Short Fiction · Chapter
Sun Cured explained
Two New Yorkers, C.
What happens
Two New Yorkers, C. L. Walters and Ernie Fretts, meet on a train bound for Florida. Fretts, an insurance man from Brooklyn, recounts his recent month-long vacation in Miami, which he took on the advice of his efficient office manager, Miss Clancy. He describes his wild, alcohol-fueled escapades, including a scheme to replace two bottles of gin with water, and his eventual invitation to his girlfriend Bonnie Werner to join him. The story highlights his reckless lifestyle and the superficiality of his 'rest cure.'
Themes in this chapter
Alcohol and Escapism
Fretts's entire vacation is centered around drinking, from the initial gin bottles to the constant flow of cocktails, using alcohol as a means to escape his stressful work life.
Satire of Media and Business
The story satirizes the business world through Fretts's boastful account of his insurance business running itself, and his superficial approach to work and life.
Disillusionment and Failure
Despite the supposed vacation, Fretts's story reveals a hollow and chaotic existence, suggesting a deeper disillusionment with his life and relationships.
Characters to notice
- Mr. Elliott
The narrator, a thirty-eight-year-old insurance man from Brooklyn, who is returning from a Florida vacation and feels rejuvenated.
- Bert
Fretts, the insurance man from Brooklyn, who shares his wild Miami vacation stories with Walters on the train.
- Ella
Miss Clancy, Fretts's fifty-three-year-old office manager, who insisted he take a vacation to recover from his exhausting lifestyle.
- Ben Drake
Ben Drew, Fretts's friend in the furniture business, who initially planned to join him on the Florida trip.
- Celia Sayles
Bonnie Werner, the girl Fretts has been seeing, who he says thinks he is going to marry her, but he has no such intention.
Key passages
“I’m in the insurance business in Brooklyn, and one of the things we learn in our business is that a man is taking chances if he goes in too strong for sports after a certain age.”
Fretts explains that his profession has taught him the risks of overexertion in athletics as one gets older.
Fretts justifies his need for rest and relaxation.
“She’s the one that realized the shape I was in and insisted on me taking this trip.”
Miss Clancy, his office manager, saw his poor condition and urged him to take a vacation.
Fretts credits his employee for his recovery.
“I bet I ain’t been to bed before two, three o’clock the last six months. You can’t go that pace and not feel it.”
Fretts admits he has been staying up late for months and that such a lifestyle is taking a toll.
He describes his unhealthy habits before the trip.
“So I’m about all in,” said Fretts. “And the funny part of it is I didn’t realize it.”
Fretts says he was completely exhausted but didn't notice until Miss Clancy pointed it out.
He was unaware of his own burnout.
“I told him to never mind about a friend, because it’s been my experience that when you ask a girl to bring along a girlfriend, the girlfriend generally always looks like she had charge of the linen room at a two dollar hotel.”
Fretts declines the offer of a friend for his date, noting that such friends are usually unattractive.
He shows his cynical view of women and relationships.
