Change and Age in Alice Munro

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at two selections of short fiction by Alice Munro - namely "Chaddelys and Flemmings" and "Hold Me Fast, Don't Let Me Pass" and examines how the author perceives the evolution of age, class and gender from a feminine perspective. Particular attention is paid to how the women in these stories ultimately break free from social notions of vanity and thereby reconnect with and reconcile aspects of their respective pasts.

From the Paper:

"In "Hold Me Fast, Don't Let Me Pass," Hazel, a widow, is confronted with the task of trying to reconstruct a portion of her dead husband's life while serving time overseas during World War II. As Peggy Martin points out, "No one in Scotland remembers Jack, and Hazel's struggle to construct his story challenges seemingly unchangeable connections among materiality, morality, and femininity" (Peggy Martin 87). At the Royal Hotel she occupies during her time in Scotland, Hazel is immediately acquainted with her Antoinette, the once young woman Jack used to meet outside the hotel during his time in Scotland. She sees in Antoinette's obsession with preservation of her physical attributes a pathetic attempt to avoid social oblivion."

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