Alice Munro subtle use of contrasting word combinations in “Miles City, Montana” foreshadows the narrator’s realization that human hypocrisy is natural and consistently present in her life. The word combinations Munro uses are atypical, often using words that subtly disconnect (almost oxymoronic). These word combinations allow Munro to saturate the story with what could be called “hypocritical phrases”. These phrases are not aggressive, and by virtue of this trait, they can be uses to form an idea of hypocrisy’s role in nature and daily life without being colored by the usually negative connotations of the word .In “Miles City, Montana”, Alice Munro uses atypical, contrasting or hypocritical word combinations to permeate the theme of hypocrisy …show more content…
Munro uses central idea of hypocrisy again, but this time looking specifically at the role of hypocrisy in the universe. “[B]y rights they[children] should have sprung up free, to live a new, superior kind of life, not to be caught in the snares of vanquished grownups, with their sex and funerals” (579). Munro’s prose reaches a peak of contrast with the combination of “sex and funerals”. Though the former nestles within intense passion and love which can eventually lead to the creation of life, the latter encapsulates the grief of mourning that same life. Munro’s use of the word vanquished to describe adults reveals the narrator’s true disenchantment with the illusion of control parents seem to represent. Though adults can try to prevent the death of their children, they cannot, in fact, do so due to the unpredictable nature of the tragedy. Any adult failing or trying to protect their child is therefore “vanquished” before tragedy can even strike. Though Munro could have stopped using words to represent duplicity with “sex and funerals” or “vanquished”, she continues driving the point of hypocrisy throughout the quote. In the passage, the parents’ “snares” imply deception; rather than saying that the children are encaged, Munro’s “snares” shows that the children are tricked into becoming trapped by their parents’ façade of power. No matter where one turns within the story, Munro ensures that …show more content…
As a child, while grappling with her newfound realization of a parent’s inherent understanding of their child’s morality, Munro’s narrator claims that “the others [gave consent to Steve’s death], saying the Lord’s Prayer in their unnaturally weighted voices, oozing religion and dishonor”(580) . Though these people “ooze religion”, often considered a moral or good description, they are branded as hypocrites precisely for their prayers. This may be the pious adults are quick to blame the tragedy on Mr. Gauley’s parenting. This blame game becomes a source of tension for the narrator: if the other adults could see how Mr. Gauley’s parenting would cause Steve’s death, why did they not prevent it? Even if these people are considered “good”, the idea that they refuse to admit they do not control the circumstances surrounding Steve’s death seems irreconcilable with the fact that they pray (i.e. hypocritical). In prayer, they admit their lack of power in the world by asking for help from another being. Their dishonor and consent comes from the fact that they are able to somehow pinpoint a reason to censure his father and in doing so act like they could have controlled the circumstances surrounding Steve’s death, yet never correct the behavior they indict as responsible for this death. By accusing those
In the world of Appalachia, stereotypes are abundant. There are stories told of mountaineers as lazy, bewildered, backward, and yet happy and complacent people. Mountain women are seen as diligent, strong, hard willed, and overall sturdy and weathered, bearing the burden of their male counterparts. These ideas of mountain life did not come out of thin air; they are the direct product of sensational nineteenth century media including print journalism and illustrative art that has continuously mislead and wrongfully represented the people of Appalachia. These stories, written and told by outsiders, served very little purpose to Appalachian natives other than means of humiliation and degradation. They served mostly to convince readers of the need for so-called civilized people and companies to take over the land and industry of the region, in particular the need for mineral rights, railroads, and logging as the mountain folk were wasting those valuable resources necessary for the common good.
The monotony of life has waged war against the narrator in Alice Munro’s “Miles City, Montana.” The author depicts the narrator as a brittle woman in search of a personal identity among a community of conformity. This battle between domestic responsibility and personal satisfaction reeks havoc on the soldier of this mother and wife. Munro is a master of characterization, and through the protagonist she depicts the complexities of human nature.
Throughout the narrative, the text utilizes the conflict over the crisis of cognition, or the very mystery regarding the Marquise’s lack of knowledge surrounding her mysterious pregnancy, as a catalyst for the presentation of the plurality of opinions associated with the Marquise’s current status in society and presumptions to the father’s identity. In itself, this state of cognitive dissonance prevents the Marquise from making any attempts at atoning for her supposed sin, as she herself is unaware of any possible transgressions responsible for her current predicament. In turn, this separation from the truth pushes the marquise to fall into the conviction that the “incomprehensible change[s] in her figure” and “inner sensations” (85) she felt were due to the god of Fantasy or Morpheus or even “one of his attendant dreams,” (74) thereby relinquishing her subconscious from any guilt. However, despite her self-assurance of innocence and desperate pleas at expressing her clear conscience, the marquise becomes subject to external pressures from both her family and society, who come to perc...
Munro, Alice ““Boys and Girls” Viewpoints 11. Ed, Amanda Joseph and Wendy Mathieu. Alexandria, VA: Prentice Hall, 2001. Print.
