Runaway, Trespasses, Extract - Alice Munro (2004)

Extract

[...] Runaway, Trespasses, Extract - Alice Munro (2004) Trespasses, extract from 'Runway' by Alice Munro 'Every man must define his identity against his mother. If he does not, he just falls back into her and is swallowed up' wrote the American polemist Camille Paglia. Everything is also a question of identity in Alice Munro's short story collection Runaway, published in 2004. The extract of trespasses' story we'll comment explores the strange and peculiar bond started between Lauren and Delphine, two characters apparently opposed. [...]

[...] While we expected Delphine to have the more extraordinary features and life, Lauren is, in fact, the real protagonist of the story. From a calm and reserved personality, she starts engaging herself into a critical birth and identity mistrial quest, from which she'll probably never come back the same. This is the burning point of Alice Munro's story: an ordinary discussion which is even a spoken-too-fast joke turns into a real scarring questioning about origins, certainties and the very thin barrier between usual and unusual, between common and uncommon. [...]

[...] Her unusual perception considering cats and her story concerning its origin also tend to make her regard like a singular person. On top of that, some tiny details reveal that she appears to like to be noticed as she opted for 'inky blue fingernails' or 'clattery earrings' from which the narrator concedes she had no use of 'little button kind'. All these features come with a daring general attitude. For example, she doesn't hesitate to bring her friend to work absenting with a short 'Ring Bell for Service'. And the narrator processes that she was 'the only one to talk'. [...]

[...] As Lauren has no favorite song, she doesn't know any joke - which surprise her new friend a lot - or 'laughs obligingly' at Delphine's jokes. On the contrary, Delphine names everything connected to the little town she lives in 'dump'. She 'states' and has precise and incompressible judgments about anything. She also happily shares her personal beliefs about details like a woman's hands which have to be 'nice'. The narrator even quotes that her opinion is 'severe and capricious'. She, for example, asserts that she doesn't like her name and adds that nobody loves ones. [...]

[...] For example, with Delphine's numerous questions about her identity - to which she mainly doesn't know what to answer - she starts realizing that someone, except her parents, could have an interest in her and that 'arbitrary facts (can) be delightfully important'. Step by step and gradually, she gets influenced by the other who's probably a more experienced and aged girl. Nonetheless, Lauren is being taught many things about the world just through her own personal vision and way-to-be. She, for instance, compares her way to sing to her daddy's. And Delphine's way appears to be far more fascinating or attractive to her even if we may also quote ambiguous because of the words 'embrace' or 'sweetness'. [...]