• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • Search
  • Browse
    • Browse by Title
    • Browse by Author
    • Browse by Literary Period
    • Browse by Region
    • Browse by Tag
  • About This Project
  • Submit

Read Great Works

Written by the Students of Baruch College

You are here: Home / AUTHOR / A.M. Homes / When reading there isn’t much that …

When reading there isn’t much that …

by Great Works

— Anonymous

When reading there isn’t much that will make me question the motives of a character when they decided to do something that I consider questionable. But when it comes to the short story “Adults Alone” by A. M. Homes the first time I read it I couldn’t help but question the reason why the couple did what they did. First time around reading the short story I judged the couple by soo much because they only thing that will spice up their marriage is if they did hardcore drugs together like crack. I do understand that without their kids they would be having a failing marriage and they did despise each other’s presence. That does not give them the reason to try something for fun like crack that kills many Americans each year. Most people who are addicted to the drug would agree that it is not fun, but they can’t help but to use it because they got addicted in the first place. Because of this first-time reason it the story made me very uncomfortable and it had me questioning the couples “why”. For example, there are many things to do in life that can spice up your marriage why out of all the reasons you decide that cocaine was the best option. This makes me think that they were not the responsible adults that were fit to have children. Out of everything else in the world, they could have traveled, or for the slightest bit cared about the little pet peeves they had each other they could fix. But instead they decided drugs were the best option and that truly made me uncomfortable and made me question their moral character. They in their right minds decided it would be “fun” to do something that killed millions of American each year just because to simply put it they were bored with their lives. Then again reading it around the second time I guess I had a little more empathy for the couple. I told myself you can’t judge how people deal with their problems as long as they find a way to overcome them. Also, from the looks of it although I do see their action as completely radical and careless, they both seemed to be doing something they both agreed upon, and willfully did. I just personally think that their drug of choice is too extreme for them that they could have ruined the lives of their children. so, first time around reading this short story it defiantly made me very uncomfortable and quite frankly kind of mad at the choices that the couple made. But second time around I was more accepting yet still kind of confused that out of all the things in the world they decided that crack as the best option to save their marriage; like what ever happened to counseling. Then again, I told myself it is unfair to judge people’s choices and actions because you don’t know them on a deeper level. I just wished that if they were thinking about their kids, they would have found another way of dealing with their failing marriage rather than smoking crack.

Filed Under: A.M. Homes, Adults Alone, AUTHOR, LITERARY PERIOD, North American, Pasquesi, Postmodern (1945–2001CE), PROFESSOR, REGION, SEMESTER, Spring 2020, TITLE Tagged With: character, drugs, empathy, motives, rereading, uncomfortable

Footer

Popular Tags

anger appreciation beauty class coronavirus covid culture death difficult discrimination emotions family freedom gender gender roles history humanity identity immigration language loneliness love marriage pandemic parents perspective philosophy play poem poetry power prostitution racism relatable relationships relevant religion satire sex sexuality slavery society uncomfortable women women in society

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in