A Response to: An Ounce of Cure

An Ounce of Cure: a rather realistic set of events, occurring in the life of an everyday teenage girl. Written by Alice Munro, a not-so-teenaged woman herself, the thought processes and logic behind the narrator's actions are perfectly capable of happening in the mind of a young girl. In short, this piece of writing is both relatable and effective.
However much I enjoyed the story though, I was obligated to delve into the deeper meaning of everything, and analyze different aspects of the literature. First, we had to take a gander at the title, and try to make some sense of it. The title, "An Ounce of Cure", is derived from the saying "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure", which means it's better to spend a little effort in preventing something, than it is to spend more effort in trying to fix whatever the problem was. For the story, the title refers to the healing of an emotional/mental state, and the alcohol ingested was the "ounce of cure", which "cured" her of her depressed obsession over a boy with it's consequences. This theme is constant throughout the story, beginning with her emotional breakdown, to her ignorant binge drinking, and finally ends with her finishing reflection on how everything had changed her.

Next on the list of analytical points was the feelings expressed by the main character. From the words, behaviour, thought process, and of course stated facts of her emotions, certain feelings of innocence, love, heartbreak, obsession, panic, depression, fear, anxiety, awkwardness, dread, humiliation, and acceptance all appear in the story. They are all associated with certain situations, which bring a new set of life experiences to the Narrator: with each new feeling, a lesson is learned in the process.

Of course, now we must discuss who this "Narrator/Main character" is! Her name is never mentioned in the book, but she gives her age, and a rough idea of her social status. She is a young, teenage girl, set in a relatively modern day world. The plot of the story recounts a series of events, such as her first boyfriend, her first heartbreak, her first drink, her first alcohol poisoning, and her first total public humiliation, and sheds a sort of enlightenment on them (from her perspective, as she is telling this as the past).

It is not only her behaviour that defines her though. There are several ideas and thoughts that demonstrate how she perceives things, and how experience shapes her character. This is especially true in regards to the narrator's emotions surrounding Martin Collingwood, which change drastically as the story progresses, starting out hopeful and happy, then to obsession and depression, then to a mature acceptance of things as they are. These are all demonstrated through her words and thoughts, such as, "I had been in love all year… when a boy named Martin Collingwood had given me a surprised, appreciative, and rather ominously complacent smile in the school assembly" (103), "I gave up my soul for dead and walked into the kitchen and decided to get drunk… No, ,it was not like that… I decided to have a drink" (106), "I am a grown-up woman now; let him unbury his own catastrophes"(112).

Second to last on the list of discussion items was chronicling the events in the plot of the story. For pure simplicity, I will list them off.
1. Narrator gives a brief introduction, and there is evident foreshadowing for the reader to absorb.
2. Narrator "falls in love" with a boy, Martin Collingwood.
3. Narrator and Martin go on a date, and she has her first kiss.
4. Martin dumps the Narrator for another girl, who is in the school play with him.
5. Narrator and her friend Joyce watch the school play: there is emotional pain.
6. Narrator becomes overly obsessed ("unwillingly obsessed") with the thought of Martin.
7. Narrator attempts suicide, but chickens out half-way through.
8. Narrator goes to a routine baby-sitting gig at the Berryman's.
9. Narrator is "morbidly depressed", and goes into the kitchen, to have a drink… or two.
10. Narrator gets alcohol poisoning, but manages to contact her friend via telephone.
11. Joyce and company arrive at the Berryman's, help out the drunk Narrator, and party it up.
12. Berryman's arrive home early, only to find the Narrator drunk and her friends dancing in the living room.
13. Narrator is driven home, and confesses to her mother (about everything).
14. Everyone learns about the incident, and her reputation is tarnished.
15. Another social incident occurs. This time, with another girl. People forget about the Narrator's mishap.
16. Narrator grows up, and matures emotionally.

So, after exploring all things pertinent to the theme of the story, we were then expected to have a look at some adages, choose two that best suit the story, and then add our own little personal flair to them. I believed the most fitting were:
"Better the devil you know than the devil you don't"
And
"It is impossible to love and be wise."
The first one ties in quite nicely because of the aftermath of the Narrator trying something she knew to be harmful, yet was still foreign territory.
The second one works as well, because of the frequent poor decisions made by the Narrator, while she obsessed over the thought of a boy.