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The Beggar Maid |
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ENG
3230Writing Assignment:
Due: Friday, November 6
Length: 350-400 words
(As you know, Alice Munro is Canadian, and, yes, I stretched the "boundaries" of our course just a bit to include her.)
One of the web resources for this week is "Alice Munro: The Short Answer," a critical essay by Alex Keegan on Munro's work. While Keegan's essay goes beyond The Beggar Maid, he does offer any number of insights into what Munro seems to be "up to" as a writer.
Your task is to choose one or more of Keegan's assertions about Munro, her characters, her vision(s), her themes, her method of constructing stories, novels, life, . . . and make an essay out of your choice that in one way or another highlights one or more of the "stories" in The Beggar Maid.
November
6, 1998:
Student
Essays on
The Beggar Maid
Rodney Hargrave
Munro Essay
In his essay, "Alice Munro: The Short Answer", Alex Keegan writes of his trouble trying to classify Munro's fiction as either novels or short fiction. He concludes that classification isn't really what's important about Munro's work; rather it is her work on its own merits that is important. Keegan seems captivated by Munro and somewhat frustrated at what genre it is she writes, but acknowledges how she makes him feel:
"So Munro tells stories, but she makes me think about how I think, and to continue thinking, about the story and about what the story suggests, long after the book itself has been put down."
My thoughts, when reading the stories in The Beggar Maid, were conflicting. While I was disturbed at what Rose endured and witnessed, I also grew to become fascinated by how Munro characterized Rose. Rose's life, from the beginning wasn't altogether a pleasant one, but as the book progressed I began to feel an admiration mixed with sympathy for her. Rose's childhood bothered me, probably more so than it did Rose. Her relationship with Flo and her emotionally absent Father was disturbing to me mostly because they seemed so "matter of fact" in Rose's life. These are realities that I know exist (maybe more so in modern America), but usually prefer to "look away" from when confronted with.
West Hanratty is a long way from the comfortable suburban setting I grew up in. I never had a teacher so uncaring as Rose and her classmates did, and indoor plumbing wasn't an extravagance. I suppose reading about the "dark side" of reality makes me appreciate how easy I had it growing up and, also, reminds me that there are many not as fortunate as I. Munro takes controversial topics that are so commonplace in today's society that they are frequently ignored, and writes about them with a fashion that makes me stop and consider how such things can go on in a modern world. Her specific references to child abuse and sexual atrocities are not unlike what can be read about in any metropolitan newspaper on any given day, but Munro's style of writing makes these crimes seem more real and less trivial. She puts a face to witness and be a victim to these actions, and even though Rose is a fictional character, creates a sense of caring towards her by the reader.
Like Keegan, I greatly admire this "great strength of her writing." I appreciate Munro's ability to create a story and character that continue to resonate within me after I finished each of her stories.
Lisa K. George
Munro Paper
There is much debate, which Alex Keegan simultaneously dismisses and addresses, about whether Alice Munro writes short stories or novels. The brunt of Keegan's argument suggests that while Munro leaves much out of her stories that would naturally be elaborated upon in a novel, she nonetheless introduces this material in a way which fills the stories with much implied and referred-to material. As he says himself at the conclusion of his essay, "Does a novel's body not lie behind what Munro holds back? But doesn't it feel like a huge story nonetheless?"
I believe that what Munro leaves out is the material that connects one event, fact or person to another, what Keegan describes as "...the cement, the bridges from incident to incident". Her characters seem strangely disconnnected from one another and seem to operate each in their own reality, overlapping with one another in ways that seem coincidental. It is as though the author cannot discern what facts actually cause the others, and what do not. As Keegan says, "Munro's stories ...seem to challenge how I put together my thoughts, how I see or imagine the inter-connectivity of life...Munro likes to use my expectations against me...to reveal to me...that there are connections in life which are huge and important even when they are never seen or acknowledged, there, but simply not brought into the right kind of light, of focus, or attention to reveal them as driving forces rather than the symptom".
Munro points out that there are many forces at work, shaping our lives and relationships, and we cannot see them all unless we place one event next to another - almost like a list - and see that they all influence one another. The glue is missing because we are mistaken in thinking that our lives proceed along in neat lines.
