The Story Arent You Happy For Me: The Distance Between Characters

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Drama Essay "Aren't You Happy For Me"
Sharing news with our family and friends can generate mixed reactions, Richard Bausch portray such reactions in a short story “Aren't You Happy For Me". In the story "Arent you happy for me” a daughter wants to share some good news with her father, but her father is not receptive to this big announcement. Richard uses humor to lighten the tension in the story, creating greater distance between the characters. Humor makes the tension between the different character look light, but the reader is confronted with the reality of the father’s situation.
The main character in the story Melanie Ballinger, a 23-year-old living in Chicago, where she had been sent to school. She decided to stay after her graduation living with her boyfriend William Coombs (Bausch 3). Melanie calls her parents one day to tell them about the big news; she plans to get married to William. In a phone conversation between Melanie’s and her father, John. Melanie informs her father that she is getting married to William she had only known for five months and she is pregnant (Bausch 3).
William is her college professor and is forty years older than Melanie is and old enough to be her father. This comes as a surprise anda shock to Melanie's father who also planned to tell Melanie about their impending divorce. Melanie’s father realizes that he needs to pretend to accept Melanie decision otherwise, he will lose her. John tries to bring in humorous conversations to cover up his feelings as he tries to convince her daughter (Bausch 2).
Richards Bausch " Arent you happy for me " revolves around a fathers’ reaction towards her daughter surprising big news. The shocking surprise starts when she announces her engagement followed by the news of being pregnant and wraps up the surprise with the age of her boyfriend who happens to be 19 years older than her own father (Bausch 3). The author uses humor to strengthen the father character keeping the reader skeptical as Melanie's father .While Melanie's father is still in shocked before absorbing the news, her father is also preparing to inform her about the impending separation but she stops her fathe...