| The Kool-Aid
Wino An Essay by John Gruber After reading this short story of yesterday's youth, I felt a sincere lack of opinion with respect to the title character's positive simplicity or selfish villainy. He is, in my humble opinion, a simple boy, thus having both positive and negative attributes. One could look at this tale of childhood in a positive way. He is obviously making the best of a bad situation. He needs an operation desperately because, from my understanding of his ailment, a rupture is a nasty and probably painful process. He is still somewhat positive, despite his having to eat a Karo syrup sandwich for breakfast, even within his own "Kool-Aid" realm. Then again, the Kool-Aid wino is only human, and for that matter, a child. Some things he does could be reacted to as negative. His mother asked him exhaustedly to do the dishes to which he responds with an ambiguous answer of "Soon." Then he proceeds to wander off into his personal world of Kool- Aid bliss. The truest question was whether or not his ritual devotion to a beverage, or his receiving of funds from his friend, was on which side of morality. One could argue that the process of making of the drink helps him escape the cruel world he's forced into. Another could argue that this system of Kool-Aid making was his way of escaping from his responsibilities to his large family. As for his friend's financial relationship and whether he's hustling his friend, conclusive evidence is lacking, leaving us without any ground to truly decide on. So: the Kool-Aid wino. Is he negative? Is he positive? After an examination of the information in the story, we've wound up where we started. Personally, however, I refuse to believe that he's anymore than just a boy and am quite happy that in a philosophy course everyone's opinion is respected. Back to Student Essays |