In The Beggar
Maid, the main character Rose seems almost
bewildered at the most rudimentary connections. She moves
through life as through a series of tableaus, rather than
through a process in which action is connected to
consequence. She is an extreme example of how our awareness
of life as a quiltwork of experiences can be paralyzing.
When one set of complications becomes overwhelming, she
simply picks up and moves, literally, to another set of
circumstances which will similarly disarm her. One cannot
help but make the connection between Rose and Munro herself.
Is the author so dazzled by details that she cannot do
anything but record them? Under the microscope, life can
become almost sinister. As Rose says in the first chapter of
The Beggar Maid, "Pots can show malice, the
patterns of linoleum can leer up at you, treachery is on the
other side of dailiness."
Joel Richardson
Munro Paper
While reading The Beggar Maid, I was consistently tempted to replace Rose's name with I. I felt that the writer was so sure of this character's history and thoughts that it may as well be written in the first person. In reading Keegan's "Alice Munro: The Short Answer," I found that this is not an uncommon occurrence. He says, "There is a nagging suspicion that Munro has been writing one huge novel, an opus of her life." This statement captures my thoughts as I read the novel. While haphazardly arranged as she admitted they were, the incidents described in the "novel" ring true with a stunning accuracy of time and place, and the reader begins to know the character's in an intimate, although episodic, nature. "If we read all the collections with Flo, read everything which illustrated the passage of Rose's journey, gradually we can put together their complete real, fictional, or fictionalized lives."
When Rose makes mistakes in the "novel", as she so often does, the narrator is their like a forgiving older sister (or an older, wiser Rose) to explain what Rose was thinking, how she could think that, and how it only makes sense for her to make those mistakes. The narrator is there, giving us Rose's thoughts, and letting us in on the ones that are mistaken, with little asides like: "Or so she thought", or "and so it had, but only temporarily." These kind of comments by the narrator made me think that Ms. Munro was relating the journey of her own life, and looking back on her mistakes, and saying to herself, "It's allright. I see where you were coming from."
Another point that makes me think of the novel as autobiographical, is the insight with which she sees and relates her characters. It seems so difficult for me to believe that characters like Milton Homer, and Ralph Gillespie didn't have "real" manifestations in Ms. Munro's life. Mr. Keegan asserts that "Who Do You Think You Are" is not about the characters, but about "her Hanratty view and her outsider view after she leaves and returns." "Shallow" relationships, like the one between her and Ralph, can be "deeper than we could ever imagine." This kind of insight into relationships and characters doesn't come from sitting by and watching, but from their involvement in one's own life.
I would like
to read more of Ms. Munro's work, and see if any of these
assertions hold true, or whether it is with The Beggar
Maid alone that she tells her own story. To argue
whether it is a novel, I agree, is beside the point. I'll
end with a quote twice removed from its original source (a
critic) in Keegan's essay. Her stories are, "like
fully-rigged sailing ships in tight-necked bottles." It is a
miracle that she worked so much into such messy little
creations.
Kelly Colwell
Munro Paper
Upon reading Alex Keegan's essay, I was surprised to see that so much fuss has been made over the structure of The Beggar Maid. While reading it I never questioned whether or not it was a novel, but as Keegan says, "critic after critic, reviewer after reviewer has pounced on the key to this question. Does Munro write novels or short-stories?" To me, the thread that bound the stories together was strong enough to make it a cohesive novel. In hindsight, the structure of Munro's book is interesting though.
One of the passages in Keegan's essay that struck me was this... "we develop the ability to not discard seemingly off-track reminiscences, to store them up, giving them the attention we do our own 'less important' memories, knowing that we are all a product of the few big things in our lives, but more so the accumulation of the little things." It seems that in The Beggar Maid, Munro is trying to create and develop Rose's life rather constructing a novel. The book is almost like a diary, from an outsiders view. In this case, the structure Munro uses makes perfect sense. No ones life is lead through a perfectly linear path. We don't go straight from childhood to adulthood encountering people on the way, only to have them affect our lives just at that given moment. Instead our lives, like the novel, take twists and turns over bumpy, unbalanced roads. Sometimes we don't realize how someone or something affected us until months, years or even a lifetime later.
