The Drunkard Analysis Essay Example

I think is the most ironic one of the story because the mother positions her son as a “brake” for her husband drinking. This is not the first time the mother positions Larry in that position for his father, but it is the first time he succeeds.

When Larry found he was going with his father to the funeral to be a “brake” on his drinking, he had the night all planned out of how it was going to end up. He imagined taking his father home drunk again and all the neighbors calling him a drunk. The irony was that Larry actually achieved getting his father away from drinking but he got himself drunk in the process and it was his father taking him home drunk. O’Connor shows humor many times in the story. One moment I thought was humorous was when the Father told Larry “Run out in the road and play, can’t you. (342) this quote not only shows that the father did not have a good relationship with Larry, but at the same time it was comical because this is what parents tells their children when they want to get rid of them. Another way O’Connor shows humor in the story was when Larry was drunk and his father was taking him home and they encountered a gang of old ladies. When Larry saw that the gang of old ladies were looking at him he started singing his father’s favorite song “Though lost to Monica and cold in grave He returns to Kincora no more. (345) His father would tell him to hush, but he would sing it even louder. In conclusion,

I think the story “The Drunkard” by Frank O’Connor had great significance and made it more entertaining by being first person point of view and having irony and humor because the irony made the humor possible. The story being narrated by anyone other than Larry would have been less ironic and humorous since he is the one acting out the events. Instead of being a sad story about his father being an alcoholic he tells an exciting humorous story of how a young boy stopped his father from getting drunk.