How I Met My Husband

How I Met My Husband
Donielle Miller
Eng 125
03/02/2014

The story of “How I Met My Husband” by Alice Munro (1974), is a story about a young naïve farm girl that had very little education or money, she was hired as a worker for a wealthy family. She finds love where and when she least expected to, all the while she was maturing into a lady. Edie get her first encounter with men and romance. The story is told in first person point of view, through the eyes of Edie and in some points in the story it is a more mature Edie telling the story. Edie is a fifteen year old girl that did not fare very well in school, so her parents decided to take her out of school after she finished the last in the class. Edie went to for Dr. and Mrs. Pebbles where she took care of the two children and cared for the home and the cooking. The plot is the dynamic element in fiction, a sequence if interrelated, conflicting actions and events that typically build to a climax and bring about a resolution (Clugston, 2010). The plot in “How I Meet My Husband” is how a young innocent farm girl waiting for a gypsy pilot to write her a letter. She never hears from him again but still manages to find love while maturing and learning a life lesson. The plot seems to thicken when Alice Kelling showed up, who was the finance of the gypsy pilot (p.94). I found the symbols in the story “How I Met My Husband” (Munro, 1974) to stand out very well. The first few paragraphs talk about the plane landing and the kids getting excited because they have never seen a plane close us. They also state the plane is red and silver and red symbolizes passion and danger according to our text book (Clugston, 2010). The story quickly changes. “All right,” said Mrs. Peebles, snappy as she always was when she got on her nerves. “Let’s go back in the house. Let’s not stand here gawking like a set of farmers (p. 6).” In paragraph 26 Edie talks about the light, how she loved the light and that the kitchen was not as dark and dingy has the one that she was used to. To me this symbolized that she was learning and growing into a young woman. Edie also speaks about the bathroom, the pink flamingoes, the warmth and softness of the mat, to me that symbolized happiness. “I put on rouge and lip stick and eyebrow pencil for her dresser.” That symbolizes excitement, growth, and beauty all of which Edie was feeling at that present moment (p. 31). The tone in the story “How I Meet My Husband” (Munro, 1974) changes all the way though. In the first few paragraphs, the tone is excitement, everyone is excited to see the plan land as they have never seen one that close before. In paragraph 6 the tone seems to change more to a dramatic tone, Mrs. Peebles is getting snappy with Edie, and Loretta Bird is being disrespectful (p6). When Loretta Bird arrives, Edie shows some prejudice, she speaks about what the Peebles thought about Loretta Bird “was a country woman” and that her husband was known for being a drinker and how they could not get credit at the “HiWay Grocery Store” (10). Loretta Bird states “People are going to be coming out her in their cars raising dust and trampling your property, if I was you I would complain” the tone changed there to a more annoyed character (p. 20). The theme of the story “How I Met My Husband” starts out as secrecy but then takes a twist to a love and heartbreak. Edie starts out succeeding at her job with the Peebles because she hides information from them. “The only thing that I didn’t like about working there, in fact, was feeling half hungry a lot of the time.” “I used to bring back a box of doughnuts made at home, and hide them under my bed.” “The children found out and I didn’t mind sharing, bit I thought I better bind them to secrecy (p.26)”. Edie also shows secrecy again “I was disappointed to see no wedding dress (p.30)”. The story takes a turn to a love story when Chris says to Edie “Well, I just wanted to tell you you look very nice. I was so surprised when I looked in the door and saw you. Just because you looked so nice and beautiful (p.45).” The story becomes more of an intense love story when Chris put the cake away carefully and sat besides Edie and started kissing her all over her face, neck, eyelids, and neck. Chris wanted it to be a nice long time of saying good bye. “When we said good-bye I wasn’t all that sad, because he held my face and said, “I’m going to write you a letter.” This is where the story theme turns to heartbreak; Edie goes to the mailbox for what seems years waiting for the letter to come from Chris. “No letter was ever going to come (p.199)”. In conclusion life has many twists and turns and you never know where they might lead you. In this story Edie thought she found her true love and she wasted so much time waiting for Chris to just write her the letter that she did not even realize the mailman was interested in her. If Edie would not have waited for the letter she may not have ever found her true love.

Reference
Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc
Sterling, E. (2006). Teaching Alice Munro’s “How I Met My Husband” in Composition II http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=a2b050f3-f99c-4985-b2e4-b0d8c19d3b98%40sessionmgr111&hid=106