My Daughter Smokes
By Alice Walker

Alice Walker

My daughter smokes is about a string of a generational curse. The protagonist's father was a avid smoker who basically smoked away his life. Along with this habit came the encouragement from their  to smoke which caused both the protagonist and her sister to become smokers. Though the speaker could not handle the smoking and quit as it gave her a chronic sore throat, her sister continued on with her addiction. Although she stopped smoking, she was consuming alcohol. The speaker recalls just being complacent and sitting and watching her father's deterioration of his body. As time went he could barely walk and climb the stairs without wheezing he could not even lift his own grandchild for a long period of time. This was just a sad reality. The speakers daughter picked up the habit of smoking and young too, following the footsteps of hey mother and aunty. Her mother though had smoked before was extremely concerned as she knew the consequences to smoking as she watched it ruin her father. She did not want the same for her daughter. Her daughter did not want the same for herself, but like any other drug, it is extremely difficult to kill.