The best way that I could describe this short story is with one word: bitter. But, to expand on that, it’s a monotonous bitterness. There’s this repetitious element to it that the narrator, Miss Mooney, seems absolutely disgusted with. The irony of the title I doubt was lost on anyone, she was (is) an alcoholic who drowned most of her days away with these routines that hardly even appear to get her through the days. The closest that she came to breaking that cycle was the possibility of turning in a letter of resignation. Actually, that’s a kind way to put it, she really was just throwing in the towel. Being professional was never really in her repertoire from what the story showed the readers, she would show up drunk/hungover to work, and then she would have a drink for lunch to essentially get her through the day so that she could go home to drink some more. Sometimes she’d spice it up with a boyfriend that she didn’t care for, drunken calls to her ex husband, or coke. She’s numb to it all, apathetic may be a better word to describe it though, and it didn’t even really seem like she cared enough to want to change the downward slope that her life was going towards.
For the church to be locked, it just felt like one of the final nails in the coffin, and it was unsurprising to read that she’d torn up the letter at the end of the story. I’m not sure if she really had a point to writing/narrating her depressing story, because I don’t think that she sees much of a rhyme or a reason to it either. Maybe a small part of her was hoping to break out of it, hence the letter and maybe even the calls to her ex husband, because otherwise there is sort of this question about what happens next in her life. Will she get even worse? Will she end up OD’ing? There are signs of depression, so hopefully it wouldn’t get that bad, but then again there is the narrator’s apathy towards life, people, and herself. It was just a strange read overall, frankly.
I found this story odd as well. I think the story is meant to have the irony between it and its title, but I also feel that for some people in her condition, having whatever trouble it may be as depression, drug addiction, or whatever else, may simply find changing one little thing — the letter of resignation — to be the next step in bettering or changing the pace of her life, but in the end, relapsed and crumbled back to square one.