Under the influence is generally a personal essay written by Scott Russell Sunders. The way in which Sanders uses the present tense in essay shows that he is still haunted by the everlasting remembrance of his father even today. This essay is personal but describes the situation of every third family in the world. so Sanders essay is personal and public where many readers can relate this as air own story. The Author starts his essay describing how much his father’s irresistible drinking and then he uses past tense to describe he never stopped drinking but he quit living (Sanders 36). Then in his enduring haunting memory, he describes how he enters in a garage to look at his alcoholic father’s bottles hidden in paper bags. The way his mother …show more content…
He says his father became fearful and cruel from a simple man in his drunkard state. He even compares his father’s state with Bible story of a drunkard, in which he says that his father has also being clanged with the “unclean spirits” as written in bible now he understands that liquor is that unclean spirit. Sanders illustrated that the alcoholism sometimes made his father emotional or how his father’s emotions were controlled by the alcohol. “when the drink made him weepy, a father would pack a bag and kiss each of us children on head, and announce from the front door that he was moving’’ ( sanders 42) . His father always scared him of a whipping ( as he removed his belt) but he never did anything to them or their mother. It shows thatSanders has lived in the fearful environment while he was growing up. He was always in fear of beating from his …show more content…
Sanders was also in the same situation while was of his son’s age because of his father’s alcoholic behaviour. He felt himself being responsible for his father's condition and spent his childhood in guilt and shame. He thinks that he is still living in guilt due to the influence that his father gave in his life. He finds himself to be the victim of his father’s carelessness and nasty