Sure Thing Summary

David Ive’s Sure Thing: A Game of Chance Could you imagine a life where a ringing bell has the ability to reroute any of your conversations? Or where you have the option to make yourself compatible with anyone? Well, that is exactly what happens in David Ive’s Sure Thing. “Many of his works, features a central male-female couple trying to work out their relationship’s place in a larger and crueler world”. (Leah Green 1) Through the conversations Betty and Bill have, you come to realize that at the beginning of the story the characters are not compatible at all. However, in the end, they are much like mirror images of each other. In David Ive’s Sure Thing, Betty and Bill engage in a series of conversations, where a ringing bell allows them to take control over their lives. The bell allows them to go back in time and fix what they say or do thus, affecting the outcome. The first example is of what Betty and Bill say that affects their outcome in each part of the scene. “Excuse me. Is this chair taken? ... (A bell rings softly.) Excuse me. Is this chair taken?)” (David Ives 2). In this part of the scene, we see Bill attempt to have a
“Excuse me. Is this chair taken? Excuse me? Is this taken? No, but I’m expecting somebody in a minute ... (A bell rings softly.)”(David Ives 2). In this part of the scene, we see Betty attempt to avoid conversing with Bill by shutting him down before he could even begin to start. “In Sure Thing, a man comes into a sidewalk cafe, tries out a pickup line on a woman who is sitting alone at a table reading a book, and gets the brush-off. …The man tries a different line, and gets brushed off again.”(Terry Teachout 1) It is assumed by this encounter that Betty isn’t too interested in communicating with Bill. By doing this, she pushes Bill away, which in the end winds up killing that part of the