Dreams and Letters in "Hateship, Friendship" and "Runaway" by Alice Munro
Dreams and Letters are often seen in Alice Munro's stories as a way to further enhance the plot. Dreams are seen in "Runaway", while letters are seen in "Hateship, Friendship", as well as "Runaway". Dreams and letters in Alice Munro's stories add a sense of suspense and allows the audience to seem closer with the characters since most oppressed people would be able to write freely about how they feel. Alice Munro uses this to learn more about the characters and to be able to go through the characters' inner feelings. However, other people are able to mask their current situation through the letters they send to others. While dreams allow the plot to seem more mysterious
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When the characters in fictions or people in real life write letters to themselves or to other people, they express themselves very well. When they write, they express exactly how they feel. It is most true in oppressed women, for they are able to find themselves through writing letters. Some would even find their own freedom through these letters. It is the case with Edith and Sabitha. They both are unable to do what adult couples would do, for they are too young. However, writing to Johanna by pretending to be Ken allowed them to feel how it is like to be in a relationship. They write about a type of romance which they cannot have at their current age. "Let's write her a lovey-dovey letter", they say as they pretend to be Ken (108).In "Runaway", Sylvia writes a letter to Carla after the runaway. Sylvia talks about needing to talk to Carla, though it can only be through a letter. Sylvia honestly says that she has been "thinking about the rather dramatic events of the last few days" often (138). With that said, she thought she must speak to Carla even if the only and best way is through a letter (138). She was, therefore, able to express what she is thinking about and how she felt about the past occurring events in the life of the three main characters. Furthermore, she was able to be fully honest with Carla, as she mentions in her letter that "all she cared for was Carla's happiness
Dreams prove as a powerful, motivating force, propelling an individual forward into real achievements in life. Conversely, dreams can transpire as blatantly artificial. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams” depicts the story of Dexter Green, a young man who dreams of achievements and works hard in a real, non-illusionary world to win them. His work in this plain, unromantic world brings him ever closer to the dream world he so desperately wants, while at the same time the dreams show themselves as decaying or empty. Unfortunately, this does not cure him of dreaming and does not push him to abandon his dreams in favor of a healthier attitude. When Dexter embodies all of his dreams in the beautiful Judy Jones, her fickle attitude and the inevitability of her aging destroys Dexter’s dream world and dries up the source of his achievements. The author, using paradoxes, shows Judy Jones differently through Dexter’s eyes, and reinforces the theme of illusion versus reality.
...s, and why he writes them at all. Instead of judging him, she tries to understand and fix it her own way, and it affects how he sees his writing:
a passage from the letter she is writing to add a personal feel to the
It is through letter writing that the power of communication is emphasized. Celie's absence of bitterness for the way she has been treated allows the reader to empathize and perhaps feel the outrage she does not. We feel very acutely her positio...
To read the Civil War diary of Alice Williamson, a 16 year old girl, is to meander through the personal, cultural and political experience of both the author and one's self. Her writing feels like a bullet ricocheted through war, time, death, literary form, femininity, youth, state, freedom and obligation. This investigation attempts to do the same; to touch on the many issues that arise in the mind of the reader when becoming part of the text through the act of reading. This paper will lay no definitive claims to the absolute meaning of the diary, for it has many possible interpretations, for the journey is the ultimate answer. I seek to acknowledge the fluidity of thought when reading, a fluidity which incorporates personal experience with the content of Williamson's journal. I read the journal personally- as a woman, a peer in age to Alice Williamson, a surrogate experiencialist, a writer, an academic and most of all, a modern reader unaccustomed to the personal experience of war. I read the text within a context- as a researcher versed on the period, genre, aesthetics, and to some degree the writer herself. The molding of the personal and contextual create a rich personalized textual meaning .
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
Apparently, critics can use these two books to argue their point on American dreams and nightmares. Within the American society, there are several cases of invisibility which drive some people to exercise power over others, or to demoralize them while evading the arm of the law. However, such cases have led people to seek refuge, although this act does not help the victims to produce a significant impact. When an individual faces such nightmares, one might try to evade the enemies by retreating to a position of invisibility, but such a person cannot formulate considerable changes to the society. In addition, if an individual shuns from nightmares, such a person loses critical time that is necessary for realizing one's dreams. People should not allow the community’s expectations and prejudices to hinder them from exploiting their uniqueness.
Alice Munro was born and raised in Sowesto, a small Canadian town, which directly influenced her success in writing. In small towns such as Sowesto, a woman’s place in society was to stay home and cook, clean, and raise children. If a woman did have a job, it typically was simple such as school teaching, writing for a newspaper, or piano playing. Another challenge facing Munro--and others who wished to pursue writing--was the lack of authenticity of Canadian writing. Wishing to be successful writer on a worldly platform was something to be laughed at not only because publishers in Canada were few and far between but in general, works from Great Britain and USA were what people throughout the world recognized and loved. However, many other factors of being raised in Canada played a role in Munro’s success. Religion in a small Canadian town typically had a Protestant culture that believed forgiveness was hard to receive and punishments were harsh and often and that shame and humiliation were close by. Her ancestry also largely influenced her outlook on the world.
Alice Walker's Literature “Writing saved me from the sin and inconvenience of violence” -Alice Walker (Lewis n.pag) Walker is considered to be an African American novelist, short story writer, poet, essayist, and activist. Most of her literature is mostly from her personal experiences and is moral to a number of African Americans all over the world. Walker defines herself as a “womanist” which means “the prophetic voice concerned about the well-being of the entire African American community, male and female, adults and children.
The process in which human beings advance through different stages in their life towards adulthood is highly hellacious. Moreover, it is very likely that one might encounter some difficulty in this progression. However, it is in human nature that we learn by failing at things, then mastering them by repeating them again and again. In the novel Lives of Girls and Women, Alice Munroe presents the life of Del Jordan in a very interesting way. The novel is divided into eight stages of Del’s life, where she experiences different scenarios which ultimately give her a better understanding of life. Even though being curious has its pros and cons, at the end of the day it leads to the enhancement of a person’s inner self. In the novel Lives of Girls and Women, Del the protagonist can be analyzed as being a very enthusiastic girl. Moreover, her curiosity proves to be a dynamic benefit of her actions.
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.
Lennie dreamed about tending the rabbits on the farm with George, but Lennie doesn’t have a chance to do that anymore. Curly’s wife wanted to be an actress in Hollywood for a show, but she never got the call that she’s in. Crooks never got to be a free slave. But this story at least talked about the characters trying to reach those dreams, which shows they have dignity and pride within themselves. But in reality, dreams are something we stride for, dreams will never be perfectly perfect nor perfectly
“All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” This quote from Walt Disney addressing the concept of achieving dreams is very accurate, and can be seen throughout literature today and in the past. Dreams can give people power or take away hope, and influence how people live their lives based upon whether they have the determination to attack their dreams or not; as seen through characters like the speaker in Harlem by Langston Hughes and Lena and Walter Younger in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in The Sun.
In her story, Boys and Girls, Alice Munro depicts the hardships and successes of the rite of passage into adulthood through her portrayal of a young narrator and her brother. Through the narrator, the subject of the profound unfairness of sex-role stereotyping, and the effect this has on the rites of passage into adulthood is presented. The protagonist in Munro's story, unidentified by a name, goes through an extreme and radical initiation into adulthood, similar to that of her younger brother. Munro proposes that gender stereotyping, relationships, and a loss of innocence play an extreme, and often-controversial role in the growing and passing into adulthood for many young children. Initiation, or the rite of passage into adulthood, is, according to the theme of Munro’s story, both a mandatory and necessary experience.
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.