The Drunkard

"But the next morning, when he got up and went out quietly to work with his dinner-basket, Mother threw herself on me in the bed and kissed me.  It seemed it was all my doing, and I was being given a holiday till my eye got better." - Frank O'Connor.

For this blog I am going to formally answer a question included in the text.  The question is this:

Is the title seriously meant?  To whom does it refer?

After reading this short story it became obvious that the title was not meant to refer to the father.  The drunkard was really meant to refer to the son after he drank his father's drink and became intoxicated.  Since the title refers to the son, it helps to contribute to the humor of the story.  It's funny how the son was able to both help his father and gain praise from his mother by drinking an entire cup of alcohol all on his own.  Normally, this situation would not result in praise, but that's what helps to make the situation funny.  It was also both humerous and ironic that the son embarassed the father on the way home because everytime the father became intoxicated, he was embarassing his family.  Hopefully this made the father realize that he was hurting his family.  Hopefully it will also stop the father from drinking excessively.