The red dress in the short story “A Red Dress-1946” by Alice Munro, symbolizes the narrator’s liminal space amidst adulthood and childhood. Her longing to transition forth adulthood is conveyed by the description of the tight red dress’s ability to accentuate her breasts, thus maturing her image. Munro writes, “The red velvet dress…[was] very tight in the midriff. I saw how my breasts, in their new brassiere, jutted out surprisingly, with mature authority.” The narrator’s new dress represents a sense of sexuality; a sophisticated and mature theme. She arouses this theme when she talks about mature topics with her friend. Munro writes, “Magazines...articles on makeup...what to do when a boy tried to go too far...gathering of sexual information.”
