The Drunkard

The Drunkard - Frank O'Connor

In this piece, we witness use of dialect to characterize setting and characters. While their speech is slightly undereducated, the narrator of the story still places his father in a position of intelligence and importance at the beginning of the story (later juxtaposed at the end) saying, "in his own limited way Father was a well-read man and could appreciate an intelligence talker," (O'Connor, 342). This shows an important loyalty that the narrator has to his father, a loyalty that is tested later in the story when he is called on to save his father from his own vices. While the title may represent the father, in the boy's eyes, the drunkard is still his father. And, in saving him (though almost accidentally) he begins to understand a little why his father acts the way he does as he loses total control of his mind and body.