Summary Of Pumpkin

The main message of the story is that in life, once in a while, people face incidents that will remind them of their past. Pumpkin, written by Francine Prose, starts out with the tragic car accident that triggers various responses and builds up the setting for the protagonist, the therapist, to enter the scene. After hearing her husband’s response to the news, a woman recollects her husband’s past love affair and seeks help from the therapist. However, the therapist himself is already overwhelmed. He is dealing with the issue on “a real emergency basis”, implying that he may have been the only therapist to whom the people in the town reach out for. While he is conversing with his wife, the therapist accidentally says “Christmas trees” instead