In the "Half a Grapefruit" chapter Munro relates the agony of one small event. It tells the reader that Rose is an awkward, insecure girl who is trying desperately to shed her rural, poverty stricken identity, to rebel against the fact that what you ate for breakfast can define you. Rose "tacked herself on to the back of a town row... wanting badly to align herself with towners, against her place of origin"(40). Boldly, Rose claims that she had "Half a Grapefruit" for breakfast, feeling quite proud of her answer because, "Nobody else had thought of it"(41). Instead of glory Rose receives ridicule and is teased for years to come. This one incident, this one little phrase like so many others had such an impact on Rose's life. The chronology of it doesn't matter. What does matter is that such a seemingly insignificant moment in Rose's life has such staying power and the ability to shape part of who she is. Events that caused the humiliation and discomfort of Rose's upbringing spill over into her adolescent and then adult life.
Once Rose is a successful adult she finds people "who wished they had been poor"(25). To some of Rose's peers poverty is an almost 'fashionable' thing, to have once been poor creates a more dramatically 'cultured', suffering artist persona. Rose of course knows better than this. But still uncomfortable with her upbringing, she uses it at social gatherings for dramatization or comedic entertainment. As Munro explains, "she would queen it over them, offering various scandals and bits of squalor from her childhood"(25).
Travis Ramsey
Alice Munro
"How my Grandfather Taught me to Articulate my Feelings on Alice Munro"
(In response to my silence in class)
In learning the styles of either short fiction or novel structure one of the first things taught is the difference between the two. There are a few rules in short fiction that can never be compromised. The first is the unalienable truth that your story must have a central conflict that drives each individual scene; for the sake of variety this conflict can deviate slightly in each scene as long as it is ever present. Conflict is the basis of all stories and is the fuel that keeps characters moving through the action to the conclusion. If the author gives his/her characters weak motivation in conflict then both the story and the people in it will fall flat. If there is not something vital at stake then the story will move along at a frightfully sluggish pace because the reader finds that the story is nothing more than static.
I read every story in anticipation of some enlightening revelation at the end of the collection/novel. I will admit that as the people and events took shape I was impressed by the construction and careful planning that is key to making all of the pieces fall. The precision in allowing everything to unfold so carefully is striking. I was not satisfied in the end though because I felt like it was all so tight and compact. I wanted more air in between each event, more substance to each character.
In an attempt to break the academic monotony of the above section, I will tell a story of my childhood. Through the end of adolescence I spent my summers on my grandparents' farm in Kansas. Every night after dinner my chore was to walk a half mile out to the stables and feed the horses. Due to the length of the walk and my fondness for excursions to scare the pigs, the chore usually took me about an hour to complete. This usually guaranteed that I would arrive back at the house long after dark, littered with hay scratches and mosquito bites, smelling of swine.
It is not a shock to me now that my Grandfather trusted very few important tasks to me. Toward the end of the summer most of my cousins would leave and I would always be the last one around. So for lack of skilled labor, my Grandfather gave me the task of moving all of the bailed hay into the barn for the winter. Honored at being given such a grown up task I decided to work hard at it and impress him. He stressed to me the importance of fitting the hay into half of the space in the barn so that he would have room for his tractor in the remaining half. That day when I entered the barn I looked at the amount of hay that I had to stack and scoffed at the opportunities that my Grandfather had been passing up by not sooner recognizing the hidden worker in me. I was better than all my cousins put together and I would show him that being thirteen was no reason not to allow me to control his entire farm. I packed all of his hay into half of the space that he asked me to and I also did it much faster than he expected.
I ran to the house not stopping to scream at the pigs or to tease them with sticks, as was my normal routine. I ran inside and asking my Grandfather to drive me back to the barn so that he could see my mastery; and I assumed, crown me king of all barnyard tasks on the spot. He quietly drove me back to the site of my triumph only speaking a few sentences on the way. "You did it all, right?" he asked me. I also seem to remember him threatening me about doing it "half assed." I assured him over-zealously that he would not be disappointed.
