Alice Munro Essays

stories “Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro and “Responsibility” by Russell Smith show how arguments and challenges are faced by characters in their relationships due to differences in their thinking and way of living. It is very important for an indiviudal to follow norms of the society to occupy a proper status and be accepted by the society. Both of the main the characters in each story have their own dreams and wishes but finally have to compromise with the rules of society. Alice Munro’s short story is

come together in harmony to create one’s identity in its purest form. How individuals act and respond to challenging circumstances determines their values, goals and beliefs, thus, forms them as a whole. In the text name “The Shining Houses” by Alice Munro, a character named Mary experiences stresses in her life which attribute to not only her individuality but to her development as

In Alice Munro’s “Silence”, Juliet, a single working mother, is abandoned by her daughter Penelope, who left without a warning or a trace to explore her spirituality and start a new life for herself. Juliet is at first baffled and distraught, as she cannot understand why Penelope would leave. She had thought that Penelope had always been very happy at home. Juliet never does hear definitively why Penelope left, but throughout this short story she analyzes why it might be and what it means for her

Red Dress-1946 by Alice Munro shows the narrator’s journey from feeling negatively about her appearance and young to feeling more confident and mature. It begins with the narrator`s mother sewing her a red velvet dress for her first high school dance which she is really not looking forward to. She is really self-conscious about her appearance and she is constantly comparing herself to her best friend Lonnie (whom she feels has the perfect life because she is rich). She is also very self-conscious

ago, rules and roles were imposed on people without any related basis, such as their gender or the color of their skin. What more is that these roles were enforced by society, using peer pressure as a tool to straighten those who fell out of line. Alice Munro’s short story “Boys and Girls” expands on this injustice by following the story of a young teenage girl slowly realizing what her place in the world is. The short story has been made into a short prizewinning film. The two versions are similar

In Alice Munro’s short story, Runaway, we are introduced to the main character Clara from the start. Through the introduction of the story, the reader may begin to notice the sadness that runs in Carla’s life. The exposition reveals the troubled marriage Carla is in. Munro demonstrates this by the characterisation of Clark, but most importantly, by Munro describing Carla’s actions when she’s with Clark. Carla would act joyful, walking into the living room “with a brisk step” and try her best to display

Alice Munro’s Boys and Girls explored the differences in how boys and girls were treated when growing up in America. As the narrator is getting older, she is realizing that girls are expected to act differently than boys. Today in American society, gender equality has come a long way, but boys and girls are still expected to act different ways and play with different things. Gender equality has changed for the better throughout the years in America, but with the biological differences between males

as something more than my gender. Worse yet, I sometimes think myself inadequate, just because I am a girl, due to the sexist messages that bombard me on a daily basis by the media and people in my life. In the short story Boys and Girls by Alice Munro, the expectations of the narrator’s gender leads to her being discriminated against and considered of less

behavior. The adults believe that the child is supposed to act and behave a certain way. When they do not act to match the norm, the adult will change the adult to fit into the expected stereotypes and gender roles set by society. In “Boys and Girls”, Alice Munro shows the control that is put upon the androgynous and unladylike girl. Society has a way to conform an individual stereotypically based on gender role. Knowing that she is expected to become a girl and conform to society’s beliefs and norms

generation, it remains a cyclic tendency among human beings. Regardless of upbringing, socioeconomic status, or intention, at one point or another every person has made an assumption about someone else without knowing anything about them. Author Alice Munro illustrates this fact in her short story “Day of the Butterfly” as the protagonist, Helen, reflects upon a bold decision she made in middle school. Observing that one of her classmates, Myra Sayla, was being repeatedly teased by her peers, Helen