Essay on Analysis of Alice Munro's How I Met My Husband

This screenplay follows the protagonist Alice Howland, who is a professor of linguistics at Columbia University. Alice Howland is later diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease, which turns her world completely upside down; especially given her career and ambitious nature. She becomes unable to perform normal everyday activities, and struggles with the loss of her independence. Alice’s husband, John, who is a physician, attempts to act as a guide for her through this time, but it ultimately puts a strain on their relationship. John’s job offer to move to Boston does not help matters either, and it quickly becomes the last straw for the two of them. He soon moves to New York to take the job after Alice’s memory starts to decay at a faster rate. John and Alice have 3 children, Lydia, Anna, and Tom as well as a son-in-law, Charlie. They are introduced at the beginning of the screenplay, as they all gather to celebrate Alice’s 50th birthday at a restaurant. This is also the time in which the audience notices her decline in normal conversation as she is unable to follow smoothly. Alice could be considered the catalytic hero of this screenplay, and the disease being the antagonist. Alice wants to hold on to as much of her memory that she can, and slow the regression by writing down everything. By Act 3, Alice loses her ability to do activities that she had been doing for many years; such as going out for her morning run without getting lost, remembering words, phrases, and

Like Lucy, she grows up in a middle-class environment in the 1940s. Before she is shot, everyone thinks Alice is adorable, and she is constantly chosen by her father over her siblings. But the aftermath of the incident shows the fickleness of people: with an injured, blind eye, people stop admiring her; her father stops picking her first. She gets picked on and bullied in school, and even admits to beating up one kid who teased her. After getting a surgery that removes more unseemly parts of her injury, she gains confidence in herself, makes friends, and gets the “guy of her dreams.”

Another factor that turns Alice into a hero is her slow confrontation of fear. Alice’s fear accompanies her from the beginning of the movie. Fear of meeting other’s expectations, fear of how her future will unfold and it causes her nothing but stress. She seems to be one of those people who tend to be caught in awkward situations which puts more pressure on her shoulders and makes her unsure of what to do. Her fear of other people in general might not be as noticeable as her fear of appearance to other people.

Instead of just telling a story about other characters, Edwards tells a story about the very people listening. This amplifies his purpose in drawing more fear in the eyes of his listeners not just of characters in a story, but of themselves.

Mrs. Peebles had to explain to Edie that “being intimate means a lot more than that [kissing]...” (Munro, page 51). Everyday after Chris left, Edie would “go up to the mailbox and sit in the grass, waiting.” (Munro, page 52). She still had a child like faith that Chris would write her a letter. Edie is still showing that she is naïve, but she also is starting to show some aspects of realism.

When it comes to exploring the point of view of this story, you can ask yourself a few questions. “This story is told in the first person by a teenage girl. What are the strengths and limitations of such a narrator?” (cited in Clugston, 2010, sec. 8.2, para. 203) The second question would be; “Edie makes this statement in the opening of the last section of the story, “I didn’t figure out till years

The theme of the story is under some circumstances people can be blind to the truth. Character Edie determines the style of the story by talking about the circumstances of her life as a fifteen year old girl and as an older woman. She retells the stories of those that she has known, and the man that she believed she loved deeply. Sometimes the things we want to happen may not be the things that life has for us. We need to be open to all the opportunities in life that are different from what we believe.

The letter “An Open Letter to Alice Munro” by Elliott Holt is a fan letter written to Alice Munro. In the letter Holt is praising Munro’s working and saying how much Munro’s writing has affected her life. Holt sees Munro as a friend and teacher. Holt also seems to feel like Munro’s work had shaped her into the person she is, which could be true because authors words do have a large effect on readers but I think she is being extreme. I completely disagree with Holt’s emotions toward Munro. This letter was almost a thank you note to Munro, but Munro hasn’t had that effect on my life so I can not relate to that feeling of gratitude. Before I began my English short stories class I had never read any of Alice Munro’s work. The one piece from her

perfect fulfillment on earth requires understanding, and a true understanding can be reached only through

Not everything we see is always as it appears to be. As we focus our attention and look a little more closely we find what is presented to us has deeper value than what the surface would have us think.

Alice comes home and is excited to continue life with her family. Alice begins to drift off into a daydream which she thinks her life is a flashback caused by LSD. Alice is happy with her family and with herself, except for her social restrictions, she can't hang out with drug users, and other kids don't want her around. Alice's grandfather dies from a stroke. She is bothered by the thought of worms and maggots eating his dead body. Her relationship with her father gets better. Alice meets a freshman at the university library, Joel, his father is dead, his mother is a factory worker. To pay for school he works as a janitor. The two get to know each other well and Alice dreams of about marrying him. After the funeral for Alice's grandmother

This story was written in the first-person perspective. More specifically, the story is a dramatic monologue in which the narrator is responding to ambiguous questions asked by an ambiguous character. The narrator is a major participant taking part in the story as she is the main character, but she isn’t necessarily a reliable source of information because of her extremely emotional state of mind. She is repressing memories from the night of the incident and from her life in general, and this is shown when she says, “I hate to repeat it, my life” (41), and “I don’t want to talk about her” (43). The narrator is also highly unreliable because she isn’t even certain of the validity of the story she is telling. She says, “What? Did I say that?...Then maybe I do remember it, it’s all so confusing and…” (45). Because this story is first-person, we can know only what the narrator reveals. We don’t know the questions being asked of the narrator or the response of that person, and the narrator doesn’t always finish her sentences or thoughts, either. She drifts off and this is shown by the abundant use of ellipses. This is when the reader starts to speculate what is being left out of the narration. The narrator is repressing memories and refusing to talk about them, like when she says, “I don’t want to talk about it again” (41), so there is some

This quote relates to everyone in some way because we all at one point are put into a situation where we saw or heard something as people we tend to turn a blind eye towards something because it can change our own values or beliefs or our view on anyone. This has to do with our identity for us and others, as we tend to turn a blind eye to not see the flaws in our identities or someone's else, or generally the world view. As people we build identities for others, the way we perceive them and when that someones does something that isn't this identity you built for them, we just turn away or accept it which can determine the impact is has towards us or the relationship. This relates to how people choose to hide the bad side seen in someone or

Do you ever notice in stories, the female characters tend to be weak and sometimes have a mentor to guide them? Alice Adventures in Wonderland turned the tables on this type of character and made a strong, lively character Alice. Carroll disregarded the traditional plot lines and development of characters of his time by creating an empowered Alice, who overcomes the challenges in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Not only does Alice face different challenges through the story she also faces her pre-teen years of emotional and developmental stages. We can argue that Carroll disobeyed the normal childhood innocence by taking away Alice’s innocence because she had to go through Wonderland, facing different challenges that made her a strong

The first example of this narrative, “You better not never tell nobody but God. It’d kill you mammy” (1). This statement was obviously only spoken between the narrator and her abuser. “I am fourteen years old. I have always been a good girl” (1), is a second example of the novel’s point of view. This type of narrative brings the reader close to the quality and rhythm of life that Celie experiences. It allows the reader to intimately get to know Celie. Through Celie’s dialect and poor grammar, the reader becomes personally engaged in Celie’s experiences and struggles. Almost like reading the unedited thoughts that go through a person’s mind.