Shuggie Bain

Agnes’s alcoholism robs Shuggie and Leek of their childhoods. instead of living like normal children, the two brothers live in a constant state of anxiety, never knowing what they are going to come home to. Shuggie spends most of his childhood avoiding school to take care of Agnes when she is on a drunken bender. Shuggie and Leek Frequently go hungry because Agnes spends most of their money on alcohol. The constant state of anxiety and fear manifests itself in Shuggie as digestive issues: he is frequently on the verge of soiling himself. Agnes’s abuse drives Catherine to move out, abandoning Leek. Leek holds on as long as he can, but the strain of being the “man of the house,” the one keeping things together for everyone’s sake, becomes too much. He leaves for good when Agnes kicks him out.

Shuggie becomes a victim in other ways because of his mother’s absence. He is sexually abused first by an older boy named Johnny and later by a taxi driver. He faces constant bullying from other children, and following the departure of Leek, is often alone. Because he has grown up in such turmoil and must always look out for his mother, Shuggie puts off developing his own identity. He passively withstands bullying and abuse for most of the novel, but he begins to change in the last half. By the time his mother is choking on her own vomit in Chapter 37, Shuggie has decided to let her meet her fate and become an independent person rather than a caretaker.

Agnes, too, is a victim of her own alcoholism. She sabotages her relationships, is sexually assaulted, her community ostracizes her, and she loses the support of two of her children. Society’s views on alcohol addiction come into play, too, as Eugene doesn’t recognized alcoholism as a permanent problem and convinces Agnes she has been cured.

Shuggie and his family members aren’t the only ones in the novel who are victims of alcoholism, which seems to be a societal problem spurred by difficult financial times. Shuggie first realizes his experience with Agnes is not unique when he meets Annie, who has an alcoholic father. He can open up to her based on their common experiences. Shuggie finds a more sympathetic friend in Leanne, whose mother, Moira, is an alcoholic who ends up homeless by the end of the novel. When they meet, Leanne correctly interprets Shuggie’s constant worried expression as a child who has an alcoholic parent. That same look is present in Leanne in 1992 as she attempts to care for her mother, whom Shuggie knows, from experience, is beyond help.