The Drunkard

I did not find this story to be humorous. I could recognize the irony of the situation, the reversal of expectation, the image of the cute little boy staggering home and swearing loudly at the neighbors, but personally I was just utterly unable to derive any amusement from any of those things. It might possibly have a bit to do with the subject matter, who knows. Tom Hanks stuck in a dry cleaning bag is funny, but this was not.

He gets out eventually.

I'll go ahead and analyze those things anyway, despite their unfunny nature. There's a bit of irony here. The son refers to himself as a "brake," or as something that is supposed to stop the father from drinking. So the audience expects little Larry to pull off some guilt trip, maybe cry a little, in order to get Daddy home sober. What actually ends up happening, however, is that Larry ends up drinking off Daddy's lager and bashes his skull into the wall. Hohoho, doesn't that just tickle the funny bone? However, through his severely intoxicated actions, he actually manages to keep his father from drinking. Kudos, Larry. It is particularly noteworthy to state that his previous efforts of attempting to divert Daddy away from the pub ultimately failed, so it makes it even more ironic that getting drunk would actually end up being the solution to his problems. There is of course, the reversal of expectation in that the reader expects Daddy to get plastered, but in fact, it is Larry who ends up a'stumbling home. Hohoho, I just taste the hilarity. The best, most hilariousest part of all, however, happens to be in that last little paragraph when Mother calls Larry his Father's guardian angel and implying that it was God's will that he get so severely intoxicated. One would expect Mother to be outraged that her precious little boy is drunk and bleeding profusely from the head, but rather she views it as divine intervention and pretty much the grandest thing since sliced bread. Hohoho, I must struggle to fight back the tears of laughter.

Serious dog and I have a lot in common.

One - Robert Cohn

Robert Cohn is the first member of The Barnes Crew that is mentioned in this novel. In this tiny slice of a chapter, we receive great insight into the life and mind of Mr. Cohn. We learn that he's a shy little Jewish boy who has gotten used to being picked on and made fun of, and has simply learned to just take it for the most part. He generally doesn't seem to stand up for himself, as is seen on page 14 where he declares that any trip involving a lady other than Frances and "I couldn't go, that would be all." He appears to be afraid of confrontation, which probably stems from the fact that he's one of the only members of The Barnes Crew that was not involved in World War One. Furthermore, we learn that Cohn is a writer, which only further enforces my theory that all writers everywhere like to write about writers more than any other profession. Just think about it. And lastly, and possibly most importantly, we learn that "Robert Cohn was once middleweight boxing champion of Princeton" (p. 11). I think this fact is particularly important because it's mildly ironic. Throughout the course of the novel, we see Cohn take on the role of a punching bag, rather than that of the one doling out the punches. Cohn is the focus of countless verbal attacks and insults and (generally) never fights back. Rather than being shown as the big bad boxing brute (unintentional alliteration), he just gets picked on, over and over.

This is a punching bag. They take many-a-punch, yet rarely hit back.