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Kaela Lowery

Leah Kaminski

Writing 37

05 November 2017

Spin the Bottle: A College Binge Drinking Blame Game

Elissa Washuta defies the personal essay genre characteristics in her essay,

Consumption. She opts for a hyperbolic, grim tone opposed to a self-pitiful, overtly reflective

tone often used in personal essays. As she depicts the effects of her college binge drinking she

creates a sense of detachment from readers; she comes to her self-realization after questioning

and giving seemingly factual, yet over exaggerated answers to the question: What can colleges

do about binge-drinking?

Opposed to following the typical, first-person story telling format, Washuta chooses to

begin with a research like paper in the third person then switches to the first person to express

her own experiences. This uncommon structure is justified by Irvin Peckham in An Impertinent

Answer because writing is inextricably linked to invention, to coming-to-know....Writing is

almost mysterious, leading the writer into the folds of the universal fabric of being, those dark

places some call error (Peckham 160). Peckham explains how writing is about finding answers

-- as Washuta is eager to determine why colleges take little action against binge drinking -- and

how it naturally unfolds -- like Washutas decision to repeat a single question but does not come

to a conclusion until the end. By breaking the most common personal essay genre conventions,

she creates a hybrid like essay that still remains lyrical and reflective.
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As a whole, Washuta criticizes colleges' reactions to binge drinking among students, only

to conclude with her own personal reasons for alcohol consumption. She critiques the actions

colleges take by writing in an overly dramatic manner to emphasize the severity of student binge

drinking. At the shift in the essay, she hits her light bulb moment and reflects on her own

relationship with alcohol and how it has shaped her, making it appear like a more typical

personal essay. The second half, which uses I and follows Washutas journey to revelation, is

the key factor in categorizing this as a personal essay because it is the act of finding oneself

through the retelling of a story. Although it is only the second half, it ties back to the first portion

and highlights how the reason she wanted an answer was due to the fact she was subconsciously

searching for an answer for herself.

Throughout the entirety of Consumption, Washuta not only writes for herself but for

the benefit of society. She addresses such a prominent issue in a way that is not commonly used

-- she does not directly argue against drinking making it easier to read than your typical, parent

to child like articles nor does she place the blame. By doing so she increases readership and

increases the chances for action to be taken to limit the effects of college binge drinking.

Washuta writes for herself in the sense that she is searching for the start of her alcoholism and

realizes that blaming colleges will get her nowhere. She looks back at her past and reflects on

situations she put herself in, but instead of looking at it in regret, she accepts the repercussions.

She concludes with a series of three telegraphic sentences that begin with I asked it to that

provide her with the answers she was searching for. Opposed to looking for someone or

something to implicate, she welcomed the fact that she is the one who sought out alcohol and
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initially found joy in drinking. She found answers for herself while sharing knowledge to the

public about the harshness of college drinking.

In effort to create a sense of intimacy with the reader, Washuta goes from third person

point of view in the first half of the essay then switches to the first-person point of view. The

third person point of view creates a sense of distance from herself and the collegiate institution.

By doing so, she creates a sense of animosity against colleges. She makes it seem as if the people

behind the vague term, college is a higher power that is almost useless to try to converse with.

It appears as if college is this large institution that does not care about its students. In the first

half nothing is given great detail, it is all pronouns. When mentioning the actions of Googling

how to wake up a dead girl, (Washuta) the girl is not given a name because to a college it is

just a body, not an individual. If she began the essay using the term I it would outrightly have

an exclusive agenda, losing the power behind the fight against college institutions. It would

appear too personal. An overly personal beginning would make it seem too argumentative and

almost pointless to read due to its emotional attachment.

The later shift to the use of I enhances the first half by adding anecdotes to the overall

argument. It takes the essay to a more intimate level that shows the direct results of college binge

drinking. It is no longer a list of hypothetical situations. She begins to share her personal

feelings, but in a manner that still distances herself to avoid self-pity. She keeps a stoic tone

despite the telling of personal hardships. For instance, Months after graduation, I found myself

on a couch with my skirt up, too wasted to do anything but try to talk the near-stranger out of it

when he decided to break into me (Washuta) is mentioned in such a light manner. She is

essentially describing a moment in which she was sexually violated, another ongoing crisis that
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is plaguing college campuses. Yet the following sentence simply goes onto another drunken

incident, dismissing the emotional impact it caused her. Her goal of making personal is achieved

but she still manages to avoid being overly emotional. All in all, this major shift allows

Consumption to fall under the personal essay genre because it is the finding of oneself through

contradiction.

