Analyse af Carolyn A. Drakes novelle 'Pill Pusher'

The short story “Pill Pusher” takes place in a pharmacy. The main character is a pharmacist who shares her thoughts and feelings about her career choice and her customers. The story occurs on a regular busy workday early afternoon. Throughout the story, we follow the inner and outer dialogue between the pharmacist and her customers. The narrator focuses especially on one specific woman, who is very impatient. At first, she thought that this lady was just another self-entitled and arrogant customer impatient to get some medicine for a minor issue, but thanks to her curiosity, she finds out that the annoying customer actually has a sick child with leukemia. After realizing this, her behavior immediately changes to the more constructive. She then carries on to the next customer.

In “Pill Pusher”, written by Carolyn A. Drake in 2016, we are introduced to the first-person narrator’s inner logic dealing with her “$70.000 mistake”, which is the foundation of the cause of trouble in the story. We get informed that the female pharmacist is in her twenties (p. 3 l. 94), as she estimates the secondary character and customer to be in her thirties, and at least 10 years older than herself (p. 3 l. 94-95).