What do alcohol, violence, and tranquility have in common? The poems “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, “I Went into the Maverick Bar” by Gary Snyder, “The Peace of Wild Things” by Wendell Berry, and “Shooting Rats at the Bibb County Dump” by David Bottoms show how these three seemingly different things can be related to each other. Alcohol may result in violence or peacefulness which shows one obvious connection between these three things. I believe tranquility, violence, and alcohol are related to one another in numerous ways.
Violence can be a horrendous effect of alcohol. When people consume alcohol they are not in their right mind and may become abusive or flat out murderous. This is true in the poems “My Papa’s Waltz” and “Shooting Rats at the Bibb County Dump.” The narrator of “My Papa’s Waltz” explains that when his…show more content… People are often too busy to take a step back and come to peace with themselves and the world. “The Peace of Wild Things” and “I went to Maverick Bar” give two different examples of how people may deal with our society and find themselves again. In “The Peace of Wild Things,” Berry explains his way of finding peace when he writes, “I come to peace with the wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.” Being in the presence of nature brings him peace and tranquility and helps him “rest in the grace of the world” (Berry). On the other hand, the narrator of “I Went into the Maverick Bar” uses a different technique to reconnect with himself. Snyder writes that he uses “double shots of bourbon backed with beer” to reconnect with himself. On the ride home from Maverick Bar, the narrator proclaims “I came back to myself” (Snyder). Instead of finding himself through nature, Snyder found himself through alcohol. Both of the ways presented in the poems seem to be effective ways to disconnect from society and reconnect with one’s
