Bluffing By Sinclair Ross

“Whenever you’re in a conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude”-William James. A positive attitude has the ability to fix any conflicts that may arise between two people. Gabriella and Liam from the short story “Bluffing” by Gail Helgason and Ann and John from “The Painted Door” by Sinclair Ross both face conflicts; however, Ann and John have a better attitude creating a healthier relationship based on faith, consideration and understanding. “Faith: complete trust or confidence in someone or something”. Part of having a positive attitude in a relationship is about having faith in one and other. Ann and John demonstrate

In this phrase he communicates the feelings that he can not believe that Ann is still expecting John to come home even through the frightening blizzard, something Steven would never do. Ann’s response to Steven’s comment is “of course...We’re going to play cards. He was the one who suggested it” (236). This reply to Stevens blaten comment portrays Ann’s unswaying faith in the idea that John is going to come home because he gave her the idea of playing cards together as a sort of tribute to hold onto to make sure he comes back. In addition to this, John has never given Ann any reason to believe that he will not make it home and even, “before [they] re married-all the blizzards that [they] had that year...he never missed”(238). This illustrates that every time John had gone away for the day in the past he had always come home. He had proved himself trustworthy. In contrast, Gabriella and Liam struggle to maintain a positive attitude towards each

When talking about hiring a man to help out on the farm, Ann’s understanding of John’s thoughts allows her to be able to “keep her silence”(Ross, 230). John does not want an extra pair of hands to help out with the farm because he enjoys the hard work that it provides him and the satisfaction he gets at the end of the day from the feeling that he was productive. For this reason Ann is able to understand John’s thoughts and keeps quiet, because she recognises how special the farm is to him. Over the time that Ann and John have been in a relationship they have grown with each other and gained a deep knowledge of each other nature. When John’s body is found lying in the snow, they could not believe that he had risked the storm, but Ann understood that “if you knew him, though-John would try”(243). She knew that John was built of strong determination and no gale would stop him from trying. Furthermore, Ann knew “he’d be tired-that’s why [she] started out for the stables”(236). This demonstrates that based on past experience from other times that John had gone away to see his dad, she had grown to understand that after such a long day John would be tired and she wanted to make his life easier by getting the chores done. On the other hand, Gabriella and Liam have a weak understanding of each other. Liams