An Interesting Family

In Frank O'Connor's The Drunkard, the plot focuses on the actions of a dysfunctional father toward his family.  The father seems to have struggled with alcoholism for a very long time, and after the death of a friend, spirals down the path again.  His face is quickly associated around down with being drunk and poor.  As the narrator's mother tried to prevent her husband from drinking by using her son as a brake, the narrator was forced to eventually wind up in a bar with his father.  In an act of boredom and curiosity, before his father was able to take his first drink, the narrator swipes it from the father and drinks it to the point of drunkenness.   After the child becomes apparently sick from the drink, throwing up all over the place, his father obviously is extremely embarrassed and is forced to take the child home.  Upon their arrival, the immaturity of the father is shown by his complaining about how he should be pitied because his night was ruined.  The irony of the story is delivered the next morning.  The narrator is awakened by his mother, who then says, "'My brave little man!...  It was God did it you were there.  You were his guardian angel.'" (O'Conner).  This is counter intuitive, as many parents would scold their children for such an act.  Yet this child's drinking has forced his father to evaluate the hazards of drinking.