After reading this essay and other peoples responses I would have to say I don’t quite understand the stereotypical side of this either! Although people can be stereotyped as drunks, in the same way that drunks could be stereotypical, I don’t think Steiner is portraying her character as this type of person. We can assume from the text that this woman drinks a lot and often, but her actions are the same as anyone’s would be had they consumed that amount of alcohol. I guess in a way her actions could be stereotypical, but I would rather say that was an effect of alcohol; it is uncontrollable after a certain point! Alcoholism is viewed differently depending on a person’s values and experiences however, so some might read a different story to what I did. I thought that this could possibly be told from the point of view of either an alcoholic, the character themselves, or a recovering alcoholic.
I hate to stereotype people into categories as I myself would not like it to be done to me. I don’t think what you look like or who your friends are or what your favorite activities are should allow others to categorize you and link you to a certain group of people. Having only read one passage by Steiner I could not stereotype her, but if I had to guess I would assume she was the drunk in the story. I didn’t feel as though I knew any more about her as a writer after reading, but was left thinking who the character was based on. In fact, I could possibly think less of her as she has left me to think a lot harder about this than I had intended on doing which is kind of annoying! Although not necessarily stereotypical, I enjoyed reading the passage, I am glad it was only short though!
I hate to stereotype people into categories as I myself would not like it to be done to me. I don’t think what you look like or who your friends are or what your favorite activities are should allow others to categorize you and link you to a certain group of people. Having only read one passage by Steiner I could not stereotype her, but if I had to guess I would assume she was the drunk in the story. I didn’t feel as though I knew any more about her as a writer after reading, but was left thinking who the character was based on. In fact, I could possibly think less of her as she has left me to think a lot harder about this than I had intended on doing which is kind of annoying! Although not necessarily stereotypical, I enjoyed reading the passage, I am glad it was only short though!
1 comment:
I cant agree more with you about finding this reading hard to understand the stereotypical side of things. Also when i read this i found the character as a drunk which is what most people have said. I like your point about how this could be told from many point of view."An alcoholic, the character themselves or a recovering alcoholic. I also find it hard myself to sit there and try and stereotype people because i think to myself, what are they saying about me or what "category" do they have me under. Lastly, i agree with you when you say that you had to think really hard to get to the bottom of this story because i was really confused.
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