The Red Dress Overview
RED DRESS by Alice Munro
Alice Munro (Canadian writer, famous throughout North America)
THEME: FEMALE ADOLESCENCE
Sub-themes:
• Mother-daughter relationship: o "She was just sitting and waiting for me to come home and tell her everything that had happened. And I would not do it, I never would." (implies that the daughter wished for her own space and felt her mother was too clingy and needy for her attention – failure at being a woman) o "My mother, never satisfied, was sewing a white lace collar on the dress; she had decided it was too grown-up looking." (implies that her mother was kind of "coordinating" her life)
• the importance of physical appearance and female self-consciousness – her fear of standing at the blackboard thinking there was a red stain on the back of her clothing – reference to menstruation and the associated “shame”. "I did it up!" "You look like a Zulu. Oh, don't worry. Let me get a comb and I'll do the front in a roll. It'll look all right. It'll even make you look older." I sat in front of the mirror and Lonnie stood behind me, fixing my hair.˝
• Feeling like an outsider: o the main character - "At high school I was never comfortable for a minute." o Mary Fortune - "...he had brought me from Mary fortune's territory into the ordinary world." (implies that Mary didn't fit in the stereotype of society)
• social hierarchy and popularity in school
• sexuality (sexual competition and questioning of sexuality - heterosexuality, homosexuality) o Going with Mary Fortune vs the boy who asked her to dance.
"I thought that I ought to tell him there was a mistake, that I was just leaving, I was just going to have a hot chocolate with my girl friend. But I did not say anything." (inner conflict with choosing between Mary and the boy – and possibly alludes to finding her sexual preferences) o "Also we read articles on frigidity of the menopause, abortion and why husband seeks satisfaction away from home. When we were not doing
Alice Munro (Canadian writer, famous throughout North America)
THEME: FEMALE ADOLESCENCE
Sub-themes:
• Mother-daughter relationship: o "She was just sitting and waiting for me to come home and tell her everything that had happened. And I would not do it, I never would." (implies that the daughter wished for her own space and felt her mother was too clingy and needy for her attention – failure at being a woman) o "My mother, never satisfied, was sewing a white lace collar on the dress; she had decided it was too grown-up looking." (implies that her mother was kind of "coordinating" her life)
• the importance of physical appearance and female self-consciousness – her fear of standing at the blackboard thinking there was a red stain on the back of her clothing – reference to menstruation and the associated “shame”. "I did it up!" "You look like a Zulu. Oh, don't worry. Let me get a comb and I'll do the front in a roll. It'll look all right. It'll even make you look older." I sat in front of the mirror and Lonnie stood behind me, fixing my hair.˝
• Feeling like an outsider: o the main character - "At high school I was never comfortable for a minute." o Mary Fortune - "...he had brought me from Mary fortune's territory into the ordinary world." (implies that Mary didn't fit in the stereotype of society)
• social hierarchy and popularity in school
• sexuality (sexual competition and questioning of sexuality - heterosexuality, homosexuality) o Going with Mary Fortune vs the boy who asked her to dance.
"I thought that I ought to tell him there was a mistake, that I was just leaving, I was just going to have a hot chocolate with my girl friend. But I did not say anything." (inner conflict with choosing between Mary and the boy – and possibly alludes to finding her sexual preferences) o "Also we read articles on frigidity of the menopause, abortion and why husband seeks satisfaction away from home. When we were not doing