Blog#4: Symbol: Alcohol
Alcohol provides an escape for Ruth during her teenage years as she begins to feel abandoned and unloved by her parents. This is also a symbol of her rebellion against her parents who know that she drinks and simply ignore it or maybe do not care at all. Her drinking also maybe linked to a cry for attention from her absent parents who are too wrapped up in their own lives by taking vacations and eating at fancy restaurants.
Ruth describes one night in which her parents are out of town so she decides to have a few friends over to drink. At one point her friend asks her if her parents will notice that all of their liquor is gone and she replies, “I fill the bottles back up with water…But it probably wouldn’t matter if I didn’t. They don’t notice anything” (78). By saying “anything,” Ruth is implying that her parents do not notice her sadness over their absentness. So, she chooses to drink to rebel against their rules for abandoning but also trying to fill the void with a drunken binge.
This failed cry for attention is greatly shown as her parents walk in the morning after when the house is barely cleaned up. The house still smells like alcohol and smoke and there are many teenagers sitting in the kitchen “breathing as if they had just ran a race.” However, Ruth’s mother’s only response is, “Oh…how nice. You’ve matzo brei for your friends. I’m so glad you’re not alone” (87). Ruth’s parents mostly likely know that Ruth and her friends were doing bad things the night before. However the choose to take a blind eye to the situation and do not see it as a desperate plea for their attention and love.
At first, alcohol did not appeared to me to be a symbol. Yet, as i read your blog, i saw some excellent points being made. First of all, it is true that Ruth drinks just like a majority of teenager in order to break away from society and the rules that have been set upon them. But Ruth drinking is way deeper than that, She does drink for attention. She wants her parents to care and notice all the things that she is doing. The issue is that her mother is very self-centered, which at first did not really affect Ruth, but as she became a teenager and was experimenting change and discovering new friends and negative influences that was when she needed her mother the most. Alcohol became her "go to person", and she never was able to build that strong connection that she always wished for with her mother.
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