1. "Runaway"
Why is Sylvia so fond of Carla? Is Sylvia right, given the
circumstances, to suggest that Carla leave her husband and give her
the means to do so?
2. When Carla tells her parents she wants a "more authentic"
life, what does she mean by this? How much does Carla know about
authenticity or about life?
3. What is Clark's appeal for Carla? What darker suggestions
does the story make about Clark's character? It seems that Clark
has wanted to get rid of Carla's beloved pet goat: why? What
resonance does Carla's vision of the goat's bones lying in a nearby
field have for the reader's understanding of her future?
4. "Chance"
Why does Juliet decide to pursue Eric, a man she has met
briefly only once? Is this a haphazard adventure, or does she go to
Whale Bay with a determination about what she wants? She has told
Eric about her studies in Greek and Latin, "I love all that stuff.
I really do". Later, she thinks of her love of the classical
languages as her "treasure". Why does she choose a man whose
reading includes only National Geographic and Popular
Mechanics?
5. Consider the end of the story: "She can tell by his voice
that he is claiming her. She stands up, quite numb, and sees that
he is older, heavier, more impetuous than she has remembered. He
advances on her and she feels herself ransacked from top to bottom,
flooded with relief, assaulted by happiness. How astonishing this
is. How close to dismay". What does this passage express about
Juliet's situation and her feelings?
6. "Soon"
When Juliet finds the print of Chagall's I and the
Village and buys it for her parents, she tells Christa, "It
makes me think of their life. . . . I don't know why, but it does".
What is the significance of this painting as a gift and that Juliet
later finds it hidden away in their attic? What does Juliet come to
understand about her parents' marriage?
7. Sara tells Juliet, "When it gets really bad for me-when it
gets so bad I-you know what I think then? I think, all right, I
think-Soon. Soon I'll see Juliet". Why does Juliet refuse
to acknowledge this statement from her dying mother? What makes the
final paragraph of the story so effective in conveying the moment's
cold emotion?
8. "Silence"
Like Carla in "Runaway," Juliet seems to take pride in her
choice of an unconventional life. Does Penelope punish her mother
for denying her the comfortable, conventional life she experiences
with her friend Heather's family? Is Juliet right or wrong to share
with Penelope, just after Eric's death, tales of their arguments
and his infidelity and to describe the burning of his body on the
beach? Is it possible that Juliet says something during this time
that is, for Penelope, unforgivable? To what extent does the story
repeat the pattern of "Soon" and Juliet's rejection of her own
mother?
9. What does Juliet not see about herself that is clear to the
reader? What aspects of her character are problematic? Is she
admirable? Is she a narcissist? Is she "lacking in motherly
inhibitions and propriety and self-control"? How does she handle
the suffering inflicted upon her by Penelope and the diminishment
of her life as she ages?
10. "Passion"
When Mrs. Travers is talking about Tolstoy's Anna Karenina
with Grace, she says her sympathies shifted from Kitty, to Anna, to
Dolly, "I suppose that's just how your sympathies change as you get
older. Passion gets pushed behind the washtubs". Does passion have
several meanings in this story? What does passion mean for each
character?
11. "The ease with which [Grace] offered herself" to Maury is "a
deliberate offering which he could not understand and which did not
fit in at all with his notions of her". Later, Grace realizes it
would have been "a treachery to herself" to think of marrying
Maury. What changes for Grace when she spends time with Neil? What
causes this profound shift in perspective? What do she and Neil
have in common?
12. The story opens with Grace's return forty years later to
find the Traverses' house on the lake, which is the site of "old
confusions or obligations". Why does Munro choose not to tell us
what Grace's life is like now and how the choices she made that day
have affected her?
13. "Trespasses"
Harry tells Lauren about Eileen's first child and the
circumstances of that child's death when she unknowingly picks up
the box containing the first child's ashes. What do we learn about
his character from the way he narrates the story and his attitude
toward Lauren as he tells her? What does he imply about Eileen? How
does Lauren's response reflect her feelings toward her parents and
to the life they've chosen?
14. Lauren, as Delphine points out, is "a kid that is not short
of information". We don't learn until page 226, however, that
Lauren is only ten. Why does Munro withhold this information until
fairly late in the story?
15. Why do Harry and Eileen decide to make a ceremony of
scattering the first child's ashes? What is the impact of Harry's
words, "This is Lauren . . . and we say good-bye to her and commit
her to the snow"? What is the effect of the story's final paragraph
about Lauren's reaction to the burrs clinging to her pajamas?
16. "Tricks"
This story is based on the Shakespearean plots that
involve twins, mistaken identities, and precise symmetry. Such
tricks of plot, Robin thinks, are supposed to be a means to an end,
"The pranks are forgiven, true love or something like it is
rekindled, and those who were fooled have the good grace not to
complain". Why is the key to the mystery revealed to Robin so late
in the game? Why did the lovers base their happiness on such a
risky proposal? After finding out what had come between herself and
Danilo, Robin reflects, "That was another world they had been in,
surely". What was this other world?
17. The title of this story might also be "Chance." What does
Munro suggest about the power of chance in shaping a life?
18. "Powers"
The story opens with Nancy's diary and her first person
voice. What do we learn about Nancy's character in this intimate
narrative form? According to Ollie, Nancy is "not outstanding in
any way, except perhaps in being spoiled, saucy, and egotistical";
as a girl she was "truly, naturally reckless and full of some pure
conviction that she led a charmed life". Is this an accurate
description of Nancy?
19. Like several other stories in this collection, "Powers"
takes place in at least two time periods. It begins in 1927 and
ends some time in the early seventies. What is the effect of this
dual immersion in the early and late stages of the characters'
lives? How accurately does this story project the sense of reality
in its main character's voice and her immersion in a particular
time and place?
20. What does Nancy want or expect from marriage? Why does she
marry Wilf? Does it seem that she would prefer to marry Ollie? Why
or why not? Does Nancy warn Tessa against Ollie out of jealousy, or
out of a realistic concern that he is not to be trusted?
21. Does the story's ending describe a dream? A vision? Why does
it provide Nancy with a "sense of being reprieved"? What does it
tell us about Nancy's conscience and about her lifelong involvement
with Tessa and Ollie?
22. For discussion of Runaway
Most of these stories involve young women who act
upon a strong desire for sexual or romantic fulfillment or for
escape from a stifling life. Is desire liberating or confining? Do
these characters really know what they want or need? Does Munro
suggest that desire is provisional and subject to change? Do the
stories imply that life is inherently unstable and unknowable?
23. Writer Alan Hollinghurst has observed, "Munro's stories have
always felt exceptionally capacious; they have the scope of novels,
though without any awkward sense of speeding up or boiling down. .
. . It's almost impossible to describe their unforced exactness,
their unrushed economy" [The Guardian, February 5, 2005].
Which techniques does Munro employ to accomplish this illusion of
space and time in only forty or fifty pages?
24. In "Soon," Juliet comes across a chatty letter she had
written to Eric the summer she visited her parents. In it she finds
"the preserved and disconcerting voice of some past fabricated
self". How does this idea of false self-representation work in
various stories? Do characters tend to misrepresent themselves
mainly in letters, or in person as well? Do they believe in these
"fabricated selves" that they create for themselves and others?
25. Most of the stories in Runaway involve an older
woman who is looking back at a determining moment in her youth. How
do these characters view their younger selves? What are the
qualities that accompany their reminiscences about the
past-sentimentality, irony, bitterness, regret, a desire to change
the story?