Dear Life

By Riley Johnson

Alice Munro’s Dear Life is a beautiful and thoughtful telling of childhood nostalgia and complicated family dynamics. It follows the speaker as she reminisces about her childhood in a small, rural town. She goes through her schooling experiences, the stories of a mean old lady named Mrs. Netterfield from her mother, and her father’s failing fur business. When the narrator reaches adulthood, she learns that Mrs. Netterfield’s family used to live in her childhood home, serving as an explanation for some of the older lady’s behavior. With this newfound information, the narrator regrets not being able to tell her mother, who had passed away from Parkinson’s disease, and wishes she had been closer to her when she was alive. When looking at this story through a new criticism lens, Alice Munro’s choice of first-person becomes a clever way to bring readers closer to the speaker, allowing them to share the experiences and emotions felt by the narrator as she reminisces about her childhood. Through introspective narration and descriptive imagery, Alice Munro’s Dear Life captures the inner workings of its speaker, showing her emotions and experiences as she grapples with memory and loss.

In Munro’s Dear Life, introspective narration plays a powerful part in the story as it allows for a deep dive into the mind of the speaker. Introspective, as defined, is “the act or process of looking into oneself. Thus an introspective narrator examines one’s thoughts and feelings” (Ramya and Bhuvaneswari, 288). With this literary technique, the speaker’s reflections along with their fears and desires become known, serving as a window into their feelings and memories. Dear Life employs this technique to show the narrator’s individual experiences and thoughts as she traverses the past. This is seen when the narrator reminisces on her childhood, reflecting on how she used to help her father complete tasks around the farm. “I pumped fresh water, and I walked up and down the pens, cleaning out the animals’ drinking tins and refilling them. I enjoyed this. The importance of the work, the frequent solitude were just what I liked” (Munro). This insight into the speaker’s memories growing up shows the familiarity of her upbringing and the enjoyable moments as a child. It also reveals how her childhood has shaped who she is as an adult later in life, showing her more introverted personality. The introspective narration of Munro’s Dear Life provides the ability to see through the speaker’s eyes, allowing her thoughts and feelings to be on display. This literary technique is especially emphasized when the loss of the speaker’s mother is talked about at the end of the story.

When the speaker loses her mother to Parkinson’s disease, the introspective narration offers a heartbreaking insight into the thought process behind the death of a loved one. As seen throughout the narrative, the speaker’s relationship with her mother is rocky and uncertain. Oftentimes, they have opposing views when it comes to certain aspects of their life which lead to disagreements and a lack of proper communication. “Later on, I had to stay in the house to help my mother, and I was full of resentment and quarrelsome remarks. “Talking back,” it was called. I hurt her feelings, she said, and the outcome was that she would go to the barn to tell on me, to my father” (Munro). This, along with the loss of her friend Diane, the wild stories of Mrs. Netterfield, and the struggles of growing up with a sick parent left a divide between the mother and daughter, providing a clear explanation as to why the speaker’s thoughts and feelings tend to have a negative connotation when it revolves around her mother.

The use of introspective narration further enhances the speaker’s experience when it comes to the passing of her mother. Once an adult, the speaker moved away from home to live in Vancouver, creating a physical distance between her mother and herself and one in their relationship. After finding out that her childhood home previously belonged to Mrs. Netterfield’s family, the death of her mother causes her to feel a sense of responsibility when she passes away. This is shown towards the end of the story. “I did not go home for my mother’s last illness or for her funeral. I had two small children and nobody in Vancouver to leave them with. We could barely have afforded the trip, and my husband had a contempt for formal behavior, but why blame it on him? I felt the same. We say of some things that they can’t be forgiven, or that we will never forgive ourselves. But we do–we do it all the time” (Munro). A big part of the speaker regrets her decision not to visit her mother when she was sick or attend her funeral. The close narration of Dear Life brings to light the pain and remorse felt by the speaker after her mother’s death and it provides a glimpse into the impact of loss. It also explains the speaker’s intentions to look back at her childhood as she tries her best to understand her mother while forgiving herself.

 While the introspective narration brings a more personal approach to the speaker’s upbringing and reflections on her mother, the detailed imagery enhances the narrative, painting a clear picture of the narrator’s memories and emotions. In Dear Life, the speaker describes the pasture on which her house sat. “I had the help of the elm trees, which hung over the pasture and the shining river, and the surprise of a spring that came out of the bank above the pasture, providing water for the doomed horses and the cow and also for me, out of a tin mug I had found” (Munro). The positive word use of “shining river” and “spring that came out the bank” brings a fondness to the speaker’s memories, creating a sense of nostalgia and appreciation for the rural environment of the farm. It also shows the profound impact that the speaker’s home had on her as she uses beautiful descriptions of the scenery and mentions “Anne of Green Gables” whenever remembering her childhood home.

The descriptive imagery in Dear Life also enhances the vivid and emotional feeling of loss within the story. As the narrator continues to describe her childhood home and upbringing, the nostalgic emotions brought upon by doing so have a remorseful tint to them, highlighting the importance of these memories as an adult looking back at them. “Remembering childhood appears to be an adequate vehicle for voicing the concerns of the characters, which indicates that a character’s childhood memories are significant to her even when she is an adult,” (Abdulmuttalib, 77). During the beginning years of the speaker’s youth, her home is described with the serene nature that surrounds it. “It turned its back on the village, facing west across slightly down sloping fields to the hidden curve where the river made what was called the Big Bend. Beyond the river was a patch of dark evergreen trees, probably cedar but too far away to tell” (Munro). However, when the speaker ages, the descriptive details of her home become less and less important as her priorities shift. Instead, the narrator focuses on the responsibilities of school and the duty to take care of her sick mother, showing the loss of childhood innocence that comes with adulthood.

Alice Munro’s Dear Life is a pensive story around childhood nostalgia and complex family dynamics. Through introspective narration and descriptive imagery, Munro highlights the inner life of the speaker, going in-depth on their experiences and allowing readers to relate as they navigate memory and loss. Dear Life is a reminder of the power that comes with the past and how childhood memories and personal experiences can shape our identities as adults. The short story’s narration provides a personal look into the speaker’s thoughts and feelings through certain life events. Meanwhile, the story’s vivid imagery creates a rich and moving picture that further enhances the narrative. Through descriptions of scenery and a close examination of the speaker’s life, Alice Munro’s Dear Life tells a heartfelt tale of remembrance and the complicated reality of family relationships, capturing the true essence of the human experience.

Works Cited

Abdulmuttalib, Zeinab. “Constructing Childhood through Remembrance in Selected Short Stories by Alice Munro.” Critical Survey, vol. 35, no. 1, Spring 2023, pp. 77-93. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.cwi.idm.oclc.org/10.3167/cs.2023.350105.

Munro, Alice. “Dear Life.” New Yorker 87, no. 28, Sept. 2011. https://search-ebscohost-com.cwi.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=65511674&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Ramya, S. And V. Bhuvaneswari. “An Introspective Narrator in Alice Munro’s Select Short Stories.” Language in India, vol. 18, no. 4, Apr. 2018, pp. 288-92.http://cwi.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=129388362&site=ehost-live&scope=site