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An Ounce of Cure is Worth a Lot of Trouble

Was growing up ever difficult or confusing? Everyone has a different story about finding oneself. Sometimes it might take a drastic event to bring forth the real personality in an individual. In fact, everyone has probably heard the old saying "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." This story's title foreshadows events to come by implying that something emotionally tragic happens. Everyone knows how difficult it is to break away from the mob of his peers. After all, nobody wants to be thought different or be neglected. Every person copes with this time in his life in a different way. Alice Munro writes a comical story about one girl's journey in "An Ounce of Cure." This short story is about developing individuality and discovering oneself.

At the beginning, the narrator appears a typical teenage girl. Low self-esteem might seem prevalent through the comments she makes when she catches a boy checking her out. She cannot understand why he is attracted to her "home permanent [that] had turned out badly" (45). She states that she is "not looking like anybody but me" (45). This first impression might point to the low self-esteem that most teenage girls possess. However, perhaps there is another alternative. Is she instead quite assured of herself and does not proceed to swoon over some random senior boy who is checking her out? The narrator has a strong personality and does not need a boy as a crutch. This one occurrence shows the intense self-sufficient qualities in the character. However, in a moment of longing to be loved and accepted, she lets herself fall.

The narrator makes the mistake of becoming engulfed in her relationship with the young man, Martin Collingwood. They date for only two months, but after the break-up she can think of nothing else (45). Now she is showing signs of a normal, superficial teenager. She feels the need to be accepted and is very emotionally attached. This is a deviation from her normally calm, collected, and objective observances. For a moment, she becomes weak and allows herself to become infatuated with someone she does not need for her happiness. When the narrator decides to like Martin, she puts her heart on the line. She is not familiar with being complimented or feeling special. During her time with Martin she opens herself up, and when she does, he leaves her (45). He is not trying to be cruel, this is just how relationships are during teenage years; they are fickle and never last. However, the narrator does not understand this. She struggles with returning back to the person she was before Martin Collingwood came into her life. Her "plucky and independent" (486) personality is hiding within her somewhere. She has just not had the chance to let her true self show through.

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Her inattentive mother does not help her position in the least. The narrator is looking for guidance in this situation, and she can only get a detached response, which is far from the sympathy and guidance she was looking for and needs. The young girl is faced with a time of emotional loneliness when she takes matters into her own hands. She begins her attempt at redefining herself by defying old values that had been imposed upon her. When she decides to get drunk, she is probably subconsciously rebelling against her parents', particularly her mother's strict rules against alcohol.

The narrator is not sure of how to handle her emotions. She tries various different tactics as emotional outlets. She ends up following her crush, and hanging out in places where he might find her (45). She even goes as far as to take a whole bottle of aspirin. However, while taking the bottle of aspirin her true character shines through and she abandons the idea (45). She tortures herself endlessly by remembering exactly how he used to kiss her (45). These actions are those of an emotional teenager. The narrator obviously has passion; it is just that she has placed it upon someone that does not deserve it. She needs to come to the realization the she does not need Martin Collingwood to be special.

In a single incident the narrator's problems are solved and begin. As she is babysitting she decides to drink her employers' alcohol (45). This is not the best judgment on her part because she ends up getting caught, the whole town finds out, and she becomes an outcast for many years. However, this shows strength on her part. She was pushed outside of the social ring for many years and she turned out to be a normal, healthy person. She did not allow it to ruin or break her. At this point, the reader can begin to see her break away from her old values and priorities.

The narrator survives her ordeal by looking back on all that she went through very objectively. Munro states "One thing in ["An Ounce of Cure"] I think is interesting, now that I look back on it when the girl's circumstances become hopelessly messy, when nothing is going to go right for her, she gets out of it by looking at the way things happened-by changing from a participant to an observer" (48). In this time of chaos the narrator takes a step back, and looks at her situation. Every person can relate to this thought process. It is common knowledge that when not involved in a situation a person tends to look at it more objectively. This process of viewing her situation as an outsider keeps her from involving her feelings and emotions. At this one point in the story, the narrator is allowed to solve her problems by creating a catastrophe for herself, then taking a step back and looking at her life objectively as an outsider.

After the narrator's drinking disaster, the reader is allowed to see her true character present itself. The narrator is very conscious of her feelings and attitudes and she exhibits confidence and independence. She talks of how her mother had forbid her to go out with boys until she was sixteen, but "this did not prove to be a concrete hardship at all, because it was at least that long before anybody asked [her]" (458). Even in her time of exile, she still finds humor in the situation when she describes herself as being "marked for a special kind of ill luck, like the girl who illegitimate baby turns out to be triplets" (458). She looks at it from a practical perspective by biding her time and waiting for everything to pass, while most people would have gone insane with loneliness. She shows her strong independence as she waits for time to heal everything. She proves her incredible maturity as she recounts the events that occurred and finds a positive aspect in the calamity. She did finally get over Martin Collingwood (458). She remembers how her viewing her disaster in a different light finally "brought her back into the world again" (458). She realizes that she has just viewed "the shameless, marvelous, shattering absurdity with which the plots of life…are improvised" (40). She now knows that some incidents in life are just coincidence, but can still shape the type of person she becomes. She sees the whole incident with a type of ironic humor, is determined not to let it destroy her. Benjamin Demott was accurate when he wrote that "each of Munro's heroines is perfectly capable of recognizing and regretting a mistake or indiscretion….But Mrs. Munro's women are also capable of relishing an indiscretion" (486).

Is the narrator a troubled teenage girl or a passionate, mischievous young woman? In the story an "Ounce of Cure" the reader is allowed into the trauma of one teenage girl's life. Full of freak occurrences, plenty of humor, "disorder, chance happenings and meetings, and…bizarre characters" (40) the story follows a young girl as she grows and matures. This is a story about growing up and making errors along the way, but not regretting them. Munro teaches how to learn from mistakes, and all the while she makes it comical and entertaining. What makes Munro's story so touching is that it is easily applied to most people's lives. I'm sure every woman can relate to their first crush, their first breakup, and how they coped with it. This personal aspect of the story allows readers to reminisce with the writer. At the end of "An Ounce of Cure" the now grown and married narrator sees Martin Collingwood at a funeral and, catches him giving her a reminiscent smile (458). "[She] gives a gentle uncomprehending look in return. [She] is a grown woman now; let him unbury his own catastrophes" (458). She has finally found her place in society and is content.

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