An Ounce of Cure by Alice Munroe An ounce of Cure is a narrative storytelling by Alice Munroe.

The narrator in this short story is a teenage girl who has to deal with growing up in a conservative family that live in a town where everyone knows everyone and news of almost every event, tragedy and mishap that takes place in their rather insular town spreads quickly. The plot very simply portrays the different circumstances and one can say dilemma faced in the life of a typical teenage girl but yet has an interesting perspective on how the girl deals with the consequences of her actions and decision and her positive outlook on these things as an adult narrating the atrocious stage in her teenage life. It is a reflection of how a naive teenage girl through this experience becomes a mature young woman. The narrator also talks about her relationship with her mother. The reader gets a description of the mother and daughters relationship as one where there is lack of understanding and the teenage girl is actually far more affected by this than she may outwardly display. Her mother does not think that her daughter is capable of succeeding or doing anything right as her friends daughters. The narrator clearly indicates this from ...as if she could not possibly expect, did not ask, that it should go with me as it did with other girls; the dreamed of spoils of daughters orchids, nice boys, diamond rings would be borne home in due course by the daughters of her friends, but not by me; The writer paints a clear picture of the main character before actually narrating the series of devastating events that she encounters which leads to the wrong choices and decisions the narrator makes. The reader can see the main character as a young teenage girl who was insecure about her looks, had a low self-esteem of herself, was naive and like most teenage girls even a bit dramatic. She finds herself at odds with her surroundings. Her self-conflicts are further compounded with the narrator falling in love with a high school senior and than having her heartbroken when he drops her for another girl. She is left devastated by this. She looks for some sort of comfort and consolation from her mother but it is not forthcoming. Her mother being a strict lady appears to be more conscious of the beliefs and norm in their social surroundings. As a result lacks empathy for her daughter. The story begins with the narrator pointing out that her family view the consumption of alcohol negatively My parents didnt drink. In fact the people in the town shared the same belief system. This is evident from Most of the people we knew were the same way, in the small town where we lived. The teenage girl feels she lacks space and that is what got her into trouble in the first place. The narrator makes this clear from because the difficulties I got into were a faithful expression of my own incommodious nature The high school senior she is in love with is Martin Collingwood. The teenage girl was very happy and this was probably an ego booster for her low self-esteem about

her looks, I never knew what surprised him; I was not looking like anyone but myself. About two months later, he broke up with the teenage girl and leaves her devastated. She is really hurt after he dumps her and falls for another girl. This was the beginning of her ordeal and problems that she caused for herself. This is evident when the narrator talks about what transpired in the next few months That night was the beginning of months of real, if more or less self-inflicted, misery for me. She kept reminiscing and dwelling in self pity over Martin Collingwood. The narrator talks about this I spent perhaps ten times as many hours thinking about Martin Collingwood yes, pining and weeping for him- as I ever spent with him She even attempted to commit suicide but refrained from going through with it. She only ended up feeling more discouraged by her mothers lack of empathy when she told her mother she and Martin Collingwood had broken up. That night, she goes over to the Barrymans. She often baby-sat for them on Saturday nights. The Barrymans were different from her family. They drank socially and had alcoholic beverages in their household. After they have left for their night out, The teenage girls happens to find some opened bottles of alcohol in the kitchen and without thinking or being aware of the consequences, decides to have some. This shows her lack of maturity. She did not expect the kind of reaction that follows from consuming the alcoholic drinks without any sort of dilution. She has never had this sort of exposure before and therefore had no idea that she should not have the whisky without diluting it. She was expecting some extravagant results from drinking but not this evidence of her shock is When I say that I was expecting extravagant results I do not mean that I was expecting this. She was drunk and was vomiting. She calls her friends over and soon they manage to locate her and to certain extend help her to be sober again but not fully. While she was still recuperating, the barrymans return and are shocked at what they saw. Mr. Barryman sends her home but although he was upset with her behaviour and disgusted even he was also worried that he may be held accountable. This is evident from the narrator telling us I suppose that besides being angry and disgusted with me, he was worried about taking me home to my strait-laced parents, Mr. Barryman insists the girl tells her parents the truth about what happened. She tries to go in without telling her parents but her mother catches her and realises she was drunk. The girl than tell her mother all that had happened including about Martin Collingwood. Her mother is once again portrayed here as a self conscious and forthright person as she goes over to the Barrymans and talks to them about her daughter and even tells them her daughter is eccentric. This evident from My mother went in and had a talk with both of them and made an excellent impression.... The mother ensures that the girl takes responsibility for her actions. She is therefore forced to face the consequences of her wrong choices in seeking a cure for her pain. Soon everyone in her town and her school comes to know about her break up, getting drunk and sick at the Barrymans. The whole experience had made the teenage girl learn from her mistakes. She is also able to forget about Martin

Collingwood. Evidence of this is I got completely over Martin Collingwood In a way, the whole incident helped her to realize that Martin Collingwood for who he really was and his true character. This helped her get over easily. The teenager narrates this whole story as an adult and reflects on the whole incident positively. But there was a positive a splendidly unexpected, result of this affair, She regretted what she did but was able to learn from it and move on from the mistakes she made as a teenager. Although, the teenage girl tried to overcome or cure her feeling of devastation by making all the wrong choices but on a more positive note, it was a good learning experience. In a way, it helped the girl who was a typical teenager who was self-conscious to come out of her nut shell and gain the confidence she now has. The teenager is also able to narrate the depth of her immaturity and her lack of control when she was a teenage girl. The narrator narrates her story as an adult who is able to reflect on her teenage life and particularly the development of events that Saturday night, as a growing up experience that made her more responsible. The short story An Ounce of Cure by Alice Munroe has a good underlying message for all who read this story. Readers can actually identify with the circumstances revolving around the teenager and empathize with her.