Alice Munro's 'Runaway' - Short Story Lecture (Patreon)

‘When two human beings divided by hostility are both, at the same time, mystified - no, frightened - by the same apparition, there is a bond that springs up between them, and they find themselves united in the most unexpected way.’

Today we're conducting a deep reading of another emotionally powerful short story from Alice Munro: 'Runaway.'

We are discussing suspense, scapegoating, sympathy, subtext, displaced emotions, existential crisis, narrative tricks, and much more.

Timestamps:

• 0:00 Alice Munro’s ‘Runaway’
• 2:00 short story as close-up magic trick
• 4:00 title and first line analysis
• 6:00 how to start a story powerfully
• 8:00 the unsung heroes of grammar
• 9:00 how Munro creates suspense
• 11:00 Munro’s narrative style
• 12:00 the realistic vs fantastical
• 14:00 on dramatising mundanity
• 15:30 Munro’s aesthetic approach
• 17:30 pathetic fallacy in literature
• 20:00 learning to apprehend symbolism
• 23:00 on the absence of Flora the goat
• 24:30 how to analyse your dreams
• 25:30 analysing the semantic field
• 26:30 what does scapegoat mean?
• 28:00 finding insights in the asides
• 29:00 what does Flora symbolise?
• 30:00 painful sympathy with nature
• 31:00 character through biased lenses
• 33:00 subtext & attachment issues
• 34:30 how we piece the world together
• 36:00 blending fantasy and reality
• 39:00 willing suspension of disbelief
• 40:00 Carla cries out for Flora
• 41:00 how to reread a short story
• 42:00 shifting to Sylvia’s viewpoint
• 43:00 what we see is what we need
• 44:00 objective vs subjective readings
• 47:00 the natural vs the artificial
• 49:00 ‘displaced maternal love’
• 51:00 ‘it’s not about your goat, is it?’
• 53:00 our psychological barriers
• 55:00 the vivid inner lives of others
• 57:00 ‘everything now seems really real’
• 58:00 delayed revelation of character
• 1:00:00 Carla’s existential crisis
• 1:04:30 Flora emerges from the fog
• 1:10:00 when the rains finally end
• 1:12:00 Munro’s close-up magic trick
• 1:14:00 ‘united in their humanity’
• 1:15:00 on the potential sacrifice
• 1:18:00 what did you think of this story?

Questions for You:

1) What was your interpretation of 'Runaway'?

2) What makes Alice Munro’s stories feel novelistic?

3) How does this story compare with our previous one?

And please do let us know which parts of this short story most resonated with you. It would be wonderful to share some of our favourite lines and passages.

Happy reading, folks!