Alcoholism And Drugs: The Effects On Childhood
Jill Nelson was raised in what is known to be a "common" area or environment for many African-American children. Although she grew up in an upper-middle class household, her experiences were much the same as someone living in the projects with regards to her broken home and easy access to drugs and alcohol. In the United States, violence is most prevalent in the African-American community than any other ethnic group, and often drugs and alcohol are involved in many forms in violence. In Jill Nelson's book, Volunteer Slavery, she illustrates and suggests that drugs and alcohol destroys not only the person but the family and are used by people to try to escape life.
In most, if not all, societies of the world believe that parents are expected to be the backbone of the family. Henceforth, when Nelson's father left, she implies that her mother became an alcoholic. "Since the break-up, my mother, fueled by pain, rage, and Jack Daniel's, isn't exactly coherent when she talks about him. Or much else either," (Nelson 121). It is no revelation that Jill and her siblings were performing some of the same acts that were presented in there life at home; including smoking marijuana and other types of other drugs under their mother's roof every day when she was away. Jill Nelson's family life was much different before her father's abandonment and her mother's alcoholism. Unfortunately, at this time in their life, Jill and Lynn were more concerned about their mother catching them whenever they got high. "Oh no. Don't let her come in. She's going to know what we did," (Nelson 117). Consequences were more realistic when the family was together. Jill and Lynn ended up raising themselves and grew up too fast, which could be solely the result of how Nelson and all her siblings formed the particular types of immoral habits that they had. Essentially, they lost both parents solely between their father abandoning them and their mother not being active in their life; such as the...
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