Munro vs Callahan Comparison

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Munro VS Callahan Comparison In the stories, “An ounce of cure” by Alice Munro and, “All the years of her life,” by Morely Callahan, we read about young people caught in situations of trouble from their past. These stories have a similar theme in that, while in a position of trust, the main character of the story makes a big mistake that finds them in a heap of trouble as a result. Yet these stories differ in that, the motivations of the characters are completely different. While the characters in both stories do learn a valuable lesson, they go about learning their lessons in different ways. In Munro’s story, while a teenage girl is babysitting for her neighbours, she decides to try some of the liquor that is left out on the counter. Foolishly, the girl drinks too much, too fast, and gets very sick. She then calls her friend to come and help her who brings another girl and 3 boys along for the ride. They do help her by cleaning up the mess she made from throwing up and giving her coffee to get her upright again. The unfortunate part is that they are still there when the parents arrive home early to discover their, still very drunk, babysitter with some extra people in their home. The rumours about the girl that ensue after this unintended night of debauchery cause the girl to get a reputation as a bad girl and as a result she loses her social status and all of her babysitting clients. In the story “All the years of her life” by Morely Callahan, the narrator tells us about an incident in which Alfred Higgins is caught stealing goods from his employer’s store. His employer, Mr. Carr then calls Alfred’s mother who rushes down to the store to bail him out of the sticky situation. Thanks to Alfred’s mother’s simple earnestness and humility when talking to Mr. Carr, the worst he gets is to lose his job. He could have very easily been thrown in jail for his
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