Oldal 46 [46]
CANADIAN LANDSCAPES/ PAYSAGES CANADIENS
give the reader an insight into how the writer’s approach changes throughout
her career.
THE THREE STORIES: A MUNROVIAN SUBTYPE
In what follows I will offer a reading of three short stories appearing in three
different volumes across a time period of two decades, arguing that the nar¬
ratives discussed make up a group or grouping of a type of story in Munro’s
oeuvre. What justifies this reading is the striking similarities one finds not
only in the setting but also in character types, situations, plotlines, narrative
elements, and, most importantly, in underlying thematic preoccupations. The
parallels are not remarkably striking on their own, nor are they overtly difficult
to track, but because the obvious references are few and dispersed all over the
narratives in asides, seemingly random remarks, they are easy to overlook.
When considered, however, they open a new way to understand Munro's fiction.
Yet, I do not argue that these short stories are mere rewritings, recycled mate¬
rial, more of the same. I argue for just the opposite: exactly because they
approach an issue in a similar fictional framework contemplating fundamen¬
tal human questions, the changes in their closures, the remarkable shifts for
the central characters tell of the shift in Munro’s overall vision, too.
The stories are “Vandals” published as the last narrative in Open Secrets
(1994), and the first pieces in Runaway (2004) and Too Much Happiness (2009):
“Runaway” and “Dimensions,” respectively. The fact that all three stories are
given prominent positions in their respective volumes already indicates their
centrality in Munro’s work; in addition, they garnered considerable critical
attention immediately, which also attests to their recognition as instant clas¬
sics. More importantly, the thematic convergence of the narratives is remark¬
able. All three stories explore what maintains a relationship, especially an
abusive one, what individuals are willing, or able, to recognize as truth, how
individuals react when intimating that they potentially come into possession
of knowledge that may alienate them from or connect them to a significant
other, what sacrifices individuals are ready to make, what prices they are ready
to pay to maintain their loyalty, and to whom they accord their loyalty. But
ultimately, the central question at the heart of the three narratives is why
individuals do not seek knowledge, the truth, why they resist the obvious when
their relationships are at stake.
All three short stories draw on the archetypal plot, characters and setting
of the biblical Fall: in each narrative, the female protagonist is tempted to
confront the secrets concealed within the silences in the center of the narra¬
tives. Resembling Eve, the naive heroine grapples with a choice: she can remain
loyal to an Adam-like figure (an enigmatic, older, grim patriarch) by rejecting