FCA 3.4

FCA Form
3X5 sent paragraphs
Hook/Thesis mirrored in conclusion
2pairs, 2 triples – parallel structure



1) "I did not begin by drinking from steep glasses, viscious concoctions of rum, gin, vodka, and triple sec, and I did not start off blacking out or vomiting blood. Like a childhood friend, it aged with me." (Zailckas xii preface)
2) This introduction to the book Smashed, by Koren Zailckas, is almost as if she is explaining herself realistically, yet defending herself at the same time for what led her into a life of alcohol abuse. 3)Her stories, reasonings, and insecurities, are all used as proof in this book that the desire for something is more powerful than most of us imagine. 4)Her first encounter drew my curiosity into the book; it sounded like an ordinary day of being a teenager, and it was obvious that it could happen to anybody, and usually does. 5) She was fourteen, spending her summer days with Natalie, her friend in whom she followed, someone who she looked up to, and wanted to gain respect from. Natalie introduced Koren to alcohol. 6) At the time, neither of them figured what it would lead into.

1) Her desire for alcohol began to increase in high school. 2)Koren is not the most socially accepted person, nor does she feel comfortable in most situations. 3) Her mother even wants her to be more social and more of a risk- taker. 4)That is who Koren becomes when she is under the influence. 5)"All my worries fall over and die like canaries in a mine shaft" (45), was what Koren admitted during her first night of actually being drunk. Throughout her now and then parties in high school, it becomes hard to tell what she is feeling a buzz from: the fact that she has had something to drink or the fact that a cute boy is gently brushing the hair out of her face. In a college setting, her need for alcohol becomes more apparent. She needs alcohol to mask her insecurities- "Just drunk will not swat away my misgivings about Milton, anxieties that are whirling around me when I'm alone with him...I need a bottle of something sweet and potent to perk me back up to a state of past gone." (164), Koren believed, frustrated with the fact that she was only drunk, insisting she needed more.
While she didn’t begin drinking to end up alone, throwing up and not remembering what happened hours before, her innocent drinks that she had now and then growing up in high school gradually led to bigger problems.