Dear Life

Riley Young

“Dear life” is a short story written by Alice Munro. The story starts off by the speaker talking about her childhood. She talks about living in a small country town and having to walk down an empty road that seemed to be much larger than it was. This could be because as kids we see the world around us as a big place. Empty roads can also have the effect of seeming larger due to the emptiness. The empty fields on either side of the road make the surrounding always seem to be the same adding to the illusion of it being larger. The speaker talks about how the road seemed to get smaller as she got older. School was not all that much of a positive experience for the speaker. “Dear Life” is a short story that is best looked at through a cultural criticism lens.

The speaker described how as war with Germany began the school population started to shrink. It was during the time of the world wars that such a thing was common as they conscripted for the wars. The speaker goes on to explain about how she finally made friend after leaving her old school and tried learning a type of dance. Following that section is a sentence that says “the wages of sin is death” (Munro).  It is suggesting that only in death can we truly repay our sins. The reader goes on to describe what I interpreted to be typical teenage attitude towards their parents. “Dear life” appears to be a short story telling the life of young woman during the early part of the twentieth century as late as the forties during and after the second world war. At the end of the short story it mentions how the mother was sick and in the hospital and how one night she got out and was taken in by someone who didn’t know her and it came to an end with her funeral.

In an article titled “An interview with Alice Munro,” by Lisa Awano, they went over the career of the playwright and her success in the business. During her career she published thirteen story collections and even a novel and has received numerous awards. Munro has said that she used human experience and relationships when writing “Dear Life”. Munro also said that growing up she often heard “oh for dear life.” That is a rather different way to get the title for a story although that does make some sense to use something from her childhood. Many of Munro’s stories have things like characterization and structures. In the interview Munro states she used a paradox to her own relationship with her parents (Munro And Awano, 2013).

Across different cultures the relationship of parents and their children is a universal thing that happens with every family. From my reading it is noticeable that Alice Munro has a way of incorporating that into her writing. This relationship is strongly present in Dear Life, and it is not just this but others as well. Relationships of all sorts seems to be a big influence on Munro when writing her stories. Every author has their own way of influencing their writing and relationships seem to be the way for Munro. I do like the way that Munro includes her own personal feelings towards relationships in her writings. It adds a more personal touch to the reading and in some way forges a connection between reader and writer. Dear Life adds a really personal touch to it with there being sections where it felt like it was the author talking about her personal life rather than it being a speaker within the story.  When reading the story, I found it to be a good read and would be interested if it was a full novel.

In another article I read while researching Alice Munro talked about using Scottish-Canadian culture in some of her writings and her own experiences with that culture. From my personal experience with diving into creative writing, I can see how using personal experiences and knowledge of a culture would make it easier when writing a story that takes place in that particular culture (Gittings,1997). Many professional authors use their cultural knowledge and experience with writing and more often than not there are people who will be using cultural criticism to analyze how accurately the culture is depicted. I have found that cultures add a lot into the reading and writing of a book and Alice Munro does a good job at that. Dear Life holds a lot of significance for the culture and time period and looking at it through a cultural lens i felt like I was able to get a better understanding of the story and I didn’t feel confused at all. I found myself using my own previous experience with country roads and my knowledge on cultures to paint a clearer picture than what was already painted adding to the visual experience. The speaker of the story lives in a house in the country and describes having to walk down empty country roads to get home from school and this heavily reminded me of the eastern area of the United States particularly in areas like in Pennsylvania. This could also be referring to places in Canada and areas where there are small towns, and many people have to walk a distance to and from home.

The speaker of the story grew up on a farm and often had to help her father with taking care of the animals and various chores around the farm because her brothers weren’t old enough at the time. This led to some sibling rivalries over her having to do all the chores while they got to play. I can relate to that because I too had a sibling rivalry and with the growing up on a farm I grew up hearing stories about how my grandpa grew up in small town down a country dirt road and how he would have to help his father with taking care of the chickens they raised although for him it was because he was an only child.

While there are many ways to look at Dear Life, I think that the best way would be to look at it is using a cultural criticism lens. This story used a lot of cultural significance and has a real personal touch on it whether or not it is a personal story about Alice Munro herself and is writing it from another perspective or if it isn’t about her at all and is separate from her or is someone else’s story. The culture involved in the writing process is noticeable if you look for it. Culture is something that I believe is ingrained into everything regardless of intentional or not. While I planned to use cultural criticism as a lens to look at it I also tried to use feminism to look at it and I just couldn’t see it in that way and it could just be because I was so focused on cultural criticism to not see it. With this short story having such a personal touch to it I find it hard for it to be anything other than cultural. It is best looked at through cultural criticism because of how personal of a touch is involved. Culture tends to play a huge role in the shaping of a person’s identity.

Writing from a cultural perspective just adds to the reading of the story at least in my opinion. The level of personal perspectives added in just adds more evidence to cultural evidence being the best lens to use since it is the culture of where we come from that help to shape who we are on a deeper level. Using Cultural criticism as a lens to look at the story can reveal a lot about the author and if done correctly can give the reader an insight into the life of the author or even what the author wants you to see and makes for a better read.

Work Cited

Munro, Alice, and Lisa Dickler Awano. “An Interview With Alice Munro.” The Virginia Quarterly Review, vol. 89, no. 2, 2013, pp. 180–84. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26446758. Accessed 8 May 2024.

Gittings, Christopher E. “Constructing a Scots-Canadian Ground: Family History and Cultural Translation in Alice Munro.” Studies in Short Fiction, vol. 34, no. 1, Winter 1997, p. 27. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,cpid&custid=ns149246&db=a9h&AN=817034&site=ehost-live.