My Grandfather was impressed that I had fit all of the hay into such a small space. However, he was not impressed by the fact that I had stacked it against the wrong wall of the barn and in doing so blocked the exit path for his tractor. It became painfully apparent that we were going to have to move it all. I pretended not to hear him cursing me underneath his breath as we walked to the corner to get the hay hooks. Once we tried to tear down the wall that had only minutes ago been the most wonderful work of art that I had ever been a part of, we found that it in my ardent attempt to impress my grandfather I had packed the hay too tight to remove.
We returned to the farm long after dark and although I was talking non-stop all the way back, all I was saying was "I'm sorry." We had found that the only way to break my Herculean wall of hay was to drive the tractor into it. The one thing that he said to me, other than "for Christ's sake boy!" that I still remember was this: "Now that Goddam thing is packed tighter than a brick shithouse!"
In an incredibly long winded way I have stated my problem with Alice Munro and the reason for my uncharacteristic silence in class. Her stories could all be novels on their own if they would only be opened up a little. While her stories do contain description, they contain so much that is forced to "tell" more than "show" for the sake of packing everything in. There is very little talk of human emotion or feeling. Every character is dominated by action and it takes most of the book before you can begin to know them.
My feeling that I couldn't know most of the characters is the reason why I was indifferent to Rose. She, like Flo or Ralph Gillespie, could be much more identifiable if we didn't have to wonder how much better they could be if they were expanded upon. Because we jump in on Rose in different times of her life we are left filling in holes in her character, and the holes that are filled are done so fragmentarily through an assortment of stories. I did not completely dislike The Beggar Maid, I just thought that Munro uses so much that the book requires about 200 more pages. The stories are too sparse and open ended to fit under the genre of short fiction, and they are not expanded enough to make up a novel. While I did enjoy certain stories I am left feeling like this was an artistic miss, but I still must marvel at the ambition.
Jen Keysor
The Beggar Maid
What can I say about Alice Munro and this book except, "Wow." There is so much going on in this book, so much within each story that I find it difficult to stay on one subject very long without becoming distracted.
On the subject of this book being a novel or short story, I remain on the fence. It reads like a short story in that the words are very weighty. I had this nagging urge to read very slowly, that if I didn't I would miss the importance of each carefully chosen word. I felt that nothing was left out that should have been, and certain insights were left out for a large reason. Munro was making me think very hard about something, what I'm not quite sure, but she wasn't letting me in on the secret, that was for me to figure out. But, like Keegan says, categorization of this book is hardly the point.
In his essay, Keegan says that he thinks Munro is trying to reveal to him that "there are connections in life which are huge and important even when they are never seen or acknowledged, there, but simply not brought into the right kind of light, of focus, or attention to reveal them as driving forces rather than the symptom." I have to agree with him, although I still can't say that I understand what connections she is speaking of or what importance they hold in our lives. Is Rose's connection to Ralph Gillepsie one of these important connections? The last line of the novel makes me want to answer, "Yes." But if so, then how?
Keegan mentions Milton Homer as being a commonality, a shared confidence, between the people of Hanratty, and he says that Milton represents the aging, drifting centrality of focus. I also read somewhere, a suggestion that Milton perhaps represented Hanratty itself, the town. Ralph and Rose spend a lot of time making fun of Milton even in their adult lives. In fact, in one of Rose's episodes of mimicking Milton for Brian and Phoebe, she says,with an intent of shock and perversity that is similar to Flo, "What I saw was Ralph Gillepsie "doing " Milton Homer." In this sentence, she means this literally, but was she "doing" Milton and the town in the figurative sense? Were Rose and Ralph developing an identity on common grounds? Were they unjustly "screwing" the town in order to develop some sense of individuality? Hence, the title, "Who do you think you are?" Something that occurred in this reunion with Ralph seemed to send Rose on a journey of introspection. Maybe a similar incident is what inspired the author to write the story. I know that every time I go "home" it sets my mind a-spinning.
So, perhaps
the connections of which Keegan speaks are the connections
between past and present, and, though the memories remain
the same, focus and perspective are constantly changing,
just like the stories within this novel.
