FREE ESSAY ON MY PAPA'S WALTZ

MY PAPA'S WALTZ

Anadee McGee
Roethke, My Papa's Waltz, Response
In My Papa's Waltz, Roethke discusses a very heartbreaking and distressful situation. He
talks about alcoholism in the family and how it affects the members of the family.
Growing up in a family full of alcoholism and abuse, I can relate to the point of view
that this poem is written in. Although it is very sad, all of these things the poet
describes are true of a family cursed with alcoholism. Whiskey breath had always been a
familiar smell to me until I moved to Baton Rouge. The people in my household would drink
all day long, starting with the morning cup of coffee and ending whenever their bodies
just passed out from drunkenness. Whenever drunks come home from the bars, parties, etc.
they cause havack throughout the house. Arguing and making lots of noise are two
qualities all too familiar to me. People who drink will argue with anyone who tries to
talk to them reasonably and will even get violent and destructive at times.
As for being a spouse of a drunk, I have never been married but have experienced a
scenario similar to that of being married. During high school, I dated a guy that was
quite older than I and he was of legal age to drink already. Whenever he would go out to
the clubs with his friends drinking he would always come home to his apartment and if I
was there and everything was not clean and perfectly in order he would burst into fits of
anger. He would yell, scream and throw things at me and even sometimes he would
physically abuse me. In the morning, after there was time to sleep off the effects of the
alcohol he would always apologize saying that he was going to slack off and try to quit
drinking, but as we know that never happens. Finally in March of 1995, he went to get
help and before we could find out if the long ordeal of the past four years was over God
decided it was time for him to go to a better place where all of the problems would
dissappear. 
Because of the horrible ways alcohol has affected me in the past 21 years it makes me not
like drinking or going out to bars because it usually leads to bad things.