“The Intoxicated” is the first short story in the collection of The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson, first published in 1948, with an introduction by A. M. Holmes.
My analysis is based on reading How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster. My conclusion is a little different than some of the others I've read, but I'm sticking with it, for now, because Foster convinced me that stories can have more than one valid meaning.
Basically other reviewers believe the girl is smarter than the adult and he found that kind of irritating and embarrassing. I saw the opposite. The girl is caught up in teen angst—this is 1948 and the world is just recovering from World War 2; the atom bomb and Communism are threatening; and she's been reading Caesar's Gallic Wars. She's convinced the world is about to end, but the man knows better. While he agrees they're living in “interesting” times, he knows teenagers tend to overreact. Adults know from experience that they'll eventually get through whatever's going on. He obviously got through World War 2, right?
Basically other reviewers believe the girl is smarter than the adult and he found that kind of irritating and embarrassing. I saw the opposite. The girl is caught up in teen angst—this is 1948 and the world is just recovering from World War 2; the atom bomb and Communism are threatening; and she's been reading Caesar's Gallic Wars. She's convinced the world is about to end, but the man knows better. While he agrees they're living in “interesting” times, he knows teenagers tend to overreact. Adults know from experience that they'll eventually get through whatever's going on. He obviously got through World War 2, right?
I can relate to this. I was a teenager 30 years ago. Protesters warned us not to trust anyone over 30. The population explosion was threatening. We were going to run out of copper. The economy was in “stagflation”. I was ready to head to the wilderness and become a survivalist. But then came the “Big 80's”. I got a job, got married, settled down, had kids and got past all that. Now we have global warming, the Great Recession, partisan politics, and peak oil.
Before our time, humanity survived the rise and fall of Rome, the Black Death, the Great Depression, and countless wars. Obviously past performance doesn't guarantee future performance, but the long term trend is promising...
That's my take on the “Intoxicated”. After reading other reviews and rereading the story, all the other reviewers make perfectly valid points, but I guess I just relate better to the guy than the girl.
The “Intoxicated” is amazing because it's so short yet gives so much to think about. It's easy to read and reread and offers so much to analyze and re-analyze. Jackson's style and tone are unique and intriguing. This collection culminates with "The Lottery", which every American my age must have read in middle school and probably never forgot.
For more, see my detailed analysis of "The Intoxicated".
References:Shirley Jackson. The Lottery and Other Stories. 1948, 2005. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
Heidi. "The Big Read IV: Shirley Jackson's The Intoxicated and The Daemon Lover". Adventures in Multiplicity. Nov. 4, 2008. web 2011.
Sydney Byrd. "Review of the Intoxicated by Shirley Jackson". examiner. Aug. 3, 2011. web 2011."The Big Read IV: The Lottery and Other Stories". bookshelves of doom". Nov. 3, 2008. web 2011.GradeSaver. "The Lottery and Other Stories Study Guide". GradeSaver. 1999-2011. web 2011.Håvard Nørjordet. "The Tall Man in the Blue Suit". DUO University of Oslo. 2005. web 2011.Thomas C. Foster. How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Harper. 2003.
Heidi. "The Big Read IV: Shirley Jackson's The Intoxicated and The Daemon Lover". Adventures in Multiplicity. Nov. 4, 2008. web 2011.
Sydney Byrd. "Review of the Intoxicated by Shirley Jackson". examiner. Aug. 3, 2011. web 2011."The Big Read IV: The Lottery and Other Stories". bookshelves of doom". Nov. 3, 2008. web 2011.GradeSaver. "The Lottery and Other Stories Study Guide". GradeSaver. 1999-2011. web 2011.Håvard Nørjordet. "The Tall Man in the Blue Suit". DUO University of Oslo. 2005. web 2011.Thomas C. Foster. How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Harper. 2003.
I recently read the short story and I didn't understand until I came across this post. Thank you so much for opening my eyes! It has so much meaning and even the end leaves you wondering.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with this assessment. Jackson makes it very clear that her actions contradict and betray the things she claims to believe. Specifically, Eileen says that she thinks her class will be the last class to read Caesar (because the world will end any day now), yet she later emphatically states that she does her Latin homework each night.
ReplyDeleteWhy do your homework if you truly believe the world will end before you finish school?
So in part, Jackson is showing Eileen is just following "kids nowadays," by reciting the doom and gloom that is popular - and possibly popular only because it conflicts with the happiness and optimism of the older, WW2 generation (as shown the the party in the next room).
To dig a little deeper, Jackson may be implying that the way humans manage to endure these things (WW2, the threat of nuclear war) is by being like Eileen --- by seeing the painful truths and dangers of the world, but somehow, someway, never believing in them...
Through optimism, hypocrisy, or just foolishness, humans never accept that things will end; and that's where our strength to survive comes from.