The Invisible Bond of Father and Daughter in the Works of Alice Munro

Abstract

Alice Munro’s talents lie in her ability to present stories that successfully appear real, and not fictionalized. Although she is better known for representing her female protagonists and their struggle to identify themselves in society, she also takes her readers back to the ordinary lives of the people in western Ontario where the author herself spent her entire childhood. Her short stories often deal with the sad conditions that many of her protagonists face in dealing with their relationship with their families, husbands and wives, friends and sometimes, strangers. Lisa Dickler Awano praises Munro saying, “… she has a firm grasp on the complicated interplay between our will, our desires, and the outside forces over which we have almost no control… There’s happiness, tragedy, and everything in between, and any worldview that insists on one thing over the others is deficient or fragmentary. Mystery and surprise are crucial ingredients of every single story, and Munro is a master of the mystery that resides in the human heart… In Munro’s short stories you don’t know what’s going to happen to people- just as in life.” The paper entitled “The Invisible bond of father and daughter in the works of Alice Munro” will analyze in detail the bond that is shared between the father and his daughter that is not visualized by many. The paper will highlight the complicated lives that the family goes through, which has been closely observed and narrated by the young narrator.