Theme and Image in Alice Munro's Fiction

149 Pages·2011·5.93 MB·English

by  Danelle Boynton

THEME AND IMAGE IN ALICE MUNRO'S FICTION
THEME Aim II'fJAGE
IN ALICE MUNRO'S FICTION
.-
BY
DANELLE BOYNTON, B...A.
A TlillESIS
!
SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE
l\'!ASTER OF ARTS
McMASTER mUVERSITY
DECElVlBER 1979
~~STER OF ARTS (1979) Mc~~STER UNIVERSITY
(ENGLISH) HAMILTON, ONTARIO
TITLE I Theme a~d Image in Alice Munro's Fiction
Danelle Boynton, B.A. ( Western)
SUPERVISOR: Dr. H.J. Ferns
NUMBER OF PAGES: vi, 142
ABSTRACT
Alice h'lunro' s fiction has a distinct ive style that
grows, in part, out of the close relationship between her
themes and images. The main concern of this ulesis will
be to explore the way in which Alice Munro uses certain key
images to dramatize the central themes of her fiction.
~unro's fiction examines the trials and occasional triumphs
which the individual experiences in developing from child
hood and youth to maturity and offers the reader insight
into the complex processes of life through her subtle
rendering of human experience.
-It is Alice l'llunro's perceptive dramatizations of
life that mffi:·e each of her short stories and novels memorable
'"
to the reader. Sesses the ability to present
'real lifei~~ vividly and convincingly as well as the talent
to develop each story through her use of significant, and
often recurring, images. These images are sometimes intro-
duced obliquely at first, yet the reader is made aware of
their significance because of Runro's skillful attention to
dramatic and sensuous detail. .then each story reaches a
climax or epiphanal moment it is because its images have
been cumulatively built up and dramatically emphasized as
essential to our grasp of the climactic moment and most
important aspects of each novel or story's theme,
fhe themes in each of her four works of fi6tion are
,.4
ihe title she originally gave to Lives o~ 3irls
and~~..::::\1S(': ) .
similar and are often repeated in greater depth from earJier
to later works. As a writer of fiction, i:lunro has created
collections of short stories and novels which are basically
concerned with the maturation process and the recognition
of moral and s09ial pressures which can influence the
individual. lilunro s images are often sensuous and uncom
I
plicated to begin with, mirroring the attitudes of her pre
dominantly youthful narrators. As the individuals in her
stories grow to understand some of the pitfalls of society,
Munro's images sometimes become unnatural and almost threat
ening. In becoming so they reflect the corruption and
pressures of society which produce the madmen, suicides and
cripples of her world who are the deprived manifestations
of society's spiritua~ deformation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would particularly like to thank Dr. John
Ferns for the weekly meetings in which we discussed
Alice Munro and the materials pertaining to her work,
and also for his encouragement and helpful suggestions
while supervising the writing of this thesis. A
special thanks to Frank D'Alvise for his support and
his persistance in reminding me of my deadlines.
TABLE OF COl'l"TENTS
Introduction 1
I Dance of the_Hal?RY Shades 9
II Lives of Girls and women 40
III Something I've Been Meani~To Tell You 77
IV who Do You Think You Are? 107
Conclusion 138
Bibliography 141
nrTHOOlJC'rION
In an interview with Graeme Gibson, Alice ~unro
"'-said, "I'm not a writer who is very concerned with ideas.
I'm not an inte~lectual writer. I'm very, very excited
by what you might call the surrace of life, and it must
be that this seems to me meaningful in a way I can't ana
lyse and describe."l This "surface of life" concerns the
ordinary--the reality in which disguises and deceptions
are used so often that they become commonplace. Alice
Munro's talent lies in her ability to explore this reality,
and present the various tones and textures of personal
experience.
Several critics and admirers of Munro's work have
likened her attention to detail to the techniques used in
photography. Such techniques necessitate an intense
feeling for the exact texture of surfaces, the ability to
capture a precise mood, thought or emotion. A photograph
can capture some of these things using film as a medium,
whereas Alice ~unro relies on language to convey her'
responses to the reader. She often adopts a straight,
documentary style that rejects the tendency of many
photographers to manipulate images, and in an essay
entitled '''rhe Colonel's hash Eesettled", she defends
lGraeme Gioson,21even Canadian dovelists (Toronto:
Anansi fress, 1973), p. 241.
1
2.
her use, of images saying, ", •.1 did not consciously
2
plan, make, or arrange them; I found them,lI
This method of "finding" images is one that
demands far greater technique than the photographer's
lens can adequately achieve. For this reason, it might
be useful to note Alice fuunro's mention of various visual
artists in her interviews with Graeme Gibson and John
~etcalf, To John Metcalf, she has admitted that Edward
Hopper's paintings are doing ", .•exactly the same thing
that writing I respond to does and what I would like to
do. ,tJ Hopper's paintings present ordinary scenes and
buildinBs which might befou:pd in any small town: the
barber shop, the gas station, the look of a street on a
Sunday morning, an old, ornate house, Yet, "they are
unfolds~4,
like the edge of a stage beyond which drama
much like Munro's stories that move subtly, yet purpose-
fully, towards a delicate, epiphanal moment or moral insight,
Of.- his own work, Edward Hopper has said, "Pliy aim
in painting has always been the most exact transcription
2Alice ,:lunro, lI:rhe Colonel's Hash Resettl>2d", in
John ./letcalf, ed" 'rhe darrative Voice ('foront0: ~i~cGraw-~-iill
~yerson~ 1972), p. 182•
~!letcalf,
.3John ",A Conversation ;iith Alice :.iunro", .
Journal of Canadian 7ictioh, I (Fall 1972), 58,
4Alfred H. ..3arr Jr., "HoDDer' s Art" in Ed'Nard
rlopper: 3etrospective ~xhibitio~-(~ew York: ~useum of
",_oaern Art, 19.3.3), p. 14,
)
possible of my most intimate impressions of nature, If_
this end is unattainable, so, it can be said, is perfection
in any other ideal of painting or in any other of man's
activities. ,,5 frhe "activity" Munro chooses is the activity of
wr~ting,but he~ ideals are much the same as Hopper's.
It is important for Ivlunro to recall even the most minute
detail which might aid in her dramatisation of the human
condition, She peels back layers of experience in much the
same way that an artist conveys an acute perception of his
environment through a particular brush stroke, texture
or colour.
As well as Edward Hopper, Munro has expressed an
admiration for the work of Canadian painters Alex Colville,
Jack Chambers and frOm :eorrestal, rEhese Canadian artists
basically belong to the same school in contemporary painting,
that of "magic realism" or its offshoots, or, as Uiunro
has described it, "a kind of super realism. ,,6 The con-
cern of these artists lies in creating the suggestion of
something significant contained in the seemingly ordinary
scenes and objects they depict; a message which is not
olatantly expressed but sensitively felt or sensed by the
Vlewer. Each ar~ist exercises a certain amount of select-
ivity of detail, each detail contributing to a greater
understanci.ing of the whole painting,
)~dward Hopper, "Uotes on Fainting", in .2dward
rto-oper: i~etrospective .:::xhibition C~ew York: j,;useum 01'
l.,ouern Art, 1933), p. 14.
5
C>-,..-a. ' -oson, p. 2 0~ .