Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange is a novel about Native American lives in past and modern settings. Throughout these settings and perspectives, Orange constantly expresses a theme of addiction and substance abuse. There are little to no chapters without some form of substance usage mentioned. In the second half of the book, the theme of addiction is most prominent through the main character, Orvil, who became dependent on substances during the novel. This part of the book also takes place in Oakland, California, in 2018, where she has major meth and opioid problems. Using this setting, Wandering Stars comments on America’s drug crisis, how people get trapped in the cycle of addiction, and how this cycle can ruin their lives. Addiction is a cycle of getting and using …show more content…
What’s one drink, to get high on the weekends to relax? Have some fun, you’re young!” p.303. While this quote comes from an ex-addict who was in rehab, it is a prime example of what peer pressure can look like and how people can be persuaded into taking drugs or taking more drugs, which can cause addictions, side effects, or even overdoses. Sometimes, like this quote explains, it can be your own mind that pressures you into taking more, like that “voice” in Orvil’s head. The cycle of addiction can start when somebody is introduced to the drug and takes more to feel, or because they were pressured into it. What really happens when someone is addicted? What are the consequences mentioned above? After someone is trapped in the cycle of addiction, the more drugs they take and acquire, the more they ruin their lives. There are hundreds of bad scenarios caused by drugs, but Wandering Stars shows how being addicted can get someone into serious legal situations or even kill them. Orvil was in a very poor situation during his life as an
to walk around my home aimlessly. I would climb book shelves like a mountain explorer venturing through the Himalayans, draw on walls to open windows to my own imagination, or run laps around the living room rug because to me I was an Olympic track star competing for her gold medal; however my parents did not enjoy my rambunctious imagination. My parents never punished me for it but would blame each other for horrible parenting skills; at the time I did not understand their fights, but instead was
Television Soap Operas and Moral Debate ABSTRACT: This paper proposes that we should aim to refine talk about issues in soap opera as a means of developing moral reasoning skills. I begin with a report of work at schools in New Jersey over 1996-97, during which excerpts of a popular soap opera, 'Party of Five,' were used as the basis of a rigorous philosophical discussion of moral behavior. I then turn to the distinctive role of soap opera as a locus of moral discussion, with an example of a