Blog Post On Shug

I just recently finished Shug by Jenny Han and some of the really difficult or complex things in it was alcohol and divorce. The main character is Annemarie, and her mother drinks a lot and often neglects the family. Annemarie doesn't really care in the beginning of the story, she accepts that it is part of her mothers personality and that its okay. As the story goes on however, she sees that it something that is a real issue in her life. She says,"Mama drinks because she's sad, and she's sad because she drinks." This is an endless circle that can never be broken Annemarie feels. Towards the end of the book she and her mother talk, and she tries to tell her mother that she is disappointing to her, and that she hurts her.
Annemarie is often confused during the book, she has a father that is always away and a mother that she rarely can have a conversation with. She is even having doubts with her friends for who is really her friend. My family has never had to face any of her problems, and I know that if that happened to me I would feel crushed and helpless. Annemarie has no one to turn too, so she is locked in despair.  Her family and friends are everything to her, and without them she feels lost and confused, and she blames herself for things she couldn't have controlled. When something is going wrong, and you have nobody to blame, you blame yourself. Your brain thinks somebody was wrong, somebody messed up and ruined it, even though logically it wasn't you.
In Annemarie's town Clementon, alcohol is a common problem. Almost everybody in the town drinks, whether as an addiction or pleasure. At a sleepover that Annemarie goes too, the girls bring in beer and they are peer pressured into drinking it. Annemarie feels terrible after doing this, and regrets later in the night. She thinks, "I don't wanna be like Mama." I think that if the girls have started drinking from such a young age, when they are adults they will be constant drinkers. Annemarie understands this, but doesn't have the guts to tell the other girls that.
Divorce is also a small problem because Annemarie's dad is hardly around and when he returns to the house there is a huge argument between him and her mother. Annemarie is afraid of a divorce that might happen, but at the end of the book nothing has happened but Annemarie is reassured it won't happen. I feel that if Annemarie's dad was around, she would find someone to support her and help her with her problems, but since he isn't she is finding herself in a bad position to help herself.