Dialect

"Do you know what Mr. Dooley is after telling me?"

This excerpt from the short story "The Drunkard" by Frank O'Connor is an example of a dialect. This helps the reader to identify that the speaker is Irish. The speaker of this quote is Mick Delaney, the father of the speaker. His best friend is Mr. Dooley; however, when the story starts, Mr. Dooley has died. Mick is deeply saddened by this and so much so that his wife believes he will turn to alcoholism to deal with his loss. Mrs. Delaney sends Larry, the speaker, with his father to ensure he doesn't drink. It works and Larry gets very drunk; he begins to get sick and cuts his head. At the end of the story, the reader is surprised to see that his mother is happy that he drank his father's alcohol because it prevented his father from getting drunk.