Comparing Why, Honey? And Shopping For One

Comparing Why, Honey? and Shopping for One

This essay will be based on the two short stories; Shopping for One by Anne Cassidy, and Why,Honey? by Raymond Carver. I will compare and contrast the two short stories. This essay will show that Why,Honey? is the better short story because it is interesting, mysterious and exciting.

The short story, Shopping for One, is written in the third person. It is based on a single woman who is insecure about her maritial status. The writer explains the characters insecurities and her thoughts. The main character,Jean, is looking at her shopping and thinks that people will care about what she has in her basket. Jean cares too much about what other people think, because she is so insecure. She is bored in the long shopping queue so she just keeps debating over whether she should buy an item or put an item back. "Should she have got such a small size salad cream? Jean wasn't sure." (p.21, l.19). The story is not very interesting to the reader because it just goes on and on about what a single womans thoughts are in a shopping line. There isn't any exciting events, or anything left up to the readers imagination. The authors style in writing is very straight forward, simple and ordinary. The main theme is insecurity and loneliness.

The short story, Why, Honey? is written in the first person. It is based on a single old woman who talks about her son in a letter. The letter describes a series of exciting and mysterious events involving her son. The writers style is to make the story perplexing and leave some of the story up to the reader's imagination, this is what makes the story exciting and the reader wants to read on. Not every detail is mentioned in the events, so the readers can choose which route the story takes. After reading the story the reader is puzzled, not knowing whether the son is guilty or innocent. When reading