Stephannie Guilfoyle

The Kool-Aid Wino
An Essay by Stephannie Guilfoyle

I believe the boy in "The Kool-Aid Wino" is an average pre-teen child based on how the storyteller has reported his interactions and observations. I also believe that he is a generally good person, despite his economic and medical conditions.

In the story he is stricken with a condition that is more than a mild ailment, and due to his family's economic condition, they are not able to pay for an operation to rectify it. They are not even able to afford basic treatments for his pain in the purchase of a truss. While all of the members of his family are working to help support the whole family, the subject of our story is basically charged with small household tasks.

While he does not contribute monetarily to his family either, I believe he tries not to
be an excess burden, by asking his friend for the money to purchase his package of Kool-Aid. In his preoccupation with Kool-Aid, he focuses on something positive, rather than on his health problem, or his economic condition. He also accepts his world as good by holding the watered down, unsweetened Kool-Aid in high regard, rather than complaining about its shortcomings.

It could be construed that the boy in the story intentionally does not assist with the younger children in the house or appears to be self-centered and lazy by ignoring
his mother's request to do the dishes. However, being the mother of a boy approximately the same age, I don't believe that this is an expression of anything other than the typical priorities of a pre-teen. Sometimes those priorities seem to be selfish; however, they usually pan out to be natural displays of maturing children trying to enhance their interests, imagination, relationships, and ultimately their ability to develop into functioning adults. It is all part of the child's rite of passage into adulthood.

I don't see this boy as living in a fantasy world through his Kool-Aid; I believe that he is living in his imagination and enjoying himself. I am sure that his mother will remind him again of the dishes, and he will eventually do them, but probably not the extra glasses reserved for his special drink. That would be sacrilegious.

It would be refreshing to see more people use their imaginations more, accept life as generally good, and choose to focus on the niceties rather than the shortcomings, as this boy appears to do in his simple way.

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