Relationships grow in positive environments. Support and encouragement, from both the partners in a relationship, establish a firm podium for a strong connection. However, the relationships become vulnerable due to certain elements that can be socially unaccepted. Various factors including alcoholism, drug addiction etcetera can ruin the essence of even strong relations. Many stories depict that alcohol intake makes the relationships vulnerable.
Authors from around the world have depicted the concept of survival of relationships in a challenging environment. Certain stories depict perception of its characters towards the pros and cons of successful relations. For instance, in the story ‘What We Talk about When We Talk about Love,’ Raymond Carver illustrated its characters in view of relationships. Every character in the story found its relevance with the prospective story line that dictates their interrelations. Let us discuss the character of Mel McGinnis. The story initiates with “Why don’t you dance,” in which Mel is drunk and he has set up the furniture f his bedroom in front yard of his house. The author portrayed the character as a forty-four year old cardiologist who calls himself as love expert. He possesses the strongest opinions about the relationships. Mel drinks alcohol a lot. His statements fade into confusing ideas that depict his real behaviour. His attitude towards love and relationships is confusing and he does not seem to sustain their essence. He drinks while he talks, and his speech becomes irritating that hardly depicts support for real love (Carver, 9). From the ephemeral perception of love – “now I hate her guts” – to the notion that “it ought to make us feel ashamed when we talk like we know what we’re talking about when we talk about love,” the talk continues until the Gin runs out. It seems quit e difficult not to be prompted of Carver’s own struggle with alcohol dependence.
Similarly, in another story, the narrator of ‘Cathedral’ is also interesting in the context of love and relationships. The character is portrayed as an immoral guy by the author, and he is addicted to alcohol and marijuana. The character is more or less wicked who makes fun of others and hates people. Due to excessive alcohol consumption the character seem to get annoyed and his behaviour gets deteriorated. The character is associated with calling names and makes jokes of blind people (Weiner, 3). He becomes astonishingly nasty when he is jealous of someone or something. The character seems to have issues in describing things to other people. His relationship with his wife does not declare the qualities of true love. The narrator’s thirst for drinking and marijuana is quite practical than his love for his wife.
Both the two character share many similar features that describe their personality, and their vision towards the relationships and love. Being addicted to alcohol, both the characters lost their empirical understanding of the connections with their immediate partners. It is evident from both the stories that both the characters are wicked, and they depict improper social coordination with their loved ones. Both the two characters facilitate the escalation of social issues including alcoholism and drug addiction. Despite their high reputation in the society, like Mel being a doctor, their immediate love life and relationships suffer. They make the life of their partners miserable.
Alcoholism and drug addiction affects the normal working of the brain. The people with such bad habits are unable to explain their thoughts to the world. The characters of Mel and the Narrator depict the affected personalities who are addicted to alcoholism and marijuana. Alcoholism and marijuana affected the normal being of the two characters. Both of them found themselves as failures when it came to working on their relationships. The characters in both the stories depict unacceptable personalities that ruin their relationships and love-life. The Cathedral and What We Talk about When We Talk about Love portrayed the effects of alcoholism on the relationships, and it illustrated a nice picture of their perception towards love and the relationships. Alcoholism and drug addiction can lead to failures of relationships, and it can blur the real meaning of love in the minds of the addicted people.
References
Carver, Raymond. Collected Stories. New York: Library of America, 2009.
Weiner, Jonah. "Fledgling Filmmaker Casts Against Type". The New York Times. May 6, 2011.
