The Imagery of Drinking
Ward recounts, “ We partied inside the house only once that summer. We were drinking, We were always drinking. But it was a different kind of drinking from what we’d done the previous summer. That drinking had been insane, ecstatic. We’d taken shots of Everclear that summer, felt that liquor running through us, thrumming: for this moment, you are young and live. Live, more. The summer of 2004, we were no longer rebel drinkers, imbibing to break rules to shit on mores. Now, we were subdued drinkers, drinking to forget. By the summer of 2004, we knew we were old: by the end of the summer, we’d know we had one foot in the grave.” The unwarranted intoxication is anticipated to obliterate all the remembrances of bereavement that have emerged thus far. They drink with the prospect that alcohol would soothe their wounds and subdue all their agony through intoxication. Bereavement prompts them to drink disproportionately to manage with their losses.
The Imagery of Rog
Ward recalls, “ Rog talked about change, about returning to California, with others, too.It was all he could think of then , and imagined the pines and the thick air felt like walls of an invisible room to him, close on all sides. Perhaps this made him sue more, because like many people, Rog medicated with drugs and alcohol. His habit became more evident. He lost weight, became even more wiry, even more lean, his smile, slight when it shone, dimmer in his face.” Manifestly, Rog is hooked to self-medication which adversely impacts his wellbeing. His longing for change denotes that he is overwhelmed with the drugs, but abandoning them is complex. His tendency to self-medicate implies that he is undergoing psychological torment which he seeks to mitigate. Rog’s imagery portrays the stagnating and disparaging upshots of self-medication.
