"The Drunkard"

"The Drunkard"
Frank O' Connor

There is a lot of irony in this story, especially situational irony.  The father is a known alcoholic, and wants to go to a funeral to pay respects to his friend, but also to have some drinks.  His son Larry goes with him to try to serve as a "brake" on the father's drinking.  It becomes ironic when Larry keeps his father from drinking by getting drunk himself.  "They all stopped gabbling to gape at the strange spectacle of two sober, middle-aged men bringing home a drunken small boy with a cut over his eye" (O'Connor, 349).  The boy and man have essentially switched places, because the neighbors would expect the man to be drunk, but never the child.
His father is embarrassed and upset, and the mother acts upset as well, but later congratulate her son for being his father's guardian angel.  Because the father saw the effects of drinking on his son, and felt irresponsible and was criticized in the situation, he swore off drinking.  The neighbors actually found humor in the boys drunkenness, but they gossiped about it later.  I find this ironic as well, because when the father got drunk, people either expected it, or got mad, like the wife.  But when something unnatural, illegal, and disturbing happens, like a boy being drunk, they find it humorous.