Dance of the Happy Shades: Summary of Alice Munro's Walker Brothers Cowboy
Dance of The Happy Shades
Summary
Walker Brothers Cowboy
Story
The story is divided into two sections: the first section is short, and the second makes up the bulk of the story. The first is general and reflects certain abstract ideas while the second is concrete and details one specific event. A girl meets a woman her father dated before marrying her mother. Through the encounter, she comes to view her father in a new light by realizing that he is not only a family provider but also a man with a colorful emotional history all his own.
Point of view
Told in the first person from the point of view of an adult woman recounting a significant formative experience from her childhood.
Setting
Walker Brothers Cowboy” begins by describing a setting we’ll come to again and again in Alice Munro: rural Ontario, close to the Great Lakes in the late 1930s, a decade when that country was suffering the Great Depression. Much of the story, however, is set in the backcountry surrounding the fictional town of Tuppertown.
Main Characters
The Narrator
The narrator is a girl who lives with her father, mother, and younger brother. She is mature beyond her years. She is responsible and attuned to what goes on around her. She notices the subtlety in words and uses this to understand the adults around her.
The narrator has a close and trusting relationship with her father. She learns from her father even though she knows he has failed the family in significant ways, particularly economically. By contrast, she has a much more difficult relationship with her mother. She sees through her mother’s pretensions and is embarrassed by them. The narrator is unable to respect her mother. She continually resists her mother’s efforts to form an alliance, always siding with her father and his values.
The Father/Ben Jordan
Has a friendly and seemingly positive outlook, despite his recent financial hardships. His tenaciousness is shown by his holding onto the family fox farm until he was forced
Summary
Walker Brothers Cowboy
Story
The story is divided into two sections: the first section is short, and the second makes up the bulk of the story. The first is general and reflects certain abstract ideas while the second is concrete and details one specific event. A girl meets a woman her father dated before marrying her mother. Through the encounter, she comes to view her father in a new light by realizing that he is not only a family provider but also a man with a colorful emotional history all his own.
Point of view
Told in the first person from the point of view of an adult woman recounting a significant formative experience from her childhood.
Setting
Walker Brothers Cowboy” begins by describing a setting we’ll come to again and again in Alice Munro: rural Ontario, close to the Great Lakes in the late 1930s, a decade when that country was suffering the Great Depression. Much of the story, however, is set in the backcountry surrounding the fictional town of Tuppertown.
Main Characters
The Narrator
The narrator is a girl who lives with her father, mother, and younger brother. She is mature beyond her years. She is responsible and attuned to what goes on around her. She notices the subtlety in words and uses this to understand the adults around her.
The narrator has a close and trusting relationship with her father. She learns from her father even though she knows he has failed the family in significant ways, particularly economically. By contrast, she has a much more difficult relationship with her mother. She sees through her mother’s pretensions and is embarrassed by them. The narrator is unable to respect her mother. She continually resists her mother’s efforts to form an alliance, always siding with her father and his values.
The Father/Ben Jordan
Has a friendly and seemingly positive outlook, despite his recent financial hardships. His tenaciousness is shown by his holding onto the family fox farm until he was forced