The Cookie Lady: Appropriateness of the Title
Question : Discuss the appropriateness of the title of the story “The Cookie Lady”.
Answer: The title of the story “The Cookie Lady” is most appropriate and relevant. The title “The Cookie Lady” refers to an old lady Mrs. Drew. P. K. Dick plots the story on her loneliness and isolation, her interaction with the young boy, her desire to regain her youth and the effort she made for this. The cookies play a vital role in this story.
Mrs. Drew is a very old lady, living alone in a dilapidated house. She is isolated from the society due to her old age and withered state. She seems to have some qualities of a sorceress to impact the life of anyone coming in contact with her. She notices that the weakness of the young teenage boy, Bubber is delicious food. As his mother says, “He’d do anything for a plate of cookies”. Mrs. Drew uses his favourite cookies as a bait to trap him.
She bakes delicious cookies and like a magician, she charms Bubber with her tempting cookies. At first sight, it appears that she is doing all this for her craving for companionship but soon her sinister intentions are disclosed to the readers.
As her name suggests, Mrs. Drew has some unexplainable power to draw youthfulness and vitality from the young boy. Her innate desire is to regain her lost vitality and youth, for this purpose she insists the young boy to come visit her again and again.
At her last attempt, she craftily gains proximity with the young boy and succeeded to steal his youth and vitality for herself. She has become “young” again and “a matron of perhaps thirty”. She was overjoyed as she has “filled out with the sap of vigorous youth”.
While the young boy is left drained out. His face has become “dull” and “a dead white” as if his life force has been sucked out. He feels tired and weary, his arms and legs were tired and his head ached. He was left at the mercy of cold and strong wind. At the end he is reduced to just a rag of “weed”, blown by the wind.
Thus, the story is built on the influence exercised by the old lady on the innocent boy coming to her, drawn by the craving for her cookies.
Therefore the title of the story “The cookie lady” is suggestive, convincing and appropriate.
The Cookie Lady : The Ending of the Story
Question : comment on the ending of the story. Could there be another ending ?
Answer : The ending of the short story “The Cookie Lady” is quite abrupt and shocking. The reader finds the old Mrs. Drew who was earlier in the story described as “very old, a little dried – up old lady, like the weeds” has transformed into a young “matron of perhaps thirty”.
As she has succeeded in her sinister intentions of draining out the youth and vitality from the young boy, she was young again, “filled out with the sap of vigorous youth”.
She has bloomed again, filled with life, warmth and energy. Her arms rounded and nails clear. Her hair “black” and “thickened” again. All the wrinkles have gone from her skin and it has become “pliant and soft”. She smiled. A feeling of “strong white teeth and gum” in her mouth and red lips made her to smile. Her body “secure and confident” and her voice throaty and sensual again. She was overjoyed to recapture her youth and vitality.
On the other hand, the boy Bubber is left tired, exhausted, cold and completely spent up. The wind was pushing him from side to side. He could hardly walk to his home. The boy “felt tired”, his “head ached” and his “heart labouring”. He felt the wind was “chilling” him, “hammering at him, pushing and plucking at him”.
At the end it gives the reader a jolt and shock as Bubber has lost his human texture and reduced to a bundle of trash being blown around by the wind. This ending shows the extent of Mrs. Drew’s greed and her exploitative nature.
There could be another ending, if Bubber could have controlled his craving for the cookies and realise the evil intentions of the old lady and her strange behaviour. If he could have stopped his visits to Mrs. Drew’s house on his parents advice, he would be able to live his life as a human being .
But this ending would become less mysterious and horrifying while the present climax left the reader with shocked and perplexed, by its sudden unexpectedness of change.