Lucy McElroy - The Role of Family in Crank

By -
Family dynamics play a huge part in the likelihood of substance abuse in adolescents. In Crank, Kristina falls into a paralyzing methamphetamine addiction before her seventeenth birthday, a product of risk factors inherited from her family. Her mother contributes to her rapid decline by lack of concern with her daughter, and her father expedites Kristina’s decline with his own addictions and lack of discretion with his daughter.
It is made clear in Ellen Hopkins's note at the end of the novel that her decision to send her daughter to visit her estranged father was by no means an easy one. Hopkins repeats the phrase “it started with a court-ordered visit” twice in the novel – once at the beginning, and again in the author’s note, blatantly expressing that she did not have the final say in whether Kristina visited her father, and that she regrets letting her go (10, 546). Hopkins was pressured by her young daughter, anxious to see her “daddy” after eight years without him. “The judge had a God complex,” Hopkins writes, furthering the point that the decision was ultimately out of her hands (10). She was nervous because she was aware of her ex-husband's risqué behavior and admits that the course of events would have been much different if not for the court-ordered visit. However, it is possible the addiction would have surfaced without the trip to Albuquerque.
Kristina’s battle with family and addiction in Crank mirrors so many adolescents’ experiences in growing up in a home destroyed by hard drugs. Lack of parental attention and the presence of parental drug use are two precursors to adolescent drug use. Her steep decline into addiction may have been prevented if not for the court-ordered visit, but other factors would have ultimately influenced Kristina’s fate. Kristina’s is not the first story to be told and unfortunately, it will not be the last.


Crystal Meth Photo
Wikimedia Commons
Licensed for noncommercial reuse (Creative Commons)

Sad Photo
Pixabay
Licensed for noncommercial reuse (Creative Commons)

Smoking Photo
Pixabay
Licensed for noncommercial reuse (Creative Commons)

Graphic created by Lucy McElroy

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 7, 2016 at 9:17 AM

    I agree that family dynamics play a huge role in adolescents abuse of drugs, but I also think that the final decision depends on the adolescents. I think that authors note was also very powerful. I like the picture that you included with your post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownNovember 8, 2016 at 2:30 PM

    I like how you pointed out Hopkins regrets. I think she definitely blamed herself for her daughters drug use; but I also agree with you that "other factors would have influenced her fate," because of family dynamics.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousNovember 9, 2016 at 8:02 PM

    Great thoughts! I like how you connected the book's events with the real life events that inspired them and what we can take away from that.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Growing Pains - The Symbolism of the Tree in Speak

By -
I have felt the paralyzing pain of internal disease. The kind of trauma that causes your mouth to curl in and swallow you whole. I, like so many other women, are walking the halls in Melinda’s shoes in “Speak.” I thought Laurie Anderson did a phenomenal job of twisting all of the tribulations a high school girl goes through, into the tree that Melinda is. Whether we’re as strong as an oak or weak as a bush, we have all gone through the disease that strikes Melinda from the inside out. Melinda is like a half-dead tree. Some parts of her strive to blossom and create beauty. Other parts are broken and diseased. Like a dead tree, Melinda needs to save herself and “cut off the damage, [so it] is possible for the tree to grow again” (187). The symbolism of a tree is significant in “Speak.” Trees reflect her growing process. In the beginning, Melinda is a sick and lifeless tree. Her view is negative and dark. She’s so far past repair, bursts of sunlight do her no good. Sunlight would be pe
Read more

How Starr Goes from Acting to Embracing in The Hate U Give

By -
In The Hate U Give, Starr Carter is caught between two worlds. She lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, but her father sends her and her brothers to a private school where she is surrounded by white people. She talks about acting differently depending on what group she is around, which can create some identity problems. She says on page 11, "Funny how it works with white kids though. It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black." When at Williamson, she sees white kids that think it's cool to engage in black culture, but she knows they don't understand what she goes through in her Garden Heights community. She witnessed her friend Natasha's death when she was 10 years old, and she sees gang activity in her community all the time. When she is among her black friends, like at the party, they tease her for hanging out with the white kids. This reminds me of a Drake song where he says, "I used to get teased for being black, and now I'm
Read more

Speak and the Symbolism of Nature

By Anonymous -
   Laurie Halse Anderson's,  Speak , dives into the murky, muddy waters of adolescent rape culture. When the book was published in 1999, rape was not a comfortable topic to discuss with adults, let alone teenagers. Anderson writes about Melinda Sordino and her freshman high school experience which is turning out to be rather negative. Soriano stands as a thriving young role model for struggling teenage girls all over the world. Although she isn't an outstanding student or have plenty of friends to juggle, through Melinda, other young women can see that it's completely normal and okay to struggle in high school not only academically, but socially and emotionally. One of my favorite parts of the novel isn't a super obvious quality. Throughout the novel, Melinda's attitude changes and grows with the coming of spring and through nature and art, she learns to move past her troubling end of summer experience and once again find the importance of her voice.    Melinda st
Read more