Brandon Hendzel Psychology 3rd Hour

Smashed 1. Author Information: a. Koren Zailckas i. Zailckas had a decade-long struggle with alcohol abuse, starting at the age of fourteen. ii. Her book Smashed debuted in 2005 and became a New York Times best seller. iii. Koren is a very sensitive woman to the actions of others in the novel. iv. She seems a bit eccentric and emotionally unstable. She seems to be described as a character with average intelligence and appearance. 2. Purpose: a. Old memories: i. After she quit drinking old memories began to reoccur and the only way she could cope with them was to write about them, later turning into the book. b. Memory: i. Zailckas wanted to remember some of the events from her black outs and through writing she was able to put together different pieces until she knew the events that occurred. 3. Authors Qualifications: a. This was the first book that Zailckas wrote and she had no prior experience writing a novel before. b. Zailckas started writing other books about other abuses and events after the publication of this book. 4. Author Biases: a. There are no author biases because this book is a memoir, and she doesnt seem to give any personal opinions only the thoughts she had about her experiences. 5. Summary of Events: a. Tells the story from the beginning or as the start of her problem i. First time drinking with her friend Natalie ii. First drinking party b. Talks about her decline by avoiding what was best for her. c. Koren sneaks out to go to parties d. Consequences should have warned her about what she was becoming e. Example from book: Halloween double date f. Example: Vacation at condo and drinking party g. Alcohol becomes her cure to a shattered life at home and it eases her pain

h. She believes that her problem is not an addiction as she starts to go more frequently to parties with alcohol. i. Koren starts to have blackouts of events that happened when she drinks. j. Example form book: Coma incident k. She starts to forget about the important events in her life and she can only remember specific things pertaining to drinking l. In college she becomes a more heavy drinker and drinks solely to get drunk(Smashed) m. She explains how she experiments with alcohol instead of studying for college exams. n. Alcohol becomes her problem and it has changed her, making her personality less shy, not as uptight, and more outgoing. o. She wants to end her drinking and rehab doesnt seem like an answer because she doesnt believe she has a problem. p. She explains how she never knew she had an addiction until she tried to quit because it was really hard for her to do so. q. She self-motivates herself and gets family support to lose her addiction. 6. Personal Review: a. I believe that this book was intended for high school students, and alcohol addicts with the intent of motivating the to avoid or stop drinking. b. This book is written very well and the style seems informal because the language is very crude and uncensored, with the intention of showing her thoughts through her actions. c. I also thought that her story touches the reader because I could feel myself being in her shoes, and seeing how drinking has changed her life and prevented her from accomplishing her full potential. 7. Relation to Psychology: a. Koren cant explain why alcohol became the solution to a problem she never had. b. This problem with alcohol abuse has become to define her both mentally and physically, making her a person that she is not. c. Zailckas explains how alcohol wasnt an addiction, when it continuously changed her and became the problem to all the issues that she had. d. She explains the withdrawal process and her mental state of being during this time. Works Cited Zailckas, Koren. Smashed: story of a drunken girlhood. New York: Viking, 2005. Print.