It has been said of Anton Chekhov, the renown Russian short-story writer, that in all of his “work, there is never exactly a point. Rather we see into someone’s hear – in just a few pages, the curtain concealing these lives has been drawn back, revealing them in all their helplessness and rage and rancor.” Alice Munro, too, falls into this category. Many of her short-stories, such as “Royal Beatings” focus more on character revelation rather than plot.
In Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls,” there is a time line in a young girl’s life when she leaves childhood and its freedoms behind to become a woman. The story depicts hardships in which the protagonist and her younger brother, Laird, experience in order to find their own rite of passage. The main character, who is nameless, faces difficulties and implications on her way to womanhood because of gender stereotyping. Initially, she tries to prevent her initiation into womanhood by resisting her parent’s efforts to make her more “lady-like”. The story ends with the girl socially positioned and accepted as a girl, which she accepts with some unease.
Society tries to place many rules upon an individual as to what is acceptable and what is not . One must decide for themselves whether to give in to these pressures and conform to society’s projected image, or rather to resist and maintain their own desired self image. In the story “Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro, Munro suggests that this conflict is internal and external and a persons experiences in life will determine which of these forces will conquer. In terms of the unnamed protagonist’s experiences in the story, it becomes clear just how strong the pressure of society to conform really is, as it overcomes and replaces the girl’s self image.
Alice Munro’s “Memorial” is one of a group of stories in the larger work, Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You, which explores the limitations of human emotion and understanding in its attempt to deal with reality and death. Consequently, Munro’s use of third-person narration focalized through Eileen signifies her difficulty of dealing with emotions especially during times of bereavement. As “Memorial” is focalized around Eileen, the reader views the world through her eyes in which June becomes an antipathetic character. The relationship between Eileen and June is strained due to the way of life each sister currently lives as well as their relationship with their parents during their childhood. The Analepsis episodes of their youth signify
In Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls” she tells a story about a young girl’s resistance to womanhood in a society infested with gender roles and stereotypes. The story takes place in the 1940s on a fox farm outside of Jubilee, Ontario, Canada. During this time, women were viewed as second class citizens, but the narrator was not going to accept this position without a fight.
Alice Munro conveys the viewpoint of a young girl who has a differing perspective concerning the rules set in place for girls. Furthermore, through this nameless girl, Munro points out the daily trials and tribulations faced by females who live on farms due to their gender. For instance, the tasks given to the females, the subordinate manner of language the men and even other women use on other women and girls. In addition, as stated previously the author does not name the girl, to reinforce the perspective of how unimportant women were. Support for this claim can be by the fact that Munro gives relatively all the other character’s names, even having the animals receive their own names to further demonstrate the lack of importance given to
Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls” is a story about a girl that struggles against society’s ideas of how a girl should be, only to find her trapped in the ways of the world.
"All of it is clear to a person who has understanding and right to those who have acquired knowledge." (Proverbs 8:6-9)
Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning and also the basis of education. Curiosity had killed the cat indeed, however the cat died nobly. Lives of Girls and Women is a novel written by Nobel Prize Literature winner, Alice Munro. This novel is about a young girl, Del Jordan, who lives on Flats Road, Ontario. The novel is divided into eight chapters; and each chapter refers to a new, unique event in Del's life. As an overall analysis of the book reveals that Del Jordan's intriguing curiosity has helped her throughout her life, and enabled her to gain further knowledge The character is often seen in scenarios where her attention is captivated, and through the process of learning she acquires information in order to her answers her questions about particular subjects. There are many examples in the book that discuss Del’s life, and how she managed to gain information, as well as learn different methods of learning along the way.
Alice in Wonderland belongs to the nonsense genre, and even if most of what happens to Alice is quite illogical, the main character is not. “The Alice books are, above all, about growing up” (Kincaid, page 93); indeed, Alice starts her journey as a scared little girl, however, at the end of what we discover to be just a dream, she has entered the adolescence phase with a new way to approach the mentally exhausting and queer Wonderland. It is important to consider the whole story when analyzing the growth of the character, because the meaning of an event or a sentence is more likely to mean what it truly looks like rather than an explanation regarding subconscious and Freudian interpretations. Morton states “that the books should possess any unity of purpose seems on the surface unlikely” (Morton, page 509), but it’s better to consider the disconnected narrative and the main character separately, since the girl doesn’t belong to Wonderland, which is, as Morton says, with no intrinsic unity. Whereas, there are a few key turning points where it is possible to see how Alice is changing, something that is visible throughout her journey. Carroll wants to tell the story of a girl who has to become braver in order to contend with challenges like the pool made by her own tears, or assertive characters, like the Queen.
The definition of sociology is the study of society. Social criticism is the practice of analyzing a literary work by examining the cultural, political and economical context in which it was written or received. Alice Walker’s work demonstrates this type criticism very well; from The Color Purple to Everyday Use, or any of her earlier short stories. The majority of her work reveals the struggle of African Americans in society, especially women. Furthermore, her stories mirror a lot of the social characteristic that were taking place in America, from the 1940’s on; thus, making Alice Walker the epitome of sociological criticisms.