Abstract: Runaway is a traditional motif in women’s writing. But Alice Munro uses this motif differently. In her short story, “Runaway”, Munro explores the psychological transition of the female protagonist, Carla, and investigates the intricate issue of women’s liberation and social reality. This essay discusses how Munro manipulates the focus of narration in order to reveal the mental struggles experienced by showing a complicated runaway experience by a rural Canadian house-wife living an ordinary life. Key Words: Munro; focalization; runaway; characters In women’s literature, “runaway” is a familiar theme. Girls and women run away to pursue independence and freedom. InJane Eyre (1847), the principal paradigm expression of the nineteenth-century Western women’s desire for selfhood and freedom, the heroine, Jane Eyre runs away from Mr. Rochester whom she perceives as the love of her …show more content…
Maggie Lloyd, in Ethel Wilson’s Swamp Angel (1954), whose first husband had been killed in the war, leaves her second husband, Eddie Vardoe, isresolute to make a new life for herself on Three Loon Lake. Maggie, who makes her own way in the world by her determination, presents a self-reliant woman image. Hagar, in Margaret Laurence’s The Stone Angel (1964), runs away through marriage to Bram Shipley to free herself from the patriarchal family when she is young. Then she runs away to the West Coast of Canada with her son to find her freedom from her desperate marriage. When she is old and dying, she runs away again to struggle against being sent to a nursing home. Hagar shows woman’s sheer will-power and self-identity. Marian Mcalpin,in Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman(1969),who has the engagement with a young lawyer, feels that she is losing herself. Marian is coerced into a more feminine role, which she takes pains to resist so that she keeps running away from her fiancé and the future