Marriage And Failure In Wants By Grace Paley

The short story “Wants” by Grace Paley starts with a scene of a woman sitting on the steps of the neighborhood library, she sees her ex-husband. They greet each other then she goes into the library. He follows her into the library, where she returns two Edith Wharton books she has had for years and pays the fine of 32 dollars. As the ex-spouses discuss their different perspectives on their marriage and its failure, the woman checks out the same two novels she has just returned. Her ex-husband announces that he will probably buy a sailboat that he always wants. He tells her, "I always wanted a sailboat. But you didn't want anything." The words comes from her ex-husband makes she started to think about her choices of life. After the ex-husband