Response to "A Different Road"

"A Different Road" by Elizabeth Strout is a short story that attempts to explain how being held at gun point altered Olive and Henry Kitteridge's relationship.  The story starts out with Olive going to the store to buy some fabric and follows her all the way home.  During her travels their are numerous flashbacks to an important night in their New England town.  The night starts out when the Kitteridges go to eat with another couple.  On the way home Olive starts to feel bad and must stop at the hospital to use the bathroom.  Even though it is just an upset stomach, the nurse insists that Olive stay and get checked out.  Then out of nowhere two masked gunmen enter the hospital and take everyone hostage in the bathroom.  While being held hostage Olive and Henry make harsh comments to each other that eventually lead to a strain in their relationship.

People in town notice that the Kitteridges aren't quite as friendly as they used to be before the hostage situation.  They attribute this to the general situation they were in.  Little do they know that the real reason for the change in Olive and Henry's attitude is the words that were said to each other that night.

The insults are started after Olive tells the nurse to quite saying her Hail Marys.  She really is just trying to help Henry because she knows how he was raised and how much she believes he dislikes to hear Hail Marys.  Instead of thanking Olive he tells her to shut up.  This infuriates Olive and the insults start to fly.  There are two main insults.

The first is when Olive says that their son, Christopher, left because he knew that Henry would not accept his Jewish wife.  Henry however blames Olive and says that Christopher left because Olive was too overbearing and took over his life.  This insult is hurtful to both of them because they both love Christopher and hated to see him leave.  Instead of thinking about logical reasons, they resort to blaming each other for their son leaving.

The other insult deals with Henry's mom.  Olive says that Henry isn't really to blame for his actions because of how he was raised by his mother.  She goes on to say that his mother basically thought she was perfect and could do no wrong.  No matter how strong a relationship is, talking about the other persons family is always a sensitive subject.  Henry gets really irritated when Olive mentions his mother.

The audience knows that Olive and Henry are an older couple, perhaps in their 60's, who have probably been married for a long time.  It is strange that they would resort to insulting each other like they do and especially in front of other people.  This might hint that their relationship isn't very strong or even that there are even more problems.

Olive is portrayed as a feisty women, but deep down she seems insecure and unstable.  It is strange that Henry defending the nurse would get her worked up as much as it did.  She must be upset about other areas of her life.  One area is probably Christopher.  When she is talking to a friend of her's about her daughter, Karen, she seems delighted to hear that Karen has been having an affair and that Karen's children dislike their grandmother (Olive's friend).  Olive takes pleasure in hearing this because she dreamed of having grandkids of her own.  She had already planned what she would do with them.  Now that Christopher is gone, her dreams are also gone.

Another big issue that creates problems between Olive and Henry is the fact that Olive seems to be attached to one of the gunmen.  The connection starts while they are still held hostage when Olive comments that she bought her son a ski mask very similar to the one that the gunman is wearing.  From that point on Olive sort of takes the young man under her wing.  She constantly dreams about the young man and what he is doing in prison.  She even wants to make him a smock to wear.  This issue might be the hardest for Henry to deal with.  He must think that she is crazy for wanting to keep in contact with someone who had almost taken their lives.