Chapter 1 Animal House

Chapter 1 is titled “Animal House,” and through out the chapter the author compares the movie “Animal House” to actual college life during the 60’s and 70’s. During this time in America, fraternities were popular and continued to grow rapidly with huge houses of students and overflowing beer cans. The movie has influenced and still does millions of students in college about partying, crazy stunts and getting “loaded”.

In the 1980’s the U.S. Congress passed the law for the legal age to drink to 21 which became like the Prohibition in the 1920’s. No one followed regulations and this forced students off campus because residence halls didn’t allow open drinking. This opened the doors to madness because there were no rules or anyone to control the party animals. “We lined the edges of the balcony and took turns pumping beer from the keg…sometimes a member of the group would fall or jump off the balcony and seriously hurt themselves. But that was part of the revelry” Nationwide students died this way but the surprising thing is students think it is normal and part of the college life. The movie was admired by so many students and the crazy stunts were allowed and were common.

I thought “Animal House” was a great movie, funny and I know it made a lot of money. But I think students tried and still do copy the lifestyle of those characters and took it to another level of insane. Jumping off roofs, not caring about school, and drinking excessive amounts of alcohol to the point of blacking out. I understand everyone should have fun but drinking irresponsibly and hurting yourself is not fun to me. I feel certain fraternities create a bad image for others such as Alpha Phi Alpha, a strong group of people who help the community through out America, develop academic excellence and support each other. The Alpha’s are positive role models and it doesn’t make sense that a group be developed just for partying.

College students during the 60’s and 70’s created a culture that revolutionized partying, literally taking it to new heights. The media talks about how college students do drink a lot and have labeled themselves as a wild group of people. Instead of partying students should focus on other aspects of student life, and then do a little partying. I call it moderation.

Colleges have to control drinking, not stop it, because it is impossible. People must continue to educate students about college life and drinking. It is important to help grow a university of students who understand themselves, are aware, and continue to learn higher education.