Alcoholism

The abusive consumption of alcohol is known as alcoholism. Almost like a disease, the effects of alcohol on a body can be fatal. Not only do you put your liver to work in a way that over stresses your body, but you can also die from the poisoning. Alcoholism tends to be a problem for people who seem to be having social/personal problems. A person who has an abusive spouse, or abusive parentals tend to have more depression related problems which in turn leads to the alcohol. When a body shies away from social help and strays to alcohol in order to forget about their problems, then what that person needs is serious psycological help. The fact that a substance can take over a life is frightening. The fact that that substance can end a life is even more frightening. Alcohol has always been a favorite in the pleasure department. In the 1920's men would drink all the time in order to get drunk and go wild, beleiving that the drunker they were the more fun they would have. Today substance abuse still exists. This is shown in the novel "The Dharma Bums" as seen by man character Ray Smith who portrays the author himself, Jack Kerouac. Kerouac battled with alcohol in real life just like Smith portrays him to. Smith, when in conversations with another character, often refers back to wine. As you read you begin to see how much of an alcoholic Ray really is. Not only does he constantly rave about wine, but he constantly drinks it. One example of this is on page thirty seven where Ray and another character, Japhy, are discussing their plans about a mountain climb they want to take: "...Do we bring wine?" Ray asks this of Japhy due to his curiosity about what they are bringing. Japhy sort of chuckles and explains to Ray that that would not be an okay thing to do and Ray immediatley becomes dissapointed.