Addiction Theme Analysis

The central character of Have You Seen Us?, South African ex-professor Henry Parsons, is a recovering alcoholic who has been attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings for 10 years, yet he continues to experience relapses. Notably, he displays addictive behavior in other spheres of his life, and his relapses are tied to moments of psychological stress, implying a link between Henry’s alcoholism and his psychology. For example, when Henry monologues to the play’s audience about why he continues to frequent the sandwich shop where Adela works despite her humiliating, contemptuous identification of him as a “borracho perdido” (lost drunk), he speculates that he is “addicted to humiliation” and compares that addiction to his alcoholism, a comparison that suggests Henry displays addictive or compulsive behaviors even when no addictive substances are involved. Moreover, Henry’s relapses coincide with moments when he is under psychological stress: for example, his adult daughter has offered to visit him if he can stay sober for a year—but he can only manage 10 or 11 months of sobriety before relapsing, and he essentially admits to Adela that he is sabotaging his sobriety because he is afraid of his daughter witnessing his broken-down life.

Similarly, Henry reverts to culturally prejudiced behaviors when under psychological stress; for example, after a bruising conversation with Adela, he has an antisemitic reaction to an elderly Jewish couple, Solly and Rachel. In establishing this parallel between Henry’s struggles with addiction and his repressed prejudice against the Jewish couple, Have You Seen Us? asks its audience to consider all the internal and external forces that cause a person to experience feelings of prejudice—and, in light of this, what capacity (and responsibility) a person has to overcome and correct prejudiced thoughts and behaviors. Henry’s bias against non-White characters can at times seem as innate and uncontrollable as the biochemical phenomenon of his addiction to alcohol: indeed, Henry elsewhere suggests that growing up in South Africa under apartheid infected him with deep-seated prejudices he can’t seem to shake. But by showing how specific, external situations (i.e., psychological stress) trigger Henry’s addiction—whether to alcohol, or to “humiliation,” or to prejudice—the play suggests that addiction and prejudice are also (at least in part) learned, conditioned behaviors. As such, a person has the power—and the social responsibility—to reject prejudice and choose empathy instead.