him in the back room of the bowling alley where she first used methamphetamines: “Somehow I didn’t care about back-room parties. It was my turn. I’d been invited.” (p. 82) This allows readers to empathize with Kristina, even though they may not have used drugs in the past, as they remember that similar need for
Today, it is known that addiction is something usually caused by a multitude of factors either controllable and/or uncontrollable by the individual. Generally speaking addiction has been accepted as a disease and should be treated as such. And although continuing to offer help and funding for a group of people seemingly unwilling and unyielding to the services provided, makes it extremely difficult for one’s inherent stereotyping of a group of people to change; it does not disreg...
In the book “Tweak”, by Nic Sheff, takes you on a journey about a young man named Nic struggling to live his life while abusing drugs. Since the age of 14 Nic has been doing drugs, whether it be marijuana or meth. He always felt this calm feeling taking over his body when he did it. He has tried multiple times of getting help, but has failed because he always ends up relapsing. While on drugs Nic has done terrible things to his family and friends. Nic’s conflict with his decision to abuse drugs because of how unhappy he is teaches the reader that drugs are not the answer to solving problems through Nic’s parents not trusting him and not being able to communicate with his younger siblings.
Throughout the memoir Nic Sheff follows a cycle of using drugs and then going to countless rehabilitation centers. Before Nic’s first relapse he
It has become one of the major social problems of our day, leaving a great number of families and communities within our country devastated and without hope of recuperation for any of their afflicted members and loved ones. Growing to become a big social challenge affecting all aspects of the American society, addiction rates have escalated to enormous proportions within the country as reported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Addiction has been described as a chronic brain disorder,” resulting from adaptations in the brain that leads to changes in behavior”, according to Dr. Nora Volkow, who also assert that it can be treated (NIDA 2006).
No matter the type of addiction, the number of addicts per year increases drastically due to the endless access of addictive resources, and media promoting it. Addiction is a common element in the modern world today which objectifies weak psychological behavior and a poor lifestyle through genetic, environmental and developmental factors. In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley promotes the use of Soma, alcohol, and sex to sooth people of their pain and change their reality of life, which connects to the world today given that addicts rely on something or someone to escape reality.