The short story is about a person who works at a pharmacy. He/she is going to serve a woman, who is very discontented with the situation of the service. She complains, and therefore the main character puts her in front of the line. The customer needs medicine for her daughter, who is ill of leukemia. Her daughter can’t swallow pills, and therefore the woman needs to get the medicine in liquid form. The pharmacist, therefore, must call the doctor, because he/she is not allowed to sell anything that is does not say on the prescription, without having contact with the doctor. He/she gets the approve from the doctor and sells the woman a bottle of amoxicillin syrup. They both realize they haven’t been nice to each other, so they both apologize to each other, and the main character gives a piece of advice to the woman, about the medicine.
Analytical Essay:
The pharmacist in the short story Pill Pusher is not very happy with her work at the Walgreen Pharmacy. Or at least, that is not the perception you get, when you read it. She seems frustrated and irritated at the costumers (ll. 2-3). And that goes through almost the entire short story where she is serving a very discontented woman. It all starts when the main character, the pharmacist, tells the woman to stand in the line, which is not where she is standing at that moment. Then the woman gets mad and complains about the waiting time. Therefore, the pharmacist is putting her in front of the line (ll. 3-38). Already at this point, both the customer and the pharmacist are bitter. The customer needs some medicine for her daughter because she has a cold. When the pharmacist finds out, that it is the only thing she needs, she gets irritated and thinks in herself ‘Of course. Her kid has a cold - obviously far more important than anyone else’s prescription.’ (ll. 44-46). From the main character’s point of view, you think to yourself ‘Was that really necessary for some regular Amoxicillin.’ So much drama for some medicine for a cold.When the pharmacist asks if she can swallow large pills, the customer says that it is supposed to be liquid medicine. Then the main character must call the doctor before she can change the prescription. Therefore, the customer gets enraged and starts raising her voice. Actually, she starts to yell (ll. 47-62). We can suppose the woman is pressed since she behaves the way she does - even for some medicine for her daughter. The woman also says she’s going to call to corporate to lodge a complaint about the pharmacist’s treatment of the entire situation. Therefore, the main character thinks that he or she, has just lost their job. That also tells us why the short story starts out by saying ‘Around 12:43 p.m., I realize that I have made a $70.000 mistake.’ (l. 1). The 70.000 dollars is student debt. The reason for this is because the main character perhaps is going to lose their job, and therefore can’t pay off their debt.When the pharmacist is going to contact the doctor, a little yellow folder with comments from previous pharmacists catches his or her eyes. The main character is anxious to see what they have said about her. As the main character scrolls down the comments, he or she realizes that the customer’s daughter has leukemia. Then everything in the pharmacist’s head changed. He or she realizes why the woman was so pressed and frustrated. She was worried about her child. She might be in a hurry, to get some medicine for her leukemia-ill daughter, so she does not get more ill, because her immune system might be weak already. (ll. 79-92). Therefore, the pharmacist feels bad, over her treatment against the customer. She gets the prescription change approved from the doctor, and she pours the amoxicillin syrup into a bottle, and give it to the customer. When the customer takes the bag with the medicine in it, she starts turning around to leave. But the main character holds the bag, and the woman turns back. The pharmacist gives a piece of advice to her, so her daughter will not get nausea when she drinks the medicine. Suddenly they both start smiling, and they realize they both have been rude to each other, and it seems like they are forgiving each other, for what they have done (ll. 97-108).The short story starts with the main character being a little irritated, because of the rush of all the customer. Then she gets in conversation with the rude-seeming woman, who is very discontented with the situation. They get mad at each other and start yelling, but when the main character finds out her daughter has leukemia, she feels bad for her and understands why she acted as she did. They, therefore, end up smiling at each other, and the main character ends up being happier than she was, in the beginning, due to being angry.We can thereby conclude, that you should not judge someone, on your first impression only, if you do not know them. If the main character was not curious to see what other pharmacists had said about her, she would’ve never known that her daughter has leukemia, and that might be the reason the woman acted as she did. The main character would’ve just thought the customer was an idiot, who wanted to get in front of the line or something.Therefore, we can say that two of the themes are care and life, due to the mother who gets upset, because she can’t get the life important medicine for her daughter. Therefore, the medicine also becomes a symbol of life, because if her daughter doesn’t get the medicine, she will have a very high risk of dying.The main character is, therefore, a life giver, not only a pill pusher.But I would say the main theme is insight, because the customer isn’t very tolerant, until she gets more knowledge about her daughter, and thereby insight. With more insight, you get more tolerance, and therefore she ends up smiling, and not being angry anymore.
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