Alice Munro is a phenomenal author who won the 2013 Nobel Prize and is the “master of the contemporary short story” ("The Nobel Prize in Literature 2013”). Munro has an uncanny ability produce normal every day characters with a unique and driven story that highlight many themes. In her short story, “Carried Away” Munro attempts to unveil the mysteries of fate, love, sex and death in a unique and original perspective from a young library set in the early 1900’s. All of these themes, which may seem vastly different in some cases, create a beautifully constructed story that falls away from the cliché story contemporary writing has become prone too.
Munro’s theme of fate in this story is the extremely plot driven, and if any part of this story …show more content…
“Carried Away” takes place during the early 1900’s when women were still viewed with purity and innocence unless otherwise stated or implied. “Even though more women were voting…there was still a general prejudice facing women. In particular, men and women were still regarded as inhabiting ‘separate spheres’ in what roles they were expected to fulfill in society” ("How Were Women Treated in the 1920s?"). But Munro unveils the truth of women in those days. Louisa is a character who does not fit the societal expectations of her time. Before Jack Agnew was ever in the picture, Louisa had a short affair with a doctor at her sanitarium, “her love was returned, eventually, costing the doctor his job,” (93). An event like this in the early 1900’s could have ruined a woman and a man very quickly, and while it wasn’t completely necessary for Munro to include this part of Louisa’s life she does. Munro is showing that Louisa is not the pure and innocent woman that her era would have liked her to be, because that innocence was unrealistic much like Hollywood’s unrealistic romances. This affair with a married man also helps with a later event involving sex and the expectations of …show more content…
She leans away from clichés yet again, by creating this very surreal and slowed down moment, rather than a blinding white light or God speaking down to someone. The audience gets an odd feel for the scene before Louisa even takes a sip of her Coke. The way Munro explains the setting of this bus depot that Louisa is at while waiting at was described as “a state of indolence and fecklessness,” (129). There is a whirling fan that disrupts the front desk woman by blowing the papers off the desk, and a dirty white dog, almost mistaken for a sheep, that sniffs her and leaves. Munro creates this slowed down scene with vivid details and it creates this very odd sense for the readers. This odd feeling become confusing as Louisa tilts back her head and closes her eyes as she takes a sip, the world she is in seems to be transported. The audience and Louisa are now faced with Jack Agnew, who would have been long
Munro’s theme of fate in this story is the extremely plot driven, and if any part of this story …show more content…
“Carried Away” takes place during the early 1900’s when women were still viewed with purity and innocence unless otherwise stated or implied. “Even though more women were voting…there was still a general prejudice facing women. In particular, men and women were still regarded as inhabiting ‘separate spheres’ in what roles they were expected to fulfill in society” ("How Were Women Treated in the 1920s?"). But Munro unveils the truth of women in those days. Louisa is a character who does not fit the societal expectations of her time. Before Jack Agnew was ever in the picture, Louisa had a short affair with a doctor at her sanitarium, “her love was returned, eventually, costing the doctor his job,” (93). An event like this in the early 1900’s could have ruined a woman and a man very quickly, and while it wasn’t completely necessary for Munro to include this part of Louisa’s life she does. Munro is showing that Louisa is not the pure and innocent woman that her era would have liked her to be, because that innocence was unrealistic much like Hollywood’s unrealistic romances. This affair with a married man also helps with a later event involving sex and the expectations of …show more content…
She leans away from clichés yet again, by creating this very surreal and slowed down moment, rather than a blinding white light or God speaking down to someone. The audience gets an odd feel for the scene before Louisa even takes a sip of her Coke. The way Munro explains the setting of this bus depot that Louisa is at while waiting at was described as “a state of indolence and fecklessness,” (129). There is a whirling fan that disrupts the front desk woman by blowing the papers off the desk, and a dirty white dog, almost mistaken for a sheep, that sniffs her and leaves. Munro creates this slowed down scene with vivid details and it creates this very odd sense for the readers. This odd feeling become confusing as Louisa tilts back her head and closes her eyes as she takes a sip, the world she is in seems to be transported. The audience and Louisa are now faced with Jack Agnew, who would have been long