| About This
Wino An Essay by Collins Love "The Kool-Aid Wino" shows us how a person can become a husk of an individual at almost any age, young as well as old. It describes a boy who already has given up on reality. A boy who has become more concerned with even a shallow imaginary escape than anything else. The first thing in the story that stands out is that hygiene is no longer a major concern for him. Neither that of his own or that of his younger siblings is enough to get him to stir from bed. He doesn't even bother to undress to get into bed, which will lend itself to him gaining a layer of stench on his body day by day. His poor siblings are forced to wallow in their own foul diapers because he's more concerned with his mediocre breakfast. Furthermore when he says, "Why bother? You're only going to get up, anyway...," some would say he is showing foresight, but the problem with this is that being under a "tattered revolution of old blankets" in your clothes during the month of August increases the amount you sweat while you sleep and therefore the rate one's clothes become soiled. After only one night of sleeping like this will cause a bad smell and the harmful side effects will soon multiply if they haven't already (i.e. rashes). From there he goes on to show that the preparation of his fix of Kool-Aid is more important than obedience, honesty, or integrity of any sort. He is so far removed into his own escape that he offhandedly lies to his own mother about doing the dishes. He ignores the order and downplays the lie and disobedience to his friend. Further proof that the preparation is more important than obedience is shown in how he continues on with the business of making his fix. One might say that as the writer puts it, the boy "is like a famous brain surgeon removing a disordered portion of the imagination." and like any surgeon must continue with care the full operation. Yet this does not justify the lie, "Soon," the 'good surgeon' or "inspired priest' instead would say 'when I'm done here'. A parent of many children could accept and understand an honest statement of this kind. When he finally arrives at his hideaway, he demonstrates the extent to which he has fallen. He no longer even cares for the quality of his fix, but for quantity. He acts like a destitute nicotine addict who is content to pick up butts of used cigarettes off of the ground instead holding off until he can arrange for whole new smokes. Since it is impossible to be physically addicted to Kool-Aid, then his addiction is shown to be of the emotional nature. For instance, take the ex-smoker who hasn't smoked in years and by doing so has proved his break of the physical addiction, yet still will get a craving due to his emotional associations. This boy's emotional dependence is for the Kool-Aid to give him his escape time, "... removing a disordered portion of the imagination." Now the escape time is shown to be more important than honesty to his mother. The story shows how apathy can
turn even one so young into a negative person. A person
like this boy who no longer cares for physical self,
family, or otherwise, unless of course that person is
supporting his Kool-Aid habit. |