Thematic and Artistic Features of “Runaway”

【Abstract】Alice Munro is a famous Canadian short story writer and has been referred to as “the Canadian Chekhov”. “Runaway” is a short story from the story collection with the same name. In this short story， Munro presents womens predicament in different stages of life and introduces further thinking on womens living condition. In this paper， thematic and artistic features will be discussed. The thematic feature of runaway is explored from the aspects of family relationship， marriage relationship and friendship and the artistic feature of multidimensional narrative perspective in anachronous sequence is analyzed in the paper.

【Key words】runaway； predicament； narrative perspective； narrative time

【作者簡介】楊柳（1981- ），漢族，湖北武漢人，中南民族大學(xué)外國語學(xué)院，講師，學(xué)位英語語言文學(xué)，主要研究方向英美文學(xué)。

Introduction

Alice Munro is one of the most famous Canadian female writers in the world. From 1961 to 2012， she has published fourteen short-story collections of about two hundred short stories. In 2013， Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize in Literature and Swedish Academy considered her as “master of contemporary short stories.” “Runaway” is the first short story in her short-story collection with the same name. This paper will focus on the discussion of the artistic and thematic features of her short story “Runaway”

1. The Theme of Runaway

“Runaway” is a story about a young woman whose name is Carla who ran away from her parents and eloped with a young man Clark when she was eighteen years old. However， the marriage did not usher her into a world of happiness. Clarks nasty temper and the depressing family atmosphere turned into torture for Carla. She was left without a shred of self-esteem and started to doubt the relationship. It seems that Carlas life track was swaying back and forth between runaway and return. Carla ran away from her parents， from her husband， from her friends， and eventually ran away from her own identity. The theme of runaway has been presented from different aspects of the development of story.

1.1 Runaway from the Family

The first runaway is Carlas alienation from her primary family. She was looking for “a more authentic kind of life.” She gave up her middle-class family， her life in the past eighteen years， her higher education and her future career for love. Carla abandoned her life completely and surrendered herself to the man. “She saw him as the architect of the life ahead of them， herself as captive， her submission both proper and exquisite”.

The first runaway is given as background information about Carla in the short story. At that time， Carla did not understand the realities of her life. However， the light of reality was shed into her mind in the days spent with Clark， which led to the second runaway.

1.2 Runaway from Her Husband

Getting on a bus to Toronto， Carla ran away for a second time—this time from Clark. Clark didnt carry the responsibility of the “architect”. Reality completely destroyed the romantic fantasy of wedded bliss clung by Carla. As time went by， the burning passion for the man she loved wore out. When the glamour of love had vanished， fantasy of romance turned into cold relationship， which dragged her into depression and eventually led to her second runaway. Carla tried to abandon Clark but failed in the second runaway.

1.3 Runaway from Her Friend

In the third runaway， Carla ran away from her only friend Sylvia. Mrs. Jamieson—Sylvia was the only person Carla can keep in touch with in her daily life except Clark. Sylvia is a representative of the modern independent woman who is knowledgeable， strong and decisive， which forms a sharp contrast with Carla. After the dramatic event of runaway to Toronto， Carla began to avoid meeting her. Getting Sylvias letter， Carla burned it in the sink. Carla did not only destroy the letter， but also her friendship with Sylvia. The burning letter is the symbol of the termination of Carlas relationship with Sylvia and her runaway from her only friend. This runaway led Carla to a continuation of depressing and disrespectful marriage life.

Through the depiction of the three runaways， Alice Munro presents the dilemma of life of these young women who do not reach intellectual and emotional maturity. They are not prepared to deal with the relationships between their family members， husbands and friends. Through the exploration of the theme of runaway， Munro manages to probe into the ways for women to achieve self-recognition and independence.

2. Artistic feature of the Narrative strategy

2.1 Multidimensional Narrative perspective

Alice Munro adopts a multidimensional narrative perspective in the short story “Runaway”. Narrative point of view is the perspective through which a story is communicated. The third-person omniscient perspective is applied in combination with different spatial and psychological viewpoints.

From“the little rise in the road that around here they called a hill”， to “From the barn door”， from the mobile home， trails to the house built by Leon Jamieson with a south-sloping wall made up of big windows， Munro provides a comprehensive and vivid description of the protagonist， Carla， and other important roles such as her husband and the Jamiesons.

The combined application of third-person omniscient perspective with psychological viewpoints has been utilized in the depiction of the personality of Clark and her emotional changes. The omniscient narrator relates Sylvias observation of and concern for Carla and in this way the development of Carlas emotion is presented.

2.2 Narrative Time

In her short story “Runaway”， Munro breaks up the order of diachronic narration. She adopts anachronous narrative such as flashback and flashforward. Munro presents Carlas life experience of three stages： life before marriage， life with Clark and life after her runaway from Clark. However， the events and roles of different stages are introduced to the readers in fragments in disorder. This anachronous sequence enables characters and events to move between the past and the present， which creates a special flow of story bringing enlightenment to the heroine and stimulating readers understanding. Under Munros guidance， readers work on the jigsaw and eventually reveal the truth covered by mysteries.

3. conclusion

By applying the multidimensional narrative perspective in anachronous sequence， the state of perplexity and depression of Carlas life have been reflected vividly. The living dilemma inevitably results in her runaway from her family， husband and friend. Through the presentation of the theme of runaway， Alice Munro explicitly expresses her opinion that to escape from reality cannot solve any problem. She puts forward the question that how women could find their own identity and find a way out of their dilemma.

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