The Girl with a Pimply Face

As we discussed in class, you need to write a well-developed paragraph about each of the 7-10 short stories you read.  You may post them all at once or as separate posts.  Each paragraph should address the following: a) the story's author and title, b) what the story is about (plot based), c) what the story is about (thematically), d) what you liked (elements of fiction, etc.) e) what you didn't like, f) why the story is/is not a contender for you to ultimately write your essay on.  Please remember that these are talking points NOT a formula for paragraph organization that you must follow.  Your paragraph should be reflective, well-developed, and demonstrate real thought about the story read.  This said, it may be less formal than an essay as this is your blog and contains your active thoughts.


The Girl with a Pimply Face is a short story written by William Carlos Williams. The story takes place in New York and is told by the doctor who is doing a house call on a very sick baby. The characters in the story are the doctor, the sick baby, the mother (who can't speak English well), the father, and the 15-year-old daughter. The doctor comes to the house expecting the parents of the sick baby, however the 15-year-old girl opens the door. She brings him to the baby, but tells him to come back around 5, when her father will be home. She also asks him what she can do for her pimples. He says that she has acne, and writes a prescription for her. Later on when he comes back to the house, he discovers that the baby has a severe cognitional heart problem.  The mother begs him to save her baby, and that she will pay him however much to save her baby. In one of the doctor's later visits to the house, he realizes that the mother is an alcoholic. I liked that this story was sort of mysterious, and you wanted to know  more. However, this story was extremely painful to read because the author did not use quotation marks when people were speaking. This made it hard to understand what was happening during the entire story. I think this story could be good to use in the future, because of the doctors motives behind helping the family that he never received a penny from. I think that the theme of this story was to try and help anyone the best you can, even if you aren't getting anything in return.