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Transcript

Guiding Questions- Why is it difficult to understand other people?

  • Why is it challenging for Mike's Mom to understand why he wants to keeps his moustache?
  • Why was it arduous for the grandmother to understand Mike?

Setting

The majority of story takes place in a nursing home that, in Mike's mind, is both noisy and lonely. As he's walking the halls, discovering the nursing home is more cheerful (and less smelly) than he imagined, he has another thought of the facility being like a wax museum when he sees residents in their rooms ''frozen'' into position.

Though it's not clear exactly in what time period this story takes place, it's interesting that 17-year-old Mike spends a great deal of the visit transported back in time to his grandmother's younger days, possibly during the period of the Great Depression.

1. Ellen (Mike's mother): Ellen is the stereotypical mother character, concerned about her son's appearance - namely his hair and moustache - as he's going to visit his grandmother. Not only is it costing him money, but she's concerned that her own mother won't recognize him.

2. Annie (Mike's sister): Annie is what you might call a drama queen. Instead of joining her brother for the trip to the nursing home, the author tells us she ''was in bed, groaning theatrically,'' which caused Mike to make the trip solo. Annie is Mike's older sibling and a college student.

3. Mike: Mike is the central character in the story. It's his ''moustache'' that prompts the title of the story. Mike's too young to wear facial hair, according to his mother, but he grew it out to prove a point (and then decided he actually really liked it). In fact, the moustache is costing him money because it makes him look older, so he's charged more at the theater when he takes his girlfriend for a show.

4. Meg (Mike's grandmother): Lives in a nursing home and has dementia and other physical problems

5. Mike (Meg's late husband): We never meet this character, but he is part of the conversation that Meg and her grandson have when young Mike is at the nursing home. Mike, Meg's late husband, appears to have been falsely accused of something.

Characters

Mike decided to grow a moustache to prove a point that he could, and then started to like it; even though no one else liked it.

Mike then goes to visit his grandmother in her nursing home. The grandmother has memory troubles and believes she is talking to her dead husband. She remembers a time where they had a fight, and asks for Mike's forgiveness. Mike accepts her apology and leaves the nursing home.

This visit causes him to question how the people around him are honest with their own set of emotions and problems to him. He worries about his own parents. Later, he decides to shave off his moustache.

Summary

Theme

'The Moustache' is a short story that deals with the themes of trying to grow up too fast and forgiveness.

Mike, the narrator, thinks that he's ready to be treated like an adult and grows a moustache so that he will appear older. He deals with the fact that it results in having to pay higher prices at the movies since he doesn't look like a student, but when he is placed in an adult position of being mistaken for his grandfather by his grandmother, Mike realizes that he wants to be still young a little longer and he shaves it off.

The story also deals with forgiveness as his aging grandmother remembers very little, but clearly recalls the regrets she has over accusing her husband of being unfaithful. She later learned it wasn't true, but was too proud to ask for forgiveness. Mike uses this situation to learn about how love and forgiveness are intertwined. Further, it serves as a warning about living with regrets.

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