Susan Beth Pfeffer's Ashes

Will Dobert
Hour 2
District Common Assessment
“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” -Theodore Roosevelt. In the short story Ashes by Susan Beth Pfeffer, a girl named Ashleigh is being pressured by her dad to do the wrong thing; steal money from her mom’s emergency money stash. Ashleigh’s parents are split up and her dad is short on money. Ashleigh’s dad needs the 200 dollars of emergency money to invest in a suspicious deal to become wealthier. Ashleigh didn’t steal her mom’s emergency money because she knows her mom is correct in saying that her dad is untrustworthy; she has had many opportunities to steal the money before, but never has, and Ashleigh knows her dad is using the money for dubious purposes.

This can be seen in the story is when Ashleigh’s mom berates her dad. In the story, she says “He’s an irresponsible bum.” Ashleigh won’t want to go through with stealing the money because she knows that her dad will do something irresponsible with it. The second way this can be observed in the story is when Ashleigh says she doesn’t understand why her parents ever wed. In the story, Ashleigh comments, “I don’t know why mom ever married him.” Ashleigh doesn’t know understand how her mom ever decided to marry an irresponsible person like her dad. The final part from the story that illustrates this point is when Ashleigh says that her dad isn’t always there for her in times of need. She notes that “He is always there for you if you need him. Well, not always.” Ashleigh’s dad is irresponsible and untrustworthy because he doesn’t care for his daughter especially when she needs him