All right, I know my ten-year-old son is a cocaine addict, but what do you what me to do? I have to work long hours just to pay the bills and keep food on the table. I felt my treatment in the AP English discussion was quite unfair. I mean, I have to work all day and I simply can’t keep on eye on my son. My wife has not been of much help, “[she] doesn’t seem to notice” his very odd behavior (41). I’ve sadly had to discover my son’s addiction on my own without any help from my alcoholic wife. So yeah, I feel like I was treated unfairly. I saw some of the signs, I knew the whole “no more baseball” crap was odd and as soon as I saw that his “pupils [were] huge” I had to act (43, 45). So I did like any parent would. Many of the students referred to me as a bad and ignorant parent, and to some extent I was a bit ignorant but what else do you want me to do? Baby-sit my kid 24 hours a day and watch my electricity get shut off and watch as my wife and kids go hungry. One of the only students who cut me any slack was Thomas Donley, he said, “John Sr. is a great, hard working American dad and can’t help if his wife fails to notice her son’s odd behavior.” I appreciate Thomas’ admiration for my hard work and utmost devotion to America. As for you other AP students, you try working twelve hours a day with an alcoholic wife and see if you can spot your kid’s addiction right off the bat. Most of you wouldn’t last ten minutes in my shoes, so buzz off and quit criticizing me … or else I’ll break “your weasel neck[s]” (79).
Jimmy (or John Sr. I suppose), I entirely agree, and I voiced my support for this viewpoint during class. How can John Sr. be faulted for merely working hard and trying to support his family? And should he really even be held accountable for the actions of his son? Rodney is old enough to know the difference between right and wrong, so at some level the choice falls upon him. Rodney can make his own decision about whether or not to do drugs, so there is little John Sr. can do to stop him.
ReplyDeletePure entertainment Jimmy. I thoroughly enjoyed this post. I must say that in the future I see a resemblance between you and John Sr. I give you credit, I think you would/ will be a very good father. That aside, I liked the way that you defended John Sr. I feel as though he was one of the first characters where most of our classmates first felt critical of him, but then said, oh wait a second, he has a sound moral character with little fault at all. A job well done James.
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