Phillip Lopate encapsulated the concept of self-growth in his Introduction to The Art of

the Personal Essay, by stating, "Naturally, essayists who honor the flow of their thoughts may

often end up contradicting themselves," in effort to represent their own personal growth (Lopate

xliv). Initially, Washuta was challenging colleges to take more action against binge drinking but

then found herself turning the blame onto herself for inviting the alcohol in and finding comfort

during times of distress. The epitome moment is when Washuta confessed, College didnt make

me sick. College was the place where I learned to sidle up to a keg and call my despair

community (Washuta). She explicitly states that college may not be the main culprit, but it is

where she taught herself to mask her emotions by drinking. Alternatively, it still pushes to prove

that it is a well-known college party image and should be addressed publicly. By saying, sidle

up to a keg, Washuta is leading the audience to picture herself with a superficial smile amongst

an intoxicated crowd. Washuta admitted that college is where drinking away her problems

became the social norm. This highlights the self-growth through contradiction because

structurally the proposed question was not answered until the very end, exemplifying how

personal essays are an author's platform to self-realization.

The question, What can colleges do about binge drinking? is asked six times followed

by a short snapshot of hypothetical situations. This repetition is vital because it serves to prove
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that Washuta was eager and desperate for an answer as it is later revealed that drinking in college

heavily impacted her. She is searching for a reason as to why the epidemic has gone unnoticed

for so long. In But Enough About Me, author Daniel Mendelsohn explains how

autobiographies written by slaves and former slaves were the first to serve as politically

meaningful testimony to systemic crimes against an entire people (Mendelsohn). Sure, this is an

extreme case, but it still applies to the fact that college binge drinking is a nationwide issue that

is often met with ignorance. Washuta sheds insight on the harsh effects of the issue and manages

to blame colleges for the lack of action taken to bring an end to it.

Each time the question is repeated it enhances the inward plea she is facing as she

desperately combs through scenarios of the alcoholic impact. Scenarios such as a kegstand not

being stopped but, They [colleges] can make the student group with the keg of root beer on the

lawn pour it out because it suggests problematic drinking behavior (Washuta). She subtly hints

at the fact that the colleges are to blame because no direct answer is ever given, yet actions that

elude to alcoholic references are met with immediate termination. Another one of Washutas

answers to the question is the hyperbole of colleges pouring alcohol down the drain to get rid of

it. This act would be impossible, but Washuta mentions it to acknowledge the fact that from time

to time colleges do attempt to crack down on alcohol on campus. All of this is said and done with

a sense of dark humor due to its level of absurdity. This creates a back and forth blame game

between herself and colleges because it becomes hard to tell what is true and what is an

exaggeration. If plausible, less extreme answers were to be given, the essay as a whole would

become less intimate and more of a research or opinion article. It is essentially what makes her

article so unique.
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Throughout life it is easy to try to place the blame on anyone but yourself, but often times

it becomes pointless. Pointless because pointing fingers just leads to assumptions and closed

doors. Washuta found herself questioning why no action is taken by colleges to prevent the harsh

effects of binge drinking, only to be left with the conclusion that at the end of the day there is

nothing colleges can do because it is a personal choice. She drew readers in by making her essay

appear like a research article then allowed readers into her past and her quest for answers. It may

not be the perfect example or the textbook definition of a personal essay, but it follows the path

of inner self-discovery and shares personal experiences in hopes of enlightenment for others.
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Works Cited

Lopate, Phillip. Introduction. The Art of the Personal Essay: an Anthology from the Classical

Era to the Present, Doubleday, 1995, pp. xxii-xlv.

Mendelsohn, Daniel. But Enough About Me. The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 19 June 2017.

Peckham, Irvin. An Impertinent Answer. College Composition and Communication, vol. 57,

no. 1, 2005, pp. 159161. JSTOR, JSTOR.

Washuta, Elissa. ESSAY: Consumption by Elissa Washuta Electric Literature. Electric

Literature, Okey-Panky, 22 June 2015.