Joel Potter
Munro Paper
Alex Keegan writes in his piece "Alice Munro: The Short Answer" that the "insides of her vehicles are larger than the outside," that "she does write novels, in terms of the information, the subjects, the incidents, the characters, but she reduces, compresses, condenses them, almost to the level of the poet." I would heartily agree with this assertion, as I have read Munro's 200-odd page The Beggar Maid and in that short span have come to know the characters and pasts of at least ten characters, and come to feel I know them as well as I know my own family.
Through the use and craft of powerful dialogue, revealing description, insightful flashback, Munro constructs a world of characters which the reader can recognize as easily as looking into the mirror. Part of this familiarity stems from the fact that Munro offers characters with some traits so lifelike, believable, that the reader can nod and say to one's self, "I sure know how that is." But another aspect of this large storytelling shoehorned into a series of short stories owes much to Munro's wry storytelling, entertaining the reader while painting a consistent, vivid picture of a participant.
Munro's pithy usage of vernacular, slang, and informal grammar set the reader down in Rose and Flo's world, and allow us an unfettered perception of the realities of life at a level lacking wealth or education. Her depiction of the well off and highborn, as in the case of Patrick or Jocelyn, lay bare the prejudices which often blind the rich to the worth of the poor.
Unlike some writers who may use much description at the expense of dialogue (Joseph Conrad, or Melville), Munro mixes her storytelling description with very telling dialogue, to great effect. When Munro writes that Flo says regretfully of some bit of gossip, "It was all lies in all probability," the reader sees more clearly than by simple expository writing that one of Flo's few pleasures is that of the passing of tales, and embellishing, but that she is realistic enough to recognize when enjoyable innocence becomes tiresome fantasy. When Munro describes Rose as an actress and being able to fit in anywhere, and that "we sweat for our pretensions," she targets in two short sentences the biggest part of Rose's character, and the impetus for Rose's many abrupt leavetakings of life; Rose plays a part, many parts, and when bored, or cornered, flees at a moment's notice to begin a new part somewhere else. Munro builds on these notions, adds to them, fleshes them out, but her style is so complex and complete that the reader, upon reading one or two of these short sentences, can instantly recognize vital clues to a character's makeup and inspiration, perhaps without having consciously perceiving the same up to that point.
Munro does
indeed compress life, and slices of many lives, into a small
vehicle, and in doing so, renders a poetic vision of
humanity. Her writing is larger on the outside (what our
minds envision) than the form of her storytelling (a series
of related short stories), and, from many assorted bits and
pieces, assembles for the reader a novel tale of human
existence.
Lisa A. Dean
Munro Paper
Alex Keegan was browsing in Bath and met The Beggar Maid. Inspired, he wrote "Alice Munro: The Short Answer" and attempted to identify her style.
[Munro] seem[s] to challenge how I put together my thoughts, how I see or imagine the inter-connectivity of life . . . then reveal[s] to me that there are connections in life which are huge and important even when they are never seen or acknowledged.
Munro does not feel bound by traditional linear style. She recognizes memory is as much as part of life as the events. She also avoids using canned character development. Munro reveals the seemingly unimportant events that contributed to Rose's development. Everyone has memories that remain vividly colored and musical. Munro tells us about Rose's.
Rose is reminiscing about one of her first days in high school. The teacher wants to talk about breakfast food. Instead of answering truthfully, Rose stated that she ate a "Half-a-grapefruit" (41). Three words, a citrus fruit, marked her first conscious dissociation from her poor upbringing. She was ashamed of porridge. In "Royal Beatings," Flo and Rose read one of the Father's scribble scraps. It said "All things are alive. Spinoza" (5). Flo thought Spinoza was a trendy vegetable, but Rose knew otherwise. She did not correct Flo. Rose either chose not to embarrass Flo or was not in the mood to discuss philosophy. This short statement also beams an inquisitive light on Rose's father. Is there a reading lamp in the corner store?
Munro even selectively orders information within a memory. "Simon's Luck" begins, "About two years ago, she [Rose] was at a party . . ." (156). The body of the story outlines her brief relationship with the title character, Simon. Initially, you believe she is smitten, but then you remember it's Rose. It's especially deceiving when you're informed Simon died of pancreatic cancer a year later, which is still about year ago (narrator time). Munro's choice of romance before death strung us along with Rose. When Rose visited her brother, she stated that the one safe conversation was about Milton Homer. Milton was an icon, a town clown that people feared. By placing this story where she did, Munro indicated that Rose had reached an acceptance of her past.
