An Ounce of Cure By Alice MunroIn the story An Ounce of Cure By Alice Munro, the narrator is unnamed and speaks in first person. The story follows the life of a teenage girl going through a mid-life teenage crisis. The setting is a very conservative southern town in the 1960s, where it is considered taboo to consume alcohol. Almost nobody consumed alcohol in the teens town. The narrator signed an abstinence pledge in the seventh grade. As for her parents, her father would drink a beer on a hot day, which he consumed out of sight. Her mother never drinks alcohol.Her mother wanted her daughter to remain innocent and believes the outside world is dangerous. The narrator is a responsible young lady who likes to gossip. She earns money by babysitting around town and is labelled as the responsible babysitter. She is like most other teenage girl in her town.Then, the narrator meets a boy named Martin Collingwood at a drama club sponsored by her school. Martin was her Prince Charming, and she falls in love with the young man. She receives a memorable first kiss, and she does not wash her face for days after the joyful incident. Unfortunately, two months later Martin dumps her for another girl in drama club.The girl is left with an emotional bruise on her heart. She started weeps for Martin, spending hours thinking about the boy. She then re-enacts in her head over and over again. She then becomes severely depressed. One night she plans to swallow all the aspirin in the bathroom cabinet, but stops at the sixth pill.Each pill represents each stage in her life: sorrow, anguish, depression, heartbreak, confusion and frustration. Her mother notices that something is wrong with her daughter. She asks if everything was going all right at school and her daughter She says Martin and I had broken up and all. Her mother tells her the break up is for the best.The narrator has to babysit for the Berrymans one Saturday. While there, looks for a can of soda in the kitchen. She spots a half ounce of alcohol that she described as a half ounce of gold. To her, the alcohol is like finding hidden treasure . It symbolizes breaking away from the norm, and easing her heartbreak. She then becomes drunk.Even though her actions based upon human curiosity, however the result of it was reckless. The Berrymans find her drunk and she fired on the spot and has a reputation now of an irresponsible baby sitter who is also suicidal and drunk. Kay, who is a mutual friend, hands her a cup of coffee, which symbolizes being awake, a new beginning, and a fresh start in the morning. She then realizes that what she has done in the past few days has been a mistake. Many teenagers today tend to exaggerate their tragedies; making a mountain out of a molehill. She felt it was childish to even think about taking her own life over a silly boy. The theme of this story is self acceptance. Even though we have problems in the present, we must move on with our lives, and make good choices for the future.Another conflict in this story is Man vs. Society. The setting of the town is very conservative and judgmental. The narrator is battling against society because of the idealized reputation that the town had given her. The narrator is dynamic; she changed dramatically from the beginning to the end.She went from being a naive teenage girl to a mature young lady who took responsibility for her actions. The narrator does get updates on Martin, but she does not meet him face to face. She is not bothered by him anymore. She grows up, physically and emotionally. Many of us can relate to this particular story because we all have experienced a situation where, at the moment, we can only look at the problem from one angle.When we look at problems from a bigger picture, a broader perspective; realize that problems are only temporary. We also hear the phrase suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. The narrators problem was temporary; it could be solved, and it has been solved. The narrator learned from her mistake and now has a brighter future.Protagonist - The young teenage girl; she is a dynamic character because she undergoes change in her behaviour. This occurs because she gets her heart broken by Marin Collingwood, and gets so shaken up she decides to get drunk while babysitting for her neighbours. Antagonist - Martin Collingwood; he is a static character because his character undergoes no change in his behavior or personality. He is the antagonist because he is the cause of the girl drinking, as he broke up with her. Secondary Character - Mr. Berryman; he is a foil character because his character magnifies how the narrator is irresponsible. Mr. Berrymans character gives the readers a better understanding of the magnitude of the narrators mistake.Point of View: The story was told in a first person point of view by the main character. It was done in this point of view so that readers had an idea on why she did the things she did. It wouldn't have been as effective from her mother's point of view, or from the parents of the children she babysat. This way, we were able to understand the young girl's emotions and how she came to choose her actions.An Ounce of CureType of Short Story: Romance and Drama. The reasoning behind those choices is that for most of the story, the main character talks and thinks about the boy she was in love with. Also, her actions and "love" for that boy caused her to do some pretty dramatic things.Setting: An Ounce of Cure was set anywhere from the 1950's to the 1980's. It was also set in a small conservative town. That's easy to decipher because the town was so small that everyone knew everything, and not many of the families drank except for the newer and younger ones. Our main character's family is a prime example of one of the conservative families because they didn't allow drinking in their house. The author probably chose that location that way it was understandable why the main character was so naive and also because her actions will seem to be a big deal. If they story was written in today's society, it wouldn't be as much of a shock that she was drinking.

Literary devicesForeshadowing: There was a slight bit of foreshadowing in this short story when the main character narrated the lack of alcohol in her household and then again when she talked about how the Berryman's always had a few drinks before going out. Also, when she talked about how she almost swallowed all the aspirins in her medicine cabinet it could have been foreshadowing of her reckless tendencies.

Tone: The tone of this particular short story was used to make the main character seem as naive as she was.

Mood :The mood of the story was a little more on the discontented side. The main character was constantly discontent with things that were happening.

Personification: