Flashbacks In Dimensions And Train

In Dimension and Train, there is a significant use of flashbacks that Munro has applied, making each story more compelling, and is ultimately the formula in reaching the ending of each where the central characters decide to take a new path in their lives. Dimension is heavily reliant on it, as Munro uses this technique to make the story suspenseful and offer a deeper psychological aspect to the character’s lives. The flashbacks are what build up to the climax of the story, which is a flashback it itself. The flashback, which is the climax, of Doree finding that Lloyd killed their children, remains one of the most powerful scenes in the story though it is written in past tense. The reader can still feel the immediacy of events and what Doree …show more content…
She ends them very abruptly, leaving the reader wanting more. In Dimension, the story ends when Doree saves a boy’s live and has a revelation. She no longer feels the need to get back on the bus to go see Lloyd and the story ends with, “‘You don’t have to get to London?’ No” (Munro 22), yet there’s a sense of incompleteness as if there’s more to Doree’s story. One must ask what exactly Doree does after that moment after reading her phenomenal journey. Nonetheless, this line is still very strong, because this is Doree’s way out and her way of breaking away from any last hold that Lloyd possessed over her. Train ends just as sudden and immediate, if not more, but it leaves the same effect, and it ends with “In the morning he got off in Kapuskasing. He could spell the mills, and was encouraged by the cooler air” (Munro 58). After revealing an important piece of information about his childhood, this ending leaves the reader yearning for more as this helps the reader formulate why Jackson has this revelation to leave and start his life elsewhere once again. In Dimension and Train, the abrupt endings are comparable in a way that the reader wants to know what is going to happen in each protagonist’s lives. Carscallen