"A Million Little Pieces" starts off in an odd and very peculiar setting, as the main character, James Frey, wakes up on an airplane. His appearance is atrocious, as he has many injures, included four lost teeth. He cannot remember why he is the way he is, and when his parents meet him at the airport, James is told that he got injured during a fire escape. Once he greets his parents, he talks his father into buying him alcohol and cigarettes, and they go to their summer cabin. Instead of listening to his parents, James waits until they are asleep and drinks a bottle of whiskey until he passes out. He is rushed to a clinic and later evaluated there. He meets people just like him that have a distinct addiction and are trying to get cured. His hallucinations and weird actions do not surprise the psychiatrist and psychologists there, as they treat James with the utmost kindness.
This sets a strange mood for the rest of the story, as one gets the idea that James is not a person with principles and ethics. He certainly lacks temperance and must be introduced to the idea of sobriety. James does not care about his surrounding and drinks and smoke whenever he feels like it. He is not one who thinks ahead, of the longterm consequences. The ideas of temperance, sobriety. ignorance, unwillingness to change, and stubbornness hurt James in many ways. Besides James, the philosophical idea of temperance has become a problem around the world, as people refuse to acknowledge their limits when it comes to excessive eating and drinking, causing ill-will to their own body. These issues must be addressed by the individuals who suffer from it, and the only way this could be made possible is if they are willing to change, be educated about it, and not be stubborn. The way James treated his body can cause someone to die, and he is very lucky he did not overdose. Alcohol and tobacco sometimes determine life and death, because people refuse to know their limits and understand that their body is a sacred temple that should not be abused with unnecessary substances that cause harm to the person using it. This worldwide phenomenon extends beyond James Frey's problems to the rest of mankind, as an end must be put as fast as possible.
Philosophy