Innocence and Experience Theme Analysis

Through Larry Delaney, O’Connor explores the interrelationship between innocence and experience. The story is essentially a tragedy told as a farce; the reader is invited to laugh at the “hilarious” behavior of the drunken Larry, an innocent who’s just had his first taste of alcohol. At the same time, however, the reader is also invited to remember that Larry’s innocence has been exploited by his mother, who has (unfairly) burdened him with the responsibility of preventing Mick from drinking, and disregarded by Mick, who takes him to the pub even though he’s underage. By emphasizing Larry’s comedic, naive misperceptions, O’Connor underscores the tragedy at the story’s heart: that Larry is a child thrust into a disturbing situation that he's not mature enough to understand, making him lose his innocence too young.

The story’s comedy comes primarily from Larry’s outrageous misperceptions of the world, which demonstrate that he’s still fundamentally a child. When Larry takes a sip of Mick’s pint while Mick is ignoring him, he’s “astonished that [Mick] could even drink such stuff. It looked as if he had never tried lemonade.” What’s comically obvious to readers is that Larry perceives his father as the naïve one when—of course—Mick knows how lemonade tastes, and Larry clearly doesn’t get that his father drinks beer not for its taste but for its effects. The scene culminates when Mick and Peter Crowley steer Larry out of the pub and attempt to reassure him that he’s going to be all right, leading Larry to think, as a dry aside to the reader, that he “never met two men who knew less about the effects of drink.” Again, Larry believes the extent of his knowledge to be far greater than it really is: if anyone knows about the effects of drink, it’s these two! In a textbook example of dramatic irony, the reader is encouraged to smile at the child’s naivety.

While Larry’s naivety is amusing, O’Connor also presents it as tragic, since Larry’s innocence is imperiled at far too young an age. Larry shouldn’t know the effects of drink at this stage in his life, and while his commentary on his own drunkenness is funny, it’s also devastating to see him losing the very innocence that makes his brash, inaccurate observations so charming. Furthermore, even before the story begins Larry is clearly already too familiar with adult realities. “Mother and I,” Larry recalls, “knew all the phases and dreaded all the dangers [of Mick’s drinking],” including the financial troubles it inevitably creates for the family. And O’Connor gestures towards related traumatic experiences in Larry’s past. For example, Larry fears he might have to bring his father home drunk after the funeral, strongly suggesting that this isn’t the first time he’s been put in this situation. Strengthening this implication, Larry’s mother is the one who sent Larry with Mick in the first place, encouraging the boy to act as a “brake” on his father’s drinking. When Larry reflects that, “As a brake I had never achieved anything,” it becomes clear that his mother has put him in charge of his father’s sobriety before. This is an unfair responsibility to place on a child, and one that has clearly led Larry to see his father behave in disturbing ways (behavior that Larry might believe is his fault, since he was in charge of preventing it). Seeing a child thrown into a complicated situation that he only sort-of understands results in some funny moments, but mostly it’s horrifying—particularly due to the danger that this premature exposure to alcohol will make Larry more likely to follow in his father’s footsteps.

O’Connor handles the twin themes of innocence and experience with considerable subtlety, teasing out both the humorous and serious aspects of Larry’s predicament. “The Drunkard” is simultaneously a farce-like comedy of a role reversal between father and son, and a serious comment on the irresponsible and despicable corruption of an innocent. The comedic elements of the story heighten its underlying tragedy.