In The
Beggar Maid you felt present in Rose. Rose (Munro)
defined her life with chosen memories and random order. It
is exactly how the brain stores your history - chaotically.
There are no file drawers or timelines, just confusing
associations. Unlike James, Munro does not need or accept
continuity.
Clint Burson
Alice Munro's The Beggar Maid
Alex Keegan writes a fascinating essay on the work of Alice Munro in The Beggar Maid. There was one piece of it that struck me as hitting the nail on the head when it comes to critiquing this novel/short story by Munro. In reference to Munro's apparent "looseness" in her writing style, Keegan states: "Once we learn that her looseness is definitely not that, that she does place information, does construct carefully, we develop the ability to not discard seemingly off-track reminiscences, to store them up, giving them the attention we do our own "less important" memories, knowing that we are all a product of the few big things in our lives, but more so the accumulation of little things.
This collection of "less-important" memories is what seems to make up the text of The Beggar Maid. Rather than write one long continuous story that builds to an eventual (if not predictable) climax, Munro tells the story through bits and pieces of Rose's life. There is no clear logical path that these stories follow, they are simply what Rose might remember upon looking back at her life. This style is unique and one rarely used, yet it allows the reader to get to know the characters through the character's own memories. It also strikes a chord with readers because it is much how they would remember their own lives; in bits and pieces rather than one long prose.
As the reader follows the story, they get to see Rose grow up. At first it is difficult to follow because the book jumps from scene to scene without any form of connection between each one. At this point it is clear to see why Keegan would claim that "On this point, Alice Munro" can be an acquired taste." In a sense it is an acquired taste because it takes a few pages to get used to the unique style Munro has chosen. Once the realization of her method has been made however, it is a delightful read and one that keeps the reader glued to each page wondering what will happen to Rose next. In choosing to create a novel/short story that stands apart in such an obvious way from other novels of the time (and even today) it is clear to see why so many critics have enjoyed Alice Munro's The Beggar Maid. It is a definite classic and will remain in my collection for years to come.
Deborah Phillips
Munro Assignment
As Alex Keegan says, Alice Munro is indeed a "literary tease." As I was reading The Beggar Maid, I found my mind teased by many things, unrelated stories, sudden flashbacks, and love affairs that ended disastrously.
At first, I thought of this book in much the same way as Alex Keegan mentions, as "loose" and having "irrelevant" pieces that are thrown in at the author's whim. Becky Tyde's story is just one example of this. It has nothing to do with Rose's "royal beating." It does deal with a beating, that of Becky's father, but at first glance, it seems immaterial. However, upon looking back at the title of the chapter, it is talking about "beatings," which is in the plural form. In addition, Munro gives the reader more information about things that happen in Hanratty and that are deemed acceptable, including the beating that Rose receives.
Another example of a seemingly unrelated piece occurs in the Half a Grapefruit chapter. This chapter relates an incident in which Rose tries to be pretentious by telling the teacher she had half a grapefruit for breakfast. Later in this same chapter, Munro inserts Flo's story about the fortune teller and the moldy chocolate cake. Again, this seems unrelated and has nothing to do with pretentious behavior; however, once again Munro uses an unrelated story to help flesh a character and to give additional background information.
It wasn't until I read Keegan's comments that "Alice Munro is a kind of literary tease,' and that "she chooses to add depth and width, to flash back and forward, to cross-reference to other stories, other incidents to tease with her little asides," that I was finally able to make sense out of the things that were teasing my mind. Things no longer seemed "irrelevant" or hodgepodge.
Keegan's explanation of the Milton Homer story and how Munro uses it like a "maypole," made it possible for me to see how Munro uses it to build the other characters and events. Milton Homer is indeed the cohesive factor of this chapter.
The sudden flashbacks no longer teased my mind, and I could see how Munro uses them to "cross-reference" events, to bind them together and to give more in-depth information. Examples of this are the flashbacks Rose has of Anna, such as how the gold necklace looked on her. These flashbacks occur when things are tough for Rose. Perhaps as Patrick said, she needs Anna to "give herself some stability." It also lends some stability to the story.
