Paper Pills Discussion

In "Paper Pills" Doctor Reefy gets married to a dark-skinned women that dies and leaves him with a huge fortune. I believe that the woman is George Willard's mother Elizabeth Willard. The reason that Doctor Reefy's wife is Elizabeth Willard is because Doctor Reefy's wife had a hidden fortune that she left Doctor Reefy, and Elizabeth Willard had fortune left by her parents. Doctor Reefy's wife's apparent wealth is seen in the quote, " Later he married a girl who had . She had been left a large fertile farm when her father died." (Anderson 18) Elizabeth revealed the location of her massive hidden wealth to Doctor Reefy before her death. So, the wealth left behind makes it likely that Elizabeth Willard and the dark-skinned wife of Doctor Reefy are the same people. Both Elizabeth Willard and Doctor Reefy's wife visited the doctor when they were ill. Also, both Elizabeth Willard and Doctor Reefys wife died due to illness, thus further increasing the probability that they were the same person. Futhermore, Elizabeth Willard and Doctor Reefy were lovers as seen in the quote, " Be patient, lover." ( Anderson 232) Elizabeth Willard told Doctor Reefy to " Be patient, lover," which further proves that Elizabeth and Doctor Reefy's wife are the same person, because they were both in love with him and both were ill towards the end of their lives.

In "Paper Pills" apples are often mentioned throughout the short story. I believe that the apples symbolize tragedy. The apples " Are only a few gnarled apples that the pickers have rejected."(Anderson 19) The apples talked about in "Paper Pills" are the ones that get ignored, because of their appearance. These apples are rejected and thought of as waste, so whenever apples are mentioned in "Paper Pills" they represent negative connotations, thus symbolizing tragedy. The apples in "Paper Pills" "Look like the knuckles of Doctor Reefy's hands." ( Anderson 18) Doctor Reefy's hands look like the apples that people reject, symbolizing tragedy. The doctor is usually alone as loses his wife to illness, thus Doctor Reefy's life clearly shows tragedy. So, Doctor Reefy's knuckles are described as the apples, which shows that he has experienced much tragedy in his life. In " Paper Pills" the narrator mentions that " Only the few knew the sweetness of the twisted apples." ( Anderson 20) The narrator was saying that most people do not like tragedies. Most people would rather avoid seeing a tragedy just like most people would rather avoid eating twisted apples. Thus, the fact that most people would avoid the twisted apples, helps show that the apples symbolize tragedy in " Paper Pills".