Pancakes By Joan Bauer Summary

In “Pancakes,” a realistic fiction short story by Joan Bauer, the author shows how doing things alone can become stressful and overwhelming. In the beginning of the short story, the main character, Jill, is getting ready to go to her job at the Ye Olde Pancake House while thinking about those who have accused her of being a perfectionist. Later on, business gets hectic, and since the other two waitresses are not there, she starts to get overwhelmed having to do everything. Eventually, Jill’s ex-boyfriend, Allen Feinman, and his parents come to help out at the pancake house. At the end of the day, everything ends up alright. In this short story, Bauer uses figurative language and dialogue in her writing to convey that one should ask for help

The reader is introduced to the start of the conflict, which will be developed later on. “I watched in horror as an army of round, middle-aged women stepped from the bus and headed toward the restaurant like hungry lionesses stalking prey. It was a natural selection—I was as good as dead” (Bauer, 214). This connects to the theme because as the story continues, things start getting overwhelming for Jill when she tries to do all the waitressing on her own. All the people on the bus go into the restaurant, while she is the only waitress there at the time. The figurative language Bauer uses helps to show how Jill already feels before the group even enters the Ye Olde Pancake House. When Jill tries to do everything on her own, she learns that it is needed for one to ask for help when they can not do everything alone and things get stressful. The author uses dialogue to show how Jill ends up asking for help when she realizes she can not do everything on her own. The dialogue is shown after Allen and his parents come into the restaurant. “I grabbed his arm,” he said. ‘Can you work the register?’ ‘Of course’” (Bauer, 218). Jill finally asks for