Munro also does some blatant "literary teasing" every time Rose has a new love interest. With each love story, the reader begins to hope that Rose will finally find some love and peace, but then, because Munro is teasing the reader, these hopes are suddenly dashed with a very explainable disaster.
Yes, indeed Munro is a "literary tease." She teases the reader with things that seem unrelated, but they really are. She teases the reader with sudden and unexpected flashbacks, and she also teases the reader with Rose's love stories. Yes, Munro is a "literary tease," but this is what makes her work interesting and very, very different.
Amy K. Whitman
Munro Paper
Readers can easily associate with the realistic traits that Alice Munro gives her characters. In Keegan's assertions she points out that Munro makes you think about how you think. She states that life is not like a novel, but instead more involved. Also, she points out that there is an awareness of how Munro makes the reader conscious of a single character moving through life much like we do, with many of the same complexities. It is understood that The Beggar Maid by Munro, is a compilation of short stories for the same characters explaining the life and memories of Flo and Rose. Since two of the same characters develop throughout the book, the concept that Munro writes short stories is sometimes hard to keep in mind. These issues of life are things easily associated to in a never ending novel or a soap opera where life continues until the character dies. These short stories read like memories of childhood and continue with a life that is presently lived.
In the story "Spelling" the reader is reminded that children may eventually have to make very difficult decisions for an aging parent. Keegan points out "Munro tells stories, but she makes me think about how I think, and to continue thinking, about the story and about what the story suggests, long after the book itself has been put down" (3). In "Spelling" it becomes clear that as loved ones get older, others must manage the basic daily needs for that person. One begins to comprehend the emotions and injustices of Rose's circumstances. Flo was Brian's natural mother and all responsibility for her is shoved off onto Rose. A reader would empathize especially if they have lived through a similar resolution. Once Rose resolves to institute Flo, both of them are then faced with the next stage of life.
It is noted by Keegan, "[Munro] reveals how life is nothing like novels, but instead full of chance, complexities, full of blood-lines, power-relationships changing" (3). For Rose her chance and complexities are definitely shown in the stories "Half a Grapefruit," The Beggar Maid," and "Mischief." Rose takes her chance in "Half a Grapefruit" by trying to escape her small hometown. She takes on some great complexities in all of these stories. "Half a Grapefruit" shows how hard and creative she must be to fit in, despite Flo. "The Beggar Maid," shows how scared she is to let go and live independent of a man, even though she knows they only make each other miserable as long as they are together. The story entitled "Mischief" displays Rose's truest complexities because she is looking for someone to love her the way she deserves. She can not look to her husband, Patrick, so she looks else were and falls in love with Clifford who is married to her best friend, Jocelyn. With the blood-lines and control of power, the lives of Flo and Rose are inseparable. Full-blood lines are explained in "Royal Beating." The explanation of how Flo becomes Rose's stepmother and how Flo controls aspects of life for the feeling of power are very explicit. Blood-lines are also explained in a gossip sense about the town and all people that come in contact with Flo. There blood-lines never change, but the power of control and the very conscious decisions concerning their disciplines are shown in "Royal Beating." As Rose's life continuously moves forward in age, the power role changes. Rose becomes the teller of gossip when her education continues in "Half a Grapefruit." Roles continue to change, as Flo becomes older and can no longer take care of herself. When the decision has been made for Flo to be institutionalized, Flo still talks as if she is in control by using a forceful voice with Rose. As Rose's life moves forward, like our own, the reader comes to realize that Rose had gone though many of the same things that are issues in today's time.
Keegan notes this sameness to our own lives in her article, "In her stories single stories, characters move through life, marry, have affairs, divorce, yet all in such powerful few words" (4). This realization relates to the thinking even after the novel is put down. When The Beggar Maid is completed the reader would realize that Rose has lived though many of the same things that are now typical for us today. This statement is related to the whole book while we view the life of Rose and Flo. Munro uses so few words in each story, that the realization of reading someone's history does not come until the end.
This novel reads very quickly. Some slowing occurs in the middle, but this seemed to represent life. We all have slow days and there are some weeks that never seem to end. Powerful emotions are pervasive in the novel and they truly represent the passage of time and life.
