An Ounce of Cure by Alice Munro and Cages by Guy Vanderhaeghe - Book Report/Review Example

In life, youths undergo through many situations that determine the way their future lives will be shaped. Most of these situations often occur in their homes and these, more than anything, determines whether the youths involved will grow up to be better people or not. Youths from diverse backgrounds, especially those are disadvantaged, have work exceedingly hard to escape the circumstances of their birth and become successful in their lives In order to do this, however, they have to face some challenges and overcome them. Doing the later helps to break the cycles that haunt them and their families, and forces them into a life which will be an escape from their difficult backgrounds. In relation to this, two short stories by Canadian writers namely An Ounce of Cure by Alice Munro and Cages by Guy Vanderhaeghe shall be analyzed. These two works are based on the theme if escape and the main characters do their best to ensure that they live a better life than their parents do. The setting is remarkably sober, and this helps to show that the writers intend for the stories to be serious matters and not to be taken lightly by the readers. In this paper, an analysis of Munro’s and Vanderhaeghe’s works shall be made based on the development of their characters, the conflicts which they face, and finally, the resolutions of these conflicts. These factors are set to determine whether the teenagers involved in these stories will become successful once they reach adulthood. It also shows the situations which they have to undergo during this stage of their lives. In the end, it shall be determined whether the main characters featured in these stories succeed to achieve their dreams or they fail. In Munro’s An Ounce of Cure, the main character is a mature woman who looks at her past actions as a teenager. The story is related in the first person, and it reveals a person who has grown up and considers her actions as a teenager to have been foolish. It is a story of a young teenage girl who is hopelessly taken with a young man, Martin Collingwood, who shatters her heart. In an attempt to get rid of the pain which Martin has caused her, she indulges in alcohol, which gets her into trouble because her community frowns upon alcohol consumption. In Vanderhaeghe’s Cages, on the other hand, the main character is Billy, the younger son of a miner. His father would like for him and his brother to work hard so that they can avoid the life which he lives. Their father often threatens them with living a life in the cages, this referring to the elevator which takes miners down mine shafts. Vanderhaeghe also uses the term cage to refer to the different and difficult situations through which life puts people. One has to do their utmost to ensure that they escape otherwise; they risk getting trapped forever. This is what his father attempts to tell Billy and his brother, to encourage them to think further in life than he ever did. His dream is to have both his sons successful and not living the trapped life which he feels himself to be living. Throughout the story, we see Billy attempting to break out of the various cages in which he has been put. He does his best to ensure that he protects his elder brother from the thoughtless actions which he puts himself in. Billy covers up for the behavior of his older brother, often making excuses for his behavior. Moreover, within his family, he has to maintain the image of the smart son who never gets into trouble. His family has positive expectations of him, and he does his best to meet them. In the end, he comes to realize that he has been wrong to cover up for his brother’s actions and that it is high time for Gene to start taking responsibility. One can say that Billy has finally broken free of the cage and is now ready to face a new life, better than his father’s. The main character in An Ounce of Cure also undergoes a similar situation to Billy’s at home. She is portrayed as a terribly wild teenager whose mother has strong expectations for her future. However, her actions can be said to make her mother intensely pessimistic about her being able to fulfill these expectations. When her heart gets broken by Martin, she indulges in alcohol in an attempt to drown her sorrows. This behavior would be truly shocking indeed for her family. This family has decidedly negative view on alcohol consumption and its use is looked down on. From the tone at the beginning of the story, we find that the main character has developed into a mature and successful woman. She looks back at her teenage years and her actions then as one would look at the actions of a foolish girl. In both of these stories, we find that the main characters are struggling to achieve something in their lives. They do what they can to make certain that what they want the most is attained; however, these characters take remarkably different paths towards attaining this. On one hand, Billy works hard not only to please his father, but also to protect his brother so that his father does not view the latter as a failure. One would say that Billy I on the right path towards the achievement of his father’s dreams for him. Throughout the story, we find that Billy always works towards pleasing his father, and one gathers from this that he is not an ambitious fellow, and instead his actions are meant to please his parent. He is only doing what is expected of him and not doing something for himself. The main character in An Ounce of Cure is also expected to succeed by her family, especially her mother. This expectation is, however, clouded by the fact that her daughter is an extremely wild teenager, and it is not known whether she will make it out of her teenage without ruining her life. This fear does not come true because as we have seen earlier, the main character acquires the maturity needed to ensure that her life is a success. Where one would have expected failure, one instead finds success. In both of these short stories, we find that the parents of the main characters play a tremendously prominent role in their lives. They act as the conscience of the main characters, often criticizing their actions so that they can change for the better. In Cages, Billy’s father is a miner who works extremely hard to maintain his family. Despite this, he has a hearty dislike for his job, and he would prefer that his sons become better than he is. That is the reason why he keeps telling them that if they do not work hard at school, then they are going to end up just like him. He views the mine as a trap from which he cannot escape, and this makes him continue to work there even though he hates the job. One gathers that he only works in the mine because it is the only thing that he knows how to do. If he had knowledge of any other trade, then he would have left the mine long before and gone to work another trade. This makes him want his children to have the life which he never had a chance to live. His efforts are, however, frustrated by his older son, Gene, who scoffs at what his father wishes of him, and instead does the complete opposite. Billy, on the other hand, takes what his father says to heart, and this enables him to be successful academically while keeping out of trouble. The mother of the main character in An Ounce of Cure is also particularly concerned about the future of her daughter. She is described as a strict and proper woman who is extremely conservative by nature. She has unusually high hopes for her teenage daughter, although these expectations are also viewed with a strong lens of reality. She realizes that her daughter cannot have the future which she desires unless she changes from her wild behavior. If her daughter is not able to do this, then the success, which her mother wishes for her, will likely not come true. When one comes to consider what eventually happened as seen at the beginning of the story, we find that the main character has developed tremendously. She is no longer the wild, immature girl who is seen later in the story, and has instead grown into a responsible, mature woman who seems to have become successful in life. She looks back at the events of her teenage years from the perspective of a wise person with a lot of experience behind her. She describes her mother as being an exceptionally proper person who looked down upon the consumption of alcohol. The mother must have realized the detrimental effects of alcohol on the people who consumed it, and this may have led her to dislike it. She would, therefore, have been terribly disappointed to find that her daughter had indulged in it in an attempt to drown her sorrows. In conclusion, one would say that these two short stories are based on teenagers growing up. The uncertainty associated with this period is remarkably well illustrated in these works. It is a well-known fact that teenage years, more often than not, determine how individuals will turn out in the future. The main theme that brings these two stories together is the theme of success. They both involve teenagers whose parents have enormous expectations of their future success. However, the events, which take place during their teenage years, make these parents extremely worried. This is because these expectations suddenly become threatened through the actions of these teenagers. These stories are based on these events, and how they come to shape the lives of the characters involved in them. Munro and Vanderhaeghe are, through their stories, attempting to analyze the things which affect teenagers as they are growing up. The situations which are discussed in these stories remarkably often happen in real life, because parents always want what is best for their children. How to get this message across is always difficult for them, because while some children accept this message without question, others tend to disregard it entirely. Read More