"The Drunkard"-Frank O' Connor

"'It was God did it you were there.  You were his guardian angel'" (O'Connor, 351)

     --The story is told in retrospect by a man recalling an incident from his boyhood.  What does this removal in time do to the treatment of the material?--

   As humans, we can easily recall big moments in our lives.  Due to the fact that the story is told in terms of recalling a memory, this moment had to have some sort of significance to Larry.  While becoming drunk at such a young age would be memorable, I doubt one would be able to remember it with such clarity years later.  Because of this, there is an implied message that follows the ending of this story.  The message can be decoded by thinking of the point of view in which this story is being told or by considering the final quote of the story.  Both of these ways compliment each other and lead to basically the same answer.  After reading the final quote, one assumes that the father in the story quits drinking after the drunken episode of Larry.  The fact that the mother is grateful to Larry for getting drunk suggests something good came from it.  By considering the point of view from which the story is told, the reader can almost instantaneously add a quote by the grown Larry at the end of the story that states, "And that was the day my father quit drinking".  However, the way in which O'Connor decides to end his short story still leaves behind a sense of mystery as to whether or not the father quits alcohol for good or simply temporarily.   

"Once Upon a Time"-Nadine Gordimer

"And then last night I woke up--or rather was awakened without knowing what had roused me.  A voice  in the echo-chamber of the subconscious?  A sound.  A creaking of the kind made by the weight carried by once foot after another along a wooden floor" (Gordimer, 231)

     Through her satirization of society, the woman in Gordimer's story creates an irony/disconnect between herself and the society she creates.  From the beginning, the character presents the paradoxical manner in which these families live.  They live "happily ever after" lives, yet at the same time are obsessed and worried about the security of their houses and families at every moment.  How can this be?  How can one be living happily ever after while being worried every second of every day.  This obsession with security is the hubris of the family the character focuses her night time story upon; it also presents one of the many points of irony in the story.  Rather than the outside world coming in and taking their son, the safety system they have established is what kills him.  From this, a larger irony is built.  The character who tells the story seems to have less fear in a house that has no security/alarm/fence system than the family who has all of these things.  She can better rationalize and recognize reality in situations such as these, while the family's sight has been obscured by society.  

"A Worn Path"-Double Meaning

"I bound to go to town, mister...I bound to go on my way, mister" (Welty, 227)

     Phoenix Jackson's age seems to have had a profound effect on her health.  She cannot see well and her movements are made at an extremely slow pace.  Because of this, the reader recognizes that this is not the first time Phoenix has walked this journey to town.  In this sense, she is literally walking a "worn" path.  Phoenix Jackson is also tired and has little patience for those that trouble her.  Her attitude with the white man and the nurse suggest she has acquired a sense of familiarity with cases such as these.  Exhausted by being classified/discriminated by her race, age, and financial state, Phoenix presents Welty's figurative "worn" path.  The specific journey of retrieving medicine for her sick grandson is paralleled with the much wider journey of life of this poor, old, black woman.  She is not irritated with either path rather fatigued by them.  Living a life of taking care of others before oneself and being classified by others as an outlier of society has obviously taken a toll on Phoenix's physical, mental, and spiritual health.