What are the ways that Sheriff spends the money in the short story Burnt Toast Do you notice any pattern to the spending?

Answer 1

We can't be sure in the story all the things that Alan Sherriff spends the money on, but here are the certain things, and the likely things:

After first drink, $100: Likely alcohol

After second and third drink, $600: Likely alcohol and gambling

After fourth drink, $800: A shave, bath, clothing, dental work at minimum. He comes sober this time.

After fifth drink, $1,600: Liquor, good food, gambling

After sixth drink: $3,200: Uncertain, but he comes in for money to get a job, so perhaps just regular life expenses.

After seventh drink $6,400: Money for Muriel, who needs it for her mother.

After eighth drink $12,800: Mink for Muriel, trying to win her from another guy... and likely more alcohol, since he comes in very drunk.

After ninth drink $25,600: Opening a restaurant with his kid brother.

After tenth drink: $51,200: Adding a bar, slots, and other illegal enterprises to the restaurant.

After eleventh drink: $102,400: Branching out in the "rackets" (illegal enterprises).

That's the last time he gets any money. When he goes in the next time, he drinks the twelfth glass, but learns that he was poisoned at #8, and that the demon was just giving him money to make the world worse. He drinks the last drink at that point, and we can only assume he descends "down the hatch" to hell.

As far as a pattern, overall he seems to just be getting deeper into vices, and wanting more. A couple of the times it could have turned positive perhaps... when he is planning on getting a job, when he is trying to help his girlfriend save her mother, and maybe even when he is planning on opening a restaurant with his brother, although that is after his soul is lost, so perhaps not.