Addiction Influencing An Author's Writing
F. Scott Fitzgerald advised a friend once that drinking alcohol “heightens my emotion and I put it into a story… Drink is an escape… All sensitive minds feel it” (“Understanding Alcohol Use Disorders and Their Treatment”). Alcohol addiction is more of a common disease that affecting more people as the years go by. Experts conclude that addiction may control or impact a person's life by sustaining relationships and displaying aggressive behaviors. This impacts may cause problems like being in a state a denial, being anti-social, and constant paranoia, (“Characteristics of High-Functioning Alcoholics”). Some of America's well known authors dealt with addiction and each differently experienced how alcohol may have influenced their writing. Two specific authors, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Stephen King fought with addiction and had major alcohol influences in their writings. An author’s addiction influences their writing by demonstrating their multiple personalities and also by helping their creative process. Authors struggling with addiction use writing as a way to channel their many personalities. F. Scott Fitzgerald, a well known author for The Great Gatsby, admits in an article that he was not a single man but several individuals. As he explains, “There never was a good biography of a good novelist...there couldn’t be. He’s too many people if he is any good” (Goodwin 88). In this instance, Fitzgerald gives the reader a glimpse on how he could have lived multiple lives, which perhaps one life is his drunken state and another when he was sober. In the article, Fitzgerald acknowledges himself as a man who has flaws and conveys his double life within his characters. In The Great Gatsby, Daisy ended up taking part in a double life after meeting up with Gatsby. In the novel, Daisy kept her affair with Gatsby hidden from her husband, Tom but not from her close acquaintances, such as Miss Baker and Nick Carraway (Fitzgerald 9). Daisy’s double life is similar to Fitzgerald’s alcoholic life which was concealed to society but not to his closest friends. Ultimately, authors with addictions use their ambiguity personality within the characters of their writing. Additionally, authors with addictions find that the abuse of alcohol helps assist them in their creative process of writing. …show more content…
Stephen King, another well known author, justifies his addiction to cocaine and to alcohol by stating that it helped him expressively write. In an article written about King, it had been stated that his addiction, “was driven by an awful fear...he had been drinking when he wrote his first bestseller, he now worried that he might be unable to write without being drunk” (Leafe 2). This article reveals King’s opinion of the inability to write while he is not under the influence of his addiction. His writing is driven by the dependences of his addiction, therefore his fear of getting clean gets in the way of his writing. This is also revealed by the characters in the film Misery,(book turned movie). In the film, Paul Sheldon had a dependency on Anna Wilkes, the nurse, after his accident. This shows his reliance on Anna because of his incapacity to do anything by himself due to the accidents injuries. The incident in the film is similar to King’s reliant to his substance abuse to aid his writing. Finally, addiction help an author's writing by shaping their thoughts into a creative piece to their liking. On the contrary, critics may
F. Scott Fitzgerald advised a friend once that drinking alcohol “heightens my emotion and I put it into a story… Drink is an escape… All sensitive minds feel it” (“Understanding Alcohol Use Disorders and Their Treatment”). Alcohol addiction is more of a common disease that affecting more people as the years go by. Experts conclude that addiction may control or impact a person's life by sustaining relationships and displaying aggressive behaviors. This impacts may cause problems like being in a state a denial, being anti-social, and constant paranoia, (“Characteristics of High-Functioning Alcoholics”). Some of America's well known authors dealt with addiction and each differently experienced how alcohol may have influenced their writing. Two specific authors, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Stephen King fought with addiction and had major alcohol influences in their writings. An author’s addiction influences their writing by demonstrating their multiple personalities and also by helping their creative process. Authors struggling with addiction use writing as a way to channel their many personalities. F. Scott Fitzgerald, a well known author for The Great Gatsby, admits in an article that he was not a single man but several individuals. As he explains, “There never was a good biography of a good novelist...there couldn’t be. He’s too many people if he is any good” (Goodwin 88). In this instance, Fitzgerald gives the reader a glimpse on how he could have lived multiple lives, which perhaps one life is his drunken state and another when he was sober. In the article, Fitzgerald acknowledges himself as a man who has flaws and conveys his double life within his characters. In The Great Gatsby, Daisy ended up taking part in a double life after meeting up with Gatsby. In the novel, Daisy kept her affair with Gatsby hidden from her husband, Tom but not from her close acquaintances, such as Miss Baker and Nick Carraway (Fitzgerald 9). Daisy’s double life is similar to Fitzgerald’s alcoholic life which was concealed to society but not to his closest friends. Ultimately, authors with addictions use their ambiguity personality within the characters of their writing. Additionally, authors with addictions find that the abuse of alcohol helps assist them in their creative process of writing. …show more content…
Stephen King, another well known author, justifies his addiction to cocaine and to alcohol by stating that it helped him expressively write. In an article written about King, it had been stated that his addiction, “was driven by an awful fear...he had been drinking when he wrote his first bestseller, he now worried that he might be unable to write without being drunk” (Leafe 2). This article reveals King’s opinion of the inability to write while he is not under the influence of his addiction. His writing is driven by the dependences of his addiction, therefore his fear of getting clean gets in the way of his writing. This is also revealed by the characters in the film Misery,(book turned movie). In the film, Paul Sheldon had a dependency on Anna Wilkes, the nurse, after his accident. This shows his reliance on Anna because of his incapacity to do anything by himself due to the accidents injuries. The incident in the film is similar to King’s reliant to his substance abuse to aid his writing. Finally, addiction help an author's writing by shaping their thoughts into a creative piece to their liking. On